commentary FossilMedic on 15 Apr 2008 09:04 am
Smoke Is Fuel, Wind Is Bad
FossilMedic reports back from Indianapolis:
Two tactical take-homes and a Fossil moment from the Fire Department Instructor’s Conference.
SMOKE IS FUEL
According to Diane Feldman, they retire a FDIC presentation after three years. This was the third year retired battalion chief David Dodson did a big room presentation on “Reading Smoke.” While this presentation may be rotated off in 2009, his message left a lasting impression on me.
Consider a primary search in a smoke-filled structure. The hallway is filled with thick turbulent smoke so thick you can barely see your helmet or boxlight. Products of combustion are coating your facepiece and the velocity of the smoke is accelerating.
You are seconds away from burning to death. You are surrounded with the vaporizing contents of the room that is about to be heated to flashover. You are getting coated in a combustible glaze that will flash-fry as soon as one of the half dozen combustible gases reaches ignition. Once the first gas starts to burn, the rest of the gases will ignite.
Pennwell sells a great DVD of Dodson’s presentation: http://www.pennwellbooks.com/artofresm.html
Dodson has a training company: http://www.readingsmoke.com/index.html
This is not your father’s products of combustion. United Kingdom firefighter and author Paul Grimwood participated in an international textbook on 3D Firefighting. IFSTA published the book in 2005. http://imis-ext.osufpp.org/imispublic/Product_Search/core/orders/product.aspx?catid=5&prodid=1678
Dodson shows that the black boiling smoke seems to lighten up moments before flashover. Grimwood speculates that we are seeing the sublimation of vaporized carbon into ash. Ash is the dense and hot product of carbon combustion.
Maybe that positive pressure ventilation, where you walk into a clear area to seek the source of the fire, may not be such a bad idea after all.
WIND DRIVEN FIRE
NIST started working with FDNY in February on tactics involving wind-driven fires. Some details discussed at FDIC, more at the annual NFPA conference in June. http://www.fire.gov/WDF/index.htm
FDNY photo
Hopefully, the results of this work, and the Reading Smoke concepts, will guide future fire suppression practices. We must remain aggressive without becoming deceased.
FEELING LIKE A FOSSIL, REDUX
Last week I mentioned Sean Flynn’s July 2000 edition of Esquire article about the Worcester Cold Storage tragedy. http://www.esquire.com/features/perfect-fire-0700
In another class a FDIC presenter asked how many attendees knew about the Worcester tragedy. Very few raised their hands. Part of this reflects the age of the FDIC attendees and part of this reminds me of the tyranny of time. We must never forget the sacrifices of those that went before as we learn to deal with today’s firefighting challenges.
on 15 Apr 2008 at 9:47 am 1.CMBFFEMTP said …
Do you mean that I was in the same room as the Firegeezer and didn’t know it? What an honor! In all seriousness…Geez, Thank you for the website! You do a great job and I visit at least once a day.
on 15 Apr 2008 at 9:55 am 2.fossilmedic said …
CMBFFEMTP,
You were in the same room as Fossilmedic, how could you miss me >.
I know that Firegeezer, the guy that retired 16 years ago today, appreciates your nice comments.
Mike
on 15 Apr 2008 at 8:08 pm 3.FireBoss said …
Flynns book, 3000 Degrees,should be required reading for all firefighters. The first chapters really hit home.
on 17 Apr 2008 at 3:28 pm 4.Irakli said …
Hey, I was there too, all the way from Germany. But with an attendance of a few thousand (wild guess) chances are good there would have been a few other readers present.
Took the Dodson back home with me, an excellent complement to Grimwood’s work. Saw Grimwood a couple of years back.
FDIC was great.