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 Summer Issue -- 2002

 

Page 1

Planning for the Water You Need

Decontaminating First Responders

Page 2

UWI Landscaping Assisted by Fire Models

Page 3

Vibrations May Warn of Structural Collapses

What Factors Determine Situational Awareness?

Page 4

How Bad is Fire Water Runoff?

NIST Helps Create New Fire Laboratory in Chile

 

 

PRINT FRIENDLY VERSION (PDF format) 

 

 

 

 

 

Planning for the Water Flow You Need

Will there be enough water to fight the fires that may occur in buildings?  This is not a new question and one that is of concern to firefighters throughout the world as buildings increase in size, the spacing between structures gets smaller, and more geographic areas are experiencing droughts.  In the paper, Improved Calculation of Fire-Fighting Water-Flow Requirement—The Key to Strategic Management of Fire-Hydrant Provision (click for PDF), Senior Divisional Officer Neal Fowler (Kent Fire Brigade, UK) examines methods to assess fire fighting water flow requirements.  The four methods examined are the North American Insurance Services Office Method (ISO), recent guidance from the Local Government Associations in partnership

with a water industrial group Water UK (LGA/WUK), data correlated from actual fire incidents by Lund University (Sweden) researcher Stefan Sardqvist (actual-jets) and the Iowa State University Formula (IOWA).  The bar graph shows the widely varying results of the four methods when applied to a specific case.

For many reasons, Officer Fowler recommends use of the actual–jets equation.

For additional information, contact Neal Fowler at neal.fowler@ukgateway.net  or Stephan Sardqvist (working at the Swedish Rescue Services Agency) at stefan.sardqvist@srv.se

 

Comparison graph.

Comparison Between Methodologies for Calculation of Fire-Fighting Water-flow Requirement.

Decontaminating First Responsers

The threat of chemical, biological and radiological  (CBR) attack is apparent, and all first responders need to be prepared to address this possibility.  First responders have been called upon to respond to every terrorist attack in North America.  Their first priority as fire and rescue service personnel is the safety of all emergency personnel to avoid injury or loss of life.  Randy Lawson (NIST) and Chief Ted Jarboe (Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, Maryland) teamed up to consolidate CBR decontamination guidelines into a single report, sponsored in part by the USFA.

Cont. on page 2

 

Photo of firefighter being decontaminated.

Firefighter, standing in yellow water collector, being decontaminated by hose spray.

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