POSTED BY

Lisa Katayama

AT 11:38 AM
Friday May 1, 2009

Fire

5 tools firefighters use in extremely hot conditions

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What do firefighters do to stave off heat? To find out, I visited a fire station in San Francisco to check out what kind of tech and gadgetry they use while on duty.

1. A Scott bottle: The most important piece of equipment, any firefighter will tell you, is the self-contained breathing apparatus, aka the Scott bottle. It gives them about 40 extra minutes of air in flaming, oxygen-deprived environments. These days, Scott bottles come with cool features like buddy indicator lights. drag rescue loops, power management systems, and back frames optimized for hose positioning.

2. A thermal imaging camera: Most engines use TICs to see fire remnants via IR even in dark, smoky, or otherwise opaque conditions. Most of the time the officer carries them in the truck, though head-mounted versions are available too. Before TICs, firefighters had to tear down entire building walls to make sure there weren't remnants of fire left in crevices.

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3. A fire-retardant suit. The firefighters' suit isn't just sexy, it's made with flame-resistant cotton and polybenzimidazole fiber. You can see that the jacket, which was once as black as the pants, has faded to brown because of exposure to flames.

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4. Water. Yes, firefighters do occasionally hose each other down when it gets too hot.

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5. Common sense. The truck is equipped with water and Gatorade for hydration, and fans at the front of the truck keep the drivers cool and the air fresh--"in case someone farts." And of course, when entering a burning building, they stay low to keep out of the rising heat and pay attention to the color of the smoke--white is a go, black is probably a flashover.

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7 Comments

Anonymous Anonymous

#1 – 11:54 AM May 1, 2009

I took FF training in the US Navy 35 years ago, and we had oxygen rebreather units, that passed exhaled breath through a chemical canister to remove CO2 and release additional O2. The canisters were potent oxidizers, and if the internal ingredients came into contact with hydrocarbons, would energetically burst into flames (think explosion!).

In the Navy back then, they used a 12 ft long fog nozzle, which the #2 hose man held out over and in front of the #1 hose man, to cool and beat down the fire around the guy in front.

There were many hazardous substances on warships, and different methods of dealing with each of them. When the US Forrestal caught fire in the S. Pacific, one component of the fires was bars of magnesium, which can burn in water at a temperature high enough to burn through steel decks.

They fought that component of the fire by identifying a compartment below the burning flares and filling it with sand, while the fire was burning through thick steel decks above them.

When the flares burnt through the ceiling, they smothered it with more sand. Courage!

Anonymous Anonymous

#2 – 12:06 PM May 1, 2009

Where can I get that so-called "fan" cooling device?

Firefighters really use water? I did not know that.

Slow post day.

fastmovingblob

#3 – 6:20 PM May 1, 2009

But you missed the best part there, they use wooden ladders!!

I would be interested to know what size bottles they use, as they would have to use a 60 minute Scott bottle to get 40 minutes of usable air out of them, which is pretty big for structural firefighting (my department uses 30, which is pretty standard where I am - 30 minutes is the rating, which is not what most people get, I generally empty it in 15).

You have to be careful of getting wet in a fire environment, as you can steam like a lobster if you get in a hot area with wet gear.

caseyd

#4 – 7:15 PM May 1, 2009

My 'scram kit' should have something like the Scott bottle.

Anonymous Anonymous

#5 – 9:45 PM May 1, 2009

I love this post and blog really i like this

Anonymous Anonymous

#6 – 5:38 PM May 3, 2009

I think you should double check the content of the gear! I would be very surprised that it was really made of > I have never heard of such blend why would you put the most expensive and supposadly the safest fiber such as PBI with Fr Treated cotton??? Usually the blend contains some Kevlar/PBI or Kevlar/Nomex or other but no FR treated cotton!!!

Anonymous Anonymous

#7 – 8:27 PM August 3, 2009

It's true, normally nomex is the overwhelming choice. there are crazy heat related injuries (like steam burns, which is essentially your sweat turning to steam from the heat) and body stress from the extreme heat, which leads to heart attacks, which is the #1 killer of fire fighters, not fire. There are a few people attacking the heat on the inside issue with nifty hi-tech garments. I think dupnt may have an old school one, under armor had shirts that melted (never good) and took them off of the market, and cross discipline manufacturers like drifire (my favorite that I wear for essentially everything) are quickly becoming the go-to garment for all first responders and even military operators. This such a stressful job, and all the public ever sees is the outer wear and thinks that's all it takes.

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