Firefighting


Nov 07

 

The MISION of the Fire Department: To Save Lives, to Protect Properties and the  Environment. Fire fighting is one of the world’s most honored but hazardous occupations. A fire fighter’s job is not comfortable or easy; it is a profession that expose an individual to high levels of personal danger and stress. One must have a high sense of personal dedication, a desire to help people and a high level of skill. Some say that firefighters are brave, personally I don’t think so, why would every body run away from danger but firefighters run towards danger :) (a bit of humor).

All firefighters must meet the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 1001 for Fire Fighter Professional Qualifications. Firefighters training never ends, first we do a 12 week firefighting course, Firefighter 1, a 2 week HAZMAT Awareness course, only then you can call yourself a firefighter. Then a 4 week Firefighter 2 course follows , and a 2 week HAZMAT Operational course. We do training exercises on shift as well, to keep us ready for all types of calls.

A firefighter will work with many types of equipment during his/her career, there for need the appropriate training in all different tools, Hand tools, electric tools, pneumatic and hydraulic tools. 

Probably one of the most difficult things to do on a emergency scene is crowd control, bystanders or spectators make our work more stressful,dangerous and difficult, we are responsible for every one’ssafety on a scene. 

To avoid injuries there are safety rules for all equipment, which I’m not going to discuss, there are simply too many. But if we follow these rules we will be able to reduce injuries. All firefighting equipment must meet NFPA Standards. Although  some of our equipment are from local manufacturers most of it is imported from over seas.

[a]

 

 

Fire Fighting Equipment

There are so many different types of equipment used by fire fighters. I will start with PPE (personal protective equipment). What is PPE? PPE is the garments that fire fighter wear. You do get a few different types of PPE. There is the structural fire fighting garments, rescue garments, veld fire garments and HAZMAT (hazardous materials).

The structural fire garment also known by fire fighters as bunker suits, consist out of a jacket, trousers, boots, helmet, gloves and a hood (balaclava). The bunker trouser and jacket are made out of three components: outer shell, moisture barrier and thermal barrier. These barriers serve to keep the heat away from the fire fighter’s body. The helmet protects the head from heat and impact. The hood protects portions of the face, ears and neck not covered by the helmet or jacket. The gloves protects the hands from cuts, wounds and burn injuries. The boots protects the feet from burn injuries and puncture wounds.

The rescue suit is basically the same as the structural suit, the only difference is that it doesn’t have the inner section. The gloves are also different. The suit is much lighter.

 

The veld fire suit is also lighter than the structural gear. Most of the suits have only one inner to protect the arms and chest.

HAZMAT suits comes in three categories, Level A, Level B ans Level C. The level A is a full encapsulated suit, protecting from dangerous gasses, we wear a SCBA (self contain breathing apparatus) on the inside of the suit. The level B suit is a what we call it a splash suit, protecting from liquids and less dangerous gasses, the SCBA is on the outside of the suit. The level C suit is the same as the Level B suit, only we don’t wear a SCBA but a gas mask.

 

 

There are many different types of equipment to extinguish fires. It will be difficult to explain all the the equipment. Not to get too technical, I will explain the basic equipment and the purpose of each equipment.

 Vehicles

There are a variety of fire vehicles, in the fire department we call them fire engines or pumpers, each vehicle has its own purpose but on the end all of them is there for one goal, to extinguish fires. Here is a short description of some of the fire vehicles.

  • Turntable Ladders:Also known as aerial ladders. The length of the ladders varies from 22 meters up to 32 meters. This vehicle is used when there is a fire in a high-rise building. It can be used to rescue people from the building, to get access to the roof of building for fire fighters to do ventilation operations, and to extinguish the fire. The ladder have a fire hose from the vehicle’s water pump up to the tip of the ladder connected to a nozzle. he size of the water tank ranges from 3000 litres to 5000 litres. The pump can discharge the water at a flow of approximately 3 700 liters/min.

  • Fire engines: The fire engine also known as pumpers is basically used for “normal” fire fighting activities. These vehicles comes in different categories; medium pumpers, major pumpers etc. They have different size water tanks ranging from 1500 litres up to 6000 litres water capacity. These vehicles carries a wide range of equipment from fire hoses, foam, forcible entry tools, branches (nozzles), SCBA’s, first floor ladders (roof, hook ladders) etc. Some of these pumpers have foamtanks as well, foam is used on flammable liquids and gasses. Fire fighters can get water from fire hydrants, dams, swimming pools or portable dams. They use a 100mm suction hose to draft water from a dam or swimming pool, a 65mm hose is connected to hydrants. In some areas specially industrial areas do have 100mm couplings on hydrants. Some fire engines have discharge flow of about 4 700 litres/min it all depends on the size of the water pump. That is crucial to get a water source as soon as the fire fighters arrive at a fire scene.

  • Rescue Pumpers: Rescue pumpers is manly used for motor vehicle accidents, but might carry other rescue equipment on it as well. The water tank is not big, about 600 litres to 1200 litres. The rescue pumper have a wide range of equipment from hydraulic tools to battery operated tools. The most common tool is the “jaws of life” better known in the service as a spreader. Also on this vehicle you will get fire fighting equipment, for when a vehicle is on fire they have all the necessaryequipment to extinguishe the fire.

  •  Wild-land Fire vehicles: Allso known as veld fire vehicles. There are a few different types of bush fire vehicles, they range from big trucks to small 4×4 LDV’s. Water tanks are from 500 litres to 10 000 litres. These vehicles must be capable roll and pump, that means to drive while the vehicle is driving forward.

  • ARFF Pumpers: Airport Rescue & Fire Fighting vehicles is in my eyes the most technological advanced pumpers of all the fire fighting vehicles. Fire fighters don’t even have to get out of the vehicle to extinguish a fire. With controls in the drivers cab the top and front monitors are used to extinguish the fires. For maximum fire fighting and rescue operations some of these vehicles are equipped with piercing nozzles that penetrates a air craft’s fuselage.