Sawing through the lid of a hot-box of death while standing on it; these men are true professionals and it still makes me cringe to watch that.

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So I get they cut holes to vent smoke, reduce heat and ignition risk, but what is the guy with the poker looking for? Weak spots?

Trying to prevent this from happening

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Just invoking the obvious here

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These guys are idiots. They should be operating from a ladder placed ON the roof in case there is a collapse.

The gear they have will protect from ambient heat for a while, but only for a very short time in direct flame. The face masks, for example, are made of acrylic. If the heat gets much over 400ish degrees, and they will start to melt. If any of these guys fell trough the roof into a fully involved fire, they wouldn't have much time. And those suits aren't very mobile.

Calling them idiots? This coming from a person not understanding the job they are performing. The two on the roof are relieving pressure in the building as well as creating ingress and egress points, ingress for the water and egress for the fire pressure.

Building fires create a serious amount of pressure due to the expanding air in a very confined, and pretty well insulated, environment. This is the same actions you see firefighters breaking out windows to expel a large portion of said pressure. It also allows a fire to expand in a more controlled and less volatile way (see: explosive backdrafts).

The guy using the 'poker' is looking for structural weakness, both for the safety of the crew on the roof, as well as the 'cutter' to have the most direct access to the higher 'heat areas'.

Chainsaws make EVERYTHING better!