Search
Menu
News

WFC News

Posted: Sep 1, 2018

Contamination and Control Products for Firefighters and Fire Apparatus

Robert Tutterow

During this year’s FDIC International, I kept noticing how many new products and product redesigns were focused on contamination control. Clearly, the nation’s firefighters and the equipment suppliers are paying attention. Here is a sampling and brief description of those observations.

Robert Tutterow

Vehicle Initiatives

Almost all the apparatus seat manufacturers were offering easily cleanable seats. Most prominent was a seamless foam seat (with no fabric) that, in most cases, was easily detachable to wash in a utility sink or decontamination bucket. Other designs included zippered seat covers that were easily removed to be placed in an extractor with turnout gear and pants.

Pierce displayed an engine with some interesting contamination control features such as diamond treadplate flooring, vertical exhaust installed in the middle behind the cab, and an air-conditioning unit with an easily removed HEPA filter. An interesting feature was a dedicated heated water tank with a supply inlet and discharge outlet. This uses warm water to wash down firefighters as part of initial exposure reduction control. The system can also be used to wash other contaminated equipment. Sutphen was also featuring an engine with a diamond treadplate floor, no self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) in the cab, and two dedicated exterior slide-out compartments on either side of the apparatus cab dedicated for personal protective equipment (PPE) and SCBA storage.

Rockland Custom Products introduced a new design of its product to minimize off-gassing exposure in SUV vehicles. SUVs are the most common staff vehicles for battalion chiefs and other officers. As they most likely carry PPE, there is always the presence of soot odor from the off-gassing, especially after a working fire. Rockland makes cabinetry that goes in the back of SUVs for command posts and storage, including PPE. Its new PPE cabinet design includes a blower that brings air from the vehicle interior and circulates it (using a perforated double interior wall) and exhausts the air through to the exterior of the vehicle. This is accomplished by drilling an approximately 11⁄2-inch hole in the floorboard for piping the exhaust. Should the cabinet be removed and the vehicle repurposed or sold, the floorboard hole is easily plugged with a rubber grommet. This cabinet can also be adapted to fire apparatus.

Protective Equipment

MSA had a display board that showed all its easily detachable soft goods from its SCBA and helmets that can be placed in a bag and washed in an extractor. Interspiro featured an SCBA design from Europe that uses a minimum amount of fabric in its harness. The entire unit (including the SCBA bottle) is designed to be placed in a commercial dish-washing machine for cleaning. It offers a separate machine for cleaning face pieces. It was noteworthy that it also supplies its own cleaning soap for washing machines. And, it offers wipes for its face piece that are also touted as very effective in wiping down the interior of apparatus cabs. The Scott X3 Pro Pack was the first SCBA designed and marketed for easy cleaning, and it was a featured product of the 3M Scott Fire & Safety booth.

Lion and Viking were two of the turnout gear manufacturers that were showing their contamination control de

Read more
  • 195
  • 0
  • Article rating: No rating
Posted: Sep 1, 2018

Contamination and Control Products for Firefighters and Fire Apparatus

Robert Tutterow

During this year’s FDIC International, I kept noticing how many new products and product redesigns were focused on contamination control. Clearly, the nation’s firefighters and the equipment suppliers are paying attention. Here is a sampling and brief description of those observations.

Robert Tutterow

Vehicle Initiatives

Almost all the apparatus seat manufacturers were offering easily cleanable seats. Most prominent was a seamless foam seat (with no fabric) that, in most cases, was easily detachable to wash in a utility sink or decontamination bucket. Other designs included zippered seat covers that were easily removed to be placed in an extractor with turnout gear and pants.

Pierce displayed an engine with some interesting contamination control features such as diamond treadplate flooring, vertical exhaust installed in the middle behind the cab, and an air-conditioning unit with an easily removed HEPA filter. An interesting feature was a dedicated heated water tank with a supply inlet and discharge outlet. This uses warm water to wash down firefighters as part of initial exposure reduction control. The system can also be used to wash other contaminated equipment. Sutphen was also featuring an engine with a diamond treadplate floor, no self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) in the cab, and two dedicated exterior slide-out compartments on either side of the apparatus cab dedicated for personal protective equipment (PPE) and SCBA storage.

Rockland Custom Products introduced a new design of its product to minimize off-gassing exposure in SUV vehicles. SUVs are the most common staff vehicles for battalion chiefs and other officers. As they most likely carry PPE, there is always the presence of soot odor from the off-gassing, especially after a working fire. Rockland makes cabinetry that goes in the back of SUVs for command posts and storage, including PPE. Its new PPE cabinet design includes a blower that brings air from the vehicle interior and circulates it (using a perforated double interior wall) and exhausts the air through to the exterior of the vehicle. This is accomplished by drilling an approximately 11⁄2-inch hole in the floorboard for piping the exhaust. Should the cabinet be removed and the vehicle repurposed or sold, the floorboard hole is easily plugged with a rubber grommet. This cabinet can also be adapted to fire apparatus.

Protective Equipment

MSA had a display board that showed all its easily detachable soft goods from its SCBA and helmets that can be placed in a bag and washed in an extractor. Interspiro featured an SCBA design from Europe that uses a minimum amount of fabric in its harness. The entire unit (including the SCBA bottle) is designed to be placed in a commercial dish-washing machine for cleaning. It offers a separate machine for cleaning face pieces. It was noteworthy that it also supplies its own cleaning soap for washing machines. And, it offers wipes for its face piece that are also touted as very effective in wiping down the interior of apparatus cabs. The Scott X3 Pro Pack was the first SCBA designed and marketed for easy cleaning, and it was a featured product of the 3M Scott Fire & Safety booth.

Lion and Viking were two of the turnout gear manufacturers that were showing their contamination control de

Read more
  • 202
  • 0
  • Article rating: No rating
Posted: Sep 1, 2018

Pump Theory and Engine Purchasing

BY DOUGLAS PIETZ


Apparatus with fire pumps are not unique concepts in the fire service; rather, they are the cornerstone of every department.

Hours are spent on the bells and whistles of new apparatus, whether to purchase an aerial platform rather than a straight stick, and even if a rescue-pumper is the best option for a department. Yet, the biggest part of a pumper is often overlooked, or at least proper attention is not placed on the most important component of the engine—the fire pump.

Pump Theory

In pumper operator class, the hardest lecture to swallow is pump theory. True pump theory has complex formulas and equations to determine maximum capabilities of pumps under various conditions. Unless you are a math geek, most of the fire service is lost at the word formula. We take a complex component of the apparatus and bring everything down to the easiest of ways to interpret complex formulas and develop pump charts. These charts are the backbone to rapid response; they get the operator very close to the actual pressures needed. Soon the formulas are forgotten, and the operator is reliant on a chart and, as a result, the theory of the pump is gone too.

So, what this relates to is sending drivers or officers who are not up on pump capabilities to a prebuild for an engine. As a result, departments are forced to rely on the manufacturer’s build team for advice or recommendations. Thus, larger pumps are put into apparatus, and larger pumps need larger motors to drive them. All of this leads to a larger price tag.

The better choice is to look at the needs of the department and community. What fire loads are present in the district? What are the water demands to meet those needs? What water tower operations or large lines need to be supported? Do you have high-rise buildings? Do you operate a water tower with dual nozzles at the bucket? What flows are your hydrants capable of producing? Do you use a water shuttle operation? Answering these questions will help in the process, which is much like homework. My department operates a 2,250-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump that is rated at 1,500 gpm. The capability of the pump is a combination of the pump and engine needed to drive the pump. It meets our needs to supply greater than 2,000 gpm from a hydrant to be able to use both nozzles on an aerial platform and also feeds the needs of the downtown high-rise district. The pump is Underwriters Laboratories-derated to ensure that the it will pass pump tests. If we rated our pumps at 2,250, then any decrease in engine or pump performance would yield an apparatus that failed a pump test—and that means being out of service.

None of these questions seem to have anything to do with pump theory. But, I would argue that they have everything to do with it. Do the ratings on your new pumper meet the needs of the community, or are you purchasing the engine that you had because it was adequate? What are the future developments in your area, and are you purchasing an apparatus that is good today but not 15 or 20 years from now when the apparatus is in reserve status?

Pressure or Volume

Generally, with fire pumps, there is a choice of pressure or volume. The lower the pressure on the pump, the more volume can be pushed. The higher the pressure on the pump, the less volume can be pushed. This seems to be a simple concept until an engineer is in a situation where more water is needed. The reaction almost all the time is to throttle up and give more pressure. But, with more pr

Read more
  • 198
  • 0
  • Article rating: No rating
Posted: Sep 1, 2018

Pump Theory and Engine Purchasing

BY DOUGLAS PIETZ


Apparatus with fire pumps are not unique concepts in the fire service; rather, they are the cornerstone of every department.

Hours are spent on the bells and whistles of new apparatus, whether to purchase an aerial platform rather than a straight stick, and even if a rescue-pumper is the best option for a department. Yet, the biggest part of a pumper is often overlooked, or at least proper attention is not placed on the most important component of the engine—the fire pump.

Pump Theory

In pumper operator class, the hardest lecture to swallow is pump theory. True pump theory has complex formulas and equations to determine maximum capabilities of pumps under various conditions. Unless you are a math geek, most of the fire service is lost at the word formula. We take a complex component of the apparatus and bring everything down to the easiest of ways to interpret complex formulas and develop pump charts. These charts are the backbone to rapid response; they get the operator very close to the actual pressures needed. Soon the formulas are forgotten, and the operator is reliant on a chart and, as a result, the theory of the pump is gone too.

So, what this relates to is sending drivers or officers who are not up on pump capabilities to a prebuild for an engine. As a result, departments are forced to rely on the manufacturer’s build team for advice or recommendations. Thus, larger pumps are put into apparatus, and larger pumps need larger motors to drive them. All of this leads to a larger price tag.

The better choice is to look at the needs of the department and community. What fire loads are present in the district? What are the water demands to meet those needs? What water tower operations or large lines need to be supported? Do you have high-rise buildings? Do you operate a water tower with dual nozzles at the bucket? What flows are your hydrants capable of producing? Do you use a water shuttle operation? Answering these questions will help in the process, which is much like homework. My department operates a 2,250-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump that is rated at 1,500 gpm. The capability of the pump is a combination of the pump and engine needed to drive the pump. It meets our needs to supply greater than 2,000 gpm from a hydrant to be able to use both nozzles on an aerial platform and also feeds the needs of the downtown high-rise district. The pump is Underwriters Laboratories-derated to ensure that the it will pass pump tests. If we rated our pumps at 2,250, then any decrease in engine or pump performance would yield an apparatus that failed a pump test—and that means being out of service.

None of these questions seem to have anything to do with pump theory. But, I would argue that they have everything to do with it. Do the ratings on your new pumper meet the needs of the community, or are you purchasing the engine that you had because it was adequate? What are the future developments in your area, and are you purchasing an apparatus that is good today but not 15 or 20 years from now when the apparatus is in reserve status?

Pressure or Volume

Generally, with fire pumps, there is a choice of pressure or volume. The lower the pressure on the pump, the more volume can be pushed. The higher the pressure on the pump, the less volume can be pushed. This seems to be a simple concept until an engineer is in a situation where more water is needed. The reaction almost all the time is to throttle up and give more pressure. But, with more pr

Read more
  • 191
  • 0
  • Article rating: No rating
Posted: Sep 1, 2018

Firefighting Helicopters Added to Los Angeles County (CA) Fire Department Fleet

BOB VACCARO

The Los Angeles County (CA) Fire Department (LACoFD) has always been a front-runner in air attack superiority for wildfire operations in the Southern California area.

BOB VACCARO

Back in 2001, the county purchased and put in service the first Sikorsky S-70A Firehawks in operation for any fire department in the United States. The S-70A is the civilian version of the Sikorsky UH-60L Blackhawk that Sikorsky has been building for more than 25 years for the U.S. military. Los Angeles County has operated three of the older generation Firehawks that were more military designed.

Fast forward to 2017, and the wildland fire season in California was devastating.

It was the most destructive wildfire season on record, which saw multiple wildfires burning across California. A total of 9,133 fires burned—1,381,405 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection—including five of the 20 most destructive wildland urban interface fires in the state’s history. Throughout 2017, the fires destroyed or damaged more than 10,000 structures in the state (destroyed 9,470, damaged 810), a higher tally than the previous nine years combined. State data show that the large wildfires killed 43 people—41 civilians and two firefighters—almost higher than the previous 10 years combined.

Current Sikorsky S-70A Fire Hawk with 1,000-gallon belly tank.
An artist’s rendering of a Sikorsky S-70i Firehawk for the San Diego (CA) Fire Department.

1 Current Sikorsky S-70A Fire Hawk with 1,000-gallon belly tank. (Photos courtesy of Sikorsky.) 2 An artist’s rendering of a Sikorsky S-70i Firehawk for the San Diego (CA) Fire Department.

The LACoFD was contemplating the purchase of new helicopters for the future. The workload was increasing, and the department and pilots liked the versatility of the S-70 Firehawk and wanted to improve on the design.

According to Janette Eaton, RVP of North American Commercial Sales for Sikorsky, “When we started with the project on the new variant of the Firehawk, the goal was to carry as much water as possible without interference or reduction to the cabin so it could be multimission, with the tank installed, with the quickest dash speed possible in between water and refueling sources. Thus, having a retractable snorkel hose was a must.”

Effective Fire Attack Tool

The end result was the Firehawk® 70i, which is an effective tool during the initial attack—for the following reasons:

  • Read more
    • 228
    • 0
    • Article rating: No rating
RSS
First44164417441844194421442344244425Last

Theme picker

Filter News Catagories

Search News Articles

Terms Of Use | Privacy Statement - Copyright 2024 by Washington Fire Chiefs