For Moore, safer operation comes right back to training. I think it should be a CEU-based certification like everything else we do. In many ways, equipping these apparatus with lights and sirens boils down to how they will be used. Their combination counterparts that are first-out rigs make that a hard argument.
A tanker-pumper is a mobile water supply apparatus that happens to be equipped with a rated fire pump. How can you tell someone driving a two-door tender with 2, gallons of water and a gpm pump that he can only use yellow lights and go 40 mph and then you have another truck that has a 1,gpm pump and hose and maybe 2, gallons of water? How do you tell one no and the other one yes?
You can usually get through an intersection quicker with the lights and sirens. Ultimately, however, it comes down to keeping these vehicles on all ten wheels. Everything else discussed here funnels into keeping these trucks upright. When you get that much mass moving, it tends to do more damage when it does come to an abrupt stop.
We need the water. We need the apparatus. It has its place. It just needs a little more respect. He is a member of apparatus and equipment purchasing committees. He has also held engineering officer positions, where he was responsible for apparatus maintenance and inspection. He has been a writer and editor for more than 19 years. Does the water have to be from a fire hydrant?
How does the water come out at such high rates? It is helpful to know how your fire tanker truck works. A fire tanker truck, or fire tender, is a vehicle which Osco custom builds or designs to specifically fight fires. These tankers are usually large trucks with a tank for water to fight fires. Along the tank there are many compartments where all of the necessary firefighting equipment is stored hoses, axe, life-saving equipment, etc. This is essential for easy access while at the scene of a fire emergency.
The fire tanker truck is big or small, and this all depends on the needs of the department. The difference between a fire truck and a fire tanker truck, or fire engine, is that one has a ladder that stays on the back of the truck. Firefighters use this ladder for life-saving operations in most cases. Fire tanker trucks have the water to fight fires and that is the focus.
It does not make financial sense to have two trucks where one could do the job. Does water for firefighting only come from fire hydrants in the city landscape? When you are in rural situations, there are no fire hydrants.
These include: 1 Charging Leaving buses to charge overnight brings about significant fire risks, as small battery components are building up and storing large amounts of energy. To minimize risk, OEMs and bus operators should put measures in place to monitor charging stations at all times while in use, and ensure fully-charged buses are immediately disconnected from charging points.
This includes evaluating proximity to other vehicles and combustible materials, increasing space where possible. As thermal runaway can sometimes take a period to take hold from the initial battery damage, impact from the operating day can sometimes only initiate thermal runaway as the bus is stored overnight. As such, parking and storage areas should be monitored continuously to address and mitigate any risks as soon as they arise. Therefore effective protection requires a unique solution… Need for a new suppression solution The main goal for an electric bus suppression system should be to prevent thermal runaway The main goal for an electric bus suppression system should be to prevent thermal runaway.
Following extensive testing and research, Dafo Vehicle Fire Protection and RISE Research Institute of Sweden , as part of an EU-funded initiative, have developed a new suppression solution that directly addresses the unique fire risks associated with electric vehicles.
Early warning system offerings While creating the new battery suppression system Li-IonFireTM , the project partners explored all of the fire risks associated with battery spaces, including specific risks around charging, and processes for handling EVs and their batteries after impact, such as a crash. This research revealed how, even with late deployment, the system can delay a battery from reaching thermal runaway, making the possibility of safe evacuation very high.
The new suppression solution offers an early warning system, aided by spot cooling, to prevent thermal runaway from occurring, while containing and suppressing fire. Standards are slowly following change, but OEMs, vehicle maintenance teams, and operators all have a key role to play in ensuring the risks are managed effectively.
The product lifecycle of self-contained breathing apparatus SCBA is approximately ten years, during which time technology inevitably advances considerably in terms of digitization and ergonomics. Increasingly pertinent in the last decade, and especially since the Pandemic, has also been how kit can be designed for ease of cleaning to ensure firefighters are protected from harmful carcinogens as well as bacterial and viral infections. Unequivocal statistics that warranted action in our technology design.
It also enables us to utilize our direct relationships with the UK fire services, not only to accommodate day-to-day feedback, but also to learn from our support of major incidents such as Grenfell and the Salisbury poisonings.
The SCBA product lifecycle allows time for medical and safety technology manufacturers Following Grenfell, for example, we saw the critical importance of reducing the weight and size of kit to allow for greater ease of movement, as well as how critical it is to have the equipment underpinned by a resilient and proven support infrastructure. Providing vital information Digitalization is critical.
These signals include manual and automatic distress signals, team withdrawal signals, cylinder pressure, time to whistle and time of whistle. Reporting can also be customized for multiple purposes from user or device history to synchronized overviews of complete incidents.
The ability to create incident reports on evidential and tactical levels provides comprehensive and valuable post-incident analysis tools for debrief and training purposes, or in case of any investigation or inquiry. The latter includes information such as body core temperature, heart rate and other vital statistics to allow external teams to monitor the early signs of heat stress and other physiological strains. Reducing physical stress Another critical focus is ergonomics. Improved wearer comfort has been achieved through working with medical experts in this field and shifting the center of gravity relationship between the human body and the set, creating a ventilated space by the SCBA backplate.
These improvements reduce physical stress on the firefighter which in turn reduces the risk of strain-related injuries and fatigue when wearing the set operationally as well as extending the working duration due to reduced physical exertion. With AirBoss, the weight is carried by the legs and pelvis rather than the back. Improving personal comfort This not only improves personal comfort, but also enhances mobility within confined spaces and while descending ladders and stairwells.
In an industry where a split second can be the difference between life and death, these advancements are crucial. Alterations have been made to maximize cleaning practices, including the introduction of smoother, non-absorbent, water-repellent surfaces to make equipment easier to wipe down and decontaminate.
Numerous attachment points have also been included so kit can easily be dismantled for optimum cleaning — both mechanically and by hand. To this point, some fire services are moving towards mechanical washing systems, which provide complete consistency in washing temperatures, concentration of detergent, speed and temperature of drying. This reduces the requirement to purchase a full suite of new equipment including telemetry, pneumatics, electronics, integrated communications, cylinders and vehicle charging systems.
Certainly in the Southeast of England, it gave us some thought as to the number of aircraft in the sky, and what the consequences might be if something went wrong… Aviation in the UK is split between what is known as Commercial Airport Transport CAT and General Aviation GA. The CAT sector operates out of 25 airports and accounts for around aircraft. However, the GA sector accounts for 15, aircraft, flown by 32, pilots, operating out of aerodromes licensed by the Civil Aviation Authority CAA and over 1, other flying sites According to the General Aviation Awareness Council — our mapping data suggested sites 1,2.
Each licensed airfield has its own firefighting response, termed airport rescue and firefighting services RFFS governed by the CAA guidelines and they are required to be CAA Ensuring Adequate firefighter training So simply put, each airfield needs to ensure it has adequate training, media, personnel in appropriate quantities to deal with any likely incident, given its size and traffic.
There are around airfields in the UK, with of those being licensed However, this is only limited to licensed airfields and the response is typically limited to the airfield itself, and the immediate surrounding area. Airfield vehicles are often specialist aviation firefighting vehicles — not necessarily suitable for driving potentially long distances to an incident.
Even so, it is a well-established principle that RRFS would only fight the initial stages of any fire, to be relieved by, and with command passed to local authority fire services. There are around airfields in the UK, with of those being licensed. In to date there have been 62 air crashes, of which 9 involved a fatality. If we plot the locations of all airfields of any type, all the licensed airfields and the crashes, we can see the spatial relationship between them. Below, we see the two distributions — on the left, crashes versus all airfields and on the right crashes versus licensed fields.
Using the spatial analytical capability of QGIS, the open-source GIS software, we can then start to look at the distances from the airfields of the crashes. We can see that based on the data that on average a crash occurs 3.
The maximum distance from a licensed airfield was Fig 1a left shows crashes versus all airfields. Fig 1b right shows crashes versus licensed airfields only.
Aircraft incidents pose complex firefighting challenges So, what does this all mean? Well the simple conclusion we can draw from this data is that there is a sizable risk of an aircrash occurring on the grounds of a non-airport fire service. The construction of aircraft has been evolving since the first days of flight, with materials that are strong, light and cheap to produce being adopted and in recent years created to order.
This has seen a move from natural materials, such as wood and canvas towards aluminum and man-made materials, and in recent years man made mineral fibres MMMFs which are lighter and stronger than natural materials, and can be moulded into any shape. As with all fires, there are risks associated with smoke products, with exposure to fuels and other chemicals and so there is the potential for a widespread hazmat incident, with respiratory and contamination hazards.
Finally, there is always the risk, more so perhaps with military aircraft, of explosives or dangerous cargoes on the aircraft that put firefighters at risk. The problem is therefore this: There is a constant, but small, chance of an aviation incident occurring away from an airport, and requiring local authority fire services to act as the initial response agency, rather than a relieving agency.
These incidents, when they do occur, are likely to be unfamiliar to responding crews, yet also present risks that need to be addressed. PLANE Thinking Despite this landscape of complex risk and inconsistent response coverage non-airfield fire services can still create an effective response structure in the event of an aviation incident away from an airfield. We are aware that all brigades will do this already to some extent in fact they are obliged to. We are also aware that there was little point going into the technical details of firefighting itself — that is handled elsewhere and in far more detail — but instead we considered a broad, high-level system to act as a quick sanity check on the response measures already in place.
There is always the risk, more so perhaps with military aircraft, of explosives or dangerous cargoes on the aircraft that put firefighters at risk In many ways this mirrors existing operational risk exercises, and begins with a planning process — considering the nature of risk in the response area, building links with other agencies and operators, and collating and analyzing intelligence. Services should expand their levels of knowledge Learn around the issue, and consider appointing tactical advisors for aviation incidents and using exercises and training programs to test and enhance response.
Having identified the risk landscape, and invested in intelligence about it, we may then need to consider adapting our approaches to make sure we are ready to respond, and having carried out all of this activity, we need to keep the momentum going, and continue to nurture those relationships, and that expertise cross the service.
Rapid technological advancement Aviation technology does not stand still. Many of us will have seen this week the testing in the lake district of the emergency response jetpack 4 , and this is just one example of the pace of technological advances in the sector.
Consider the huge emerging market of UAVs, commercially and recreationally and the potential for incidents related to them, as well as their potential application in responses. Finally, Services, potentially through their dedicated TacAd roles, need to keep abreast of emerging technologies, and ensure that the Planning and Learning continues to match the risk. Aviation technology does not stand still So, in conclusion, we have a very simple system for preparing for the potential for airline incidents off airfields.
We do hope that it does give a bit of structure to the consideration a potentially complex process, and that it is of some use, if only as a talking point.
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