Firefighting With Fog

Reported January 2006

GRESHAM, Ore. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Every year dozens of firefighters in the United States die fighting fires. Explosions, back drafts and flashover fires can trap them inside buildings. Now, a new method of firefighting aims to change that.

Engulfed and devoured by flames, within seconds an inferno could surround and overcome even the best firefighters. Edward Hartin is one of the first people in the United States to teach 3-D firefighting -- a method that looks not only at flames, but also the flammable gasses they create.

Edward Hartin, a training and safety battalion chief at the Gresham Fire Department in Ore., says, "The traditional wisdom was: Don't put water on smoke, keep your nozzle closed, crawl under the smoke layer, get to the base of the fire, and put water on the fire."

Hartin's firefighters still use a powerful stream of water once they get to the flames, but first, they shoot short bursts of water, creating a fog. "You're providing a buffer zone, in essence, between the firefighters and the fire," Hartin says. Without that buffer zone the gasses can ignite.

The process starts even before they enter a burning building. Hartin's firefighters start their "gas cooling" before they enter the building. Once inside, they continue the short bursts until they get to the flames.

Mark Robison, a lieutenant at the Gresham Fire Department says, "The reason why they're not putting a lot of water up into the heated gasses above them as they're coming in is it will convert to steam and come down on top of them."

Critics fear gas cooling will actually create more steam burns -- but after Sweden adopted it in the 1980s the death rate from extreme fire behavior was cut in half.

Another benefit of this method is if you use less water to put out the fire. It also means less property damage. Fire departments in Ore. and one in Va. are starting to use these techniques. To find out more go to www.firetactics.com.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Fire Protection Publications
Headquarters for the International Fire Service Training Association
930 N. Willis
Stillwater, OK 74078
(405) 744-5723

For more information on engineering, contact:

The American Society of Civil Engineers
1801 Alexander Bell Drive
Reston, Virginia 20191-4400
(800) 548-2723
http://www.asce.org

American Society of Mechanical Engineers
(800) 843-2763
(973) 882-1170
infocentral@asme.org
http://www.asme.org

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