Vincent Dunn

Who is Vincent Dunn?

Vincent Joseph Dunn, born 1935 in Queens, New York, was a firefighter in New York City for 42 years, rising in rank to Commander of Division 3. A contributing editor to Firehouse Magazine, he is the author of four books on firefighting. Two were written prior to his 1999 retirement from New York City Fire Department: 1988 - "Collapse of Burning Buildings: A Guide to Fireground Safety"; 1992 - "Safety and Survival on the Fireground". Two were written after retirement: 2000 - "Command and Control of Fires and Emergencies"; 2007 - "Strategy of Firefighting".

Dunn is a nationally recognized expert on high-rise firefighting, rescue, and building collapse. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency within the United States Department of Commerce, selected him to serve as a consultant in its investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center.

Dunn wrote in his August 2000 newsletter, "The best-kept secret in America's fire service is that firefighters cannot extinguish a fire in a 20- or 30-thousand-square-foot open floor area in a high-rise building. A fire company advancing a 2½-inch hoseline with a 1¼-inch nozzle discharges only 300 gallons per minute and can extinguish only about 2,500 square feet of fire. The reach of the streams is only 50 feet. A modern open-floor office design, with cubicle work stations and dwarf partitions that do not extend to the ceiling, allows fire to spread throughout an entire 100- × 200-foot floor area. A fully involved, free burning 20,000-square-foot floor area cannot be extinguished by a couple of firefighters spraying a hose stream from a stairway. City managers and department chiefs will not admit this to the public if they want to keep their jobs. But every fireground commander knows this is a fact."