Not just what and how, but why!
My last two posts (Hazards Above, Hazards Above: Part 2)examined a series of incidents involving firefighter injuries or near miss incidents involving fires occurring in or extending into void spaces in wood frame, residential structures. Yesterday, two members of the Bridgeport, Connecticut Fire Department lost their lives under similar circumstances. Bridgeport, CT LODD At 1553 … Read more
My last post, Hazards Above, provided a brief overview of three incidents involving extreme fire behavior in the attic or truss loft void spaces of wood frame dwellings. This post will examine the similarities and differences between these lessons and identify several important considerations when dealing with fires occurring in or extending to void spaces. … Read more
Finally! It has been quite some time since my last post, but the CFBT-US web site and blog have been attacked twice by hackers WordPress and ISP upgrade issues have been a major challenge and it has taken some time to get things back to normal. A Big Improvement, But More Work is Needed The … Read more
Last night I returned from The International Fire Instructors Workshop and OTTAWA FIRE 2010 Symposium. The workshop was started in 2008 by Dr. Stefan Svensson of the Swedish Civil Contingency Agency who wanted to see what would happen if he put a number of operational fire officers, instructors, scientists and engineers, in a room together … Read more
As a critical friend of the NIOSH Firefighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, I have provided testimony at public hearings and engaged in discussions with NIOSH staff regarding improvement of the quality of information provided in Death in the Line of Duty Reports, particularly in incidents involving extreme fire behavior. In addition, I have provided … Read more
It has been a number of months since the last Reading the Fire post. It is essential to continue the process of deliberate practice in order to continue to improve and refine skill in Reading the Fire. As we start the New Year it is a good time to reaffirm our commitment to mastering our … Read more
Firefighters are often provided with an oversimplified explanation of fundamental scientific concepts related to fire behavior. This is done with the intent to make training manuals and texts understandable and to focus on the information that firefighters must know. However, a tremendous opportunity to develop the ability to make sense of fire dynamics and the … Read more
Things to Think About Methods of heat transfer are often presented to firefighters in a simplistic way with the expectation that they will understand the basic concepts and are assessed on their ability to recall the definitions of conduction, convection, and radiation. Unfortunately this does not provide a solid basis for understanding phenomena encountered on … Read more
As with many other questions, it is likely that the answer to the question of which nozzle is best is it depends. As discussed in Effective and Efficient Fire Streams, Safe, effective and efficient fire control requires: Water application to control the fire environment as well as direct attack on the fire Appropriate flow rate … Read more
I am using this series of posts to work through the process of developing a chapter on the foundational scientific concepts related to practical fire dynamics and fire control theory. My hope is to take the middle ground between the oversimplified and unsupported explanations provided in most texts intended for firefighter training and the higher … Read more