In this report, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides a review of the state-of-the-art on how fire effluent might affect people. The available scientific literature on the effects of narcotic and irritant gases, smoke obscuration, and heat on humans and animals were reviewed. The fire effluent data presented in this report are categorized by levels of effect on humans; specifically 1) minor physiological effects that are unlikely affect job performance or duties, 2) moderate to major physiological effects that may negatively influence job performance or duties, and 3) major physiological effects that may render an individual unable to perform his/her job duties. Where possible, NIST has identified groupings and/or contradictions for the compiled exposure data. With this information, one can estimate how exposure to various fire effluent might affect the operators' ability to perform critical procedures during a fire event.

Fire Bomber Into Hell is the story of Fire Bombing as told by the author who flew bomber aircraft both in the United States and Canada for a total of 37 years. A must read for the person curious about what it takes for a pilot to fly daily into the dangerous boundary layer of air seething with rotor winds, downdrafts, severe turbulence and walls of fire.

Closed-circuit breathing devices recycle exhaled air after scrubbing carbon dioxide and adding make-up oxygen from a tank of pure oxygen. Use of this equipment allows first responders to work for up to four hours without swapping out cylinders and scrubbing canisters. Firefighting situations in which these devices would be useful include tunnels, mines, ships, high-rise buildings, and environments contaminated with biological or chemical toxins. A risk perceived by firefighters entering environments containing open flame and high radiant heat is the possibility of fire ignition in the vicinity of the respirator caused by the outward leakage of oxygen around the facepiece. This paper presents the results of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of oxygen dissipation into the environment surrounding a respirator facepiece.

The International Consortium for Fire Safety, Health, and the Environment (ICFSHE), with funding provided by the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, awarded a contract to the SP Swedish National Testing and Research Institute (SP) for a "Scientific Evaluation of the Risk Associated with Heightened Environmental Requirements on Outdoor Power Equipment." As part of this study ICFSHE requested that the Building and Fire Research Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (BFRL/NIST) provide experimental support to SP. A work statement was adopted that involved characterizing the ignition of typical outdoor fuels by ignition sources representative of those expected for outdoor power equipment exhaust systems. This report summarizes the findings of the BFRL/NIST investigation. One series of experiments was designed to simulate the ignition behaviors of fuels that come into direct contact with a heated surface.

An assessment of uncertainties for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 1016 mm Guarded-Hot-Plate apparatus is presented. The uncertainties are reported in a format consistent with current NIST policy on the expression of measurement uncertainty. The report describes a procedure for detennination of component uncertainties for thermal conductivity and thermal resistance for the apparatus under operation in either the double-sided or single-sided mode of operation. An extensive example for computation of uncertainties for the single-sided mode of operation is provided for a low-density fibrous-glass blanket thermal insulation. For this material, the relative expanded uncertainty for thermal resistance increases from 1% for a thickness of 25.4 mm to 3% for a thickness of 228.6 mm. Although these uncertainties have been developed for a particular insulation material, the procedure and, to a lesser extent, the results are applicable to other insulation materials measured at a mean temperature close to 297 K (23.9 DGC, 75 OF). The analysis identifies dominant components of uncertainty and, thus, potential areas for future improvement in the measurement process. For the NIST 1016 mm Guarded-Hot-Plate apparatus, considerable improvement, especially at higher values of thermal resistance, may be realized by developing better control strategies for guarding that include better measurement techniques for the guard gap thermopile voltage and the temperature sensors.

The NFPA 2001 standard on the use of clean agents for the suppression of fires arose from the phase-out of Halon 1301. Standard methods exists for specifying the amount of clean agent required for Class A and Class B fires, but the recommendation for Class C fires (those involving energized electrical equipment) defaults to the Class A values. While this may be appropriate for some Class C fires, there is concern that higher agent concentration may be necessary if energy is added to the fire by the electrical source. A number of test methods have been proposed to determine the amount of agent required to suppress fires in energized electrical equipment; however, there has been no broad agreement on a test method to include in NFPA 2001 for Class C fires. The present project was sponsored by the National Fire Protection Association Research Foundation to address the need for a standard test to be included in NFPA 2001 for Class C fires. The goals of the project are to understand the fire threats occurring in energized electrical equipment, and suggest a test protocol which can properly estimate the amount of agent required to suppress fires in those situations. As a first step, phone interviews were conducted with members of the technical panel and with the sponsors of the present project. These representatives, as well as other expert sources recommended by them, provided information on the likely fire threats expected in the field. Detailed case studies were supplied by FM Global. Detailed notes of the conversations as well as summaries are provided, and the data provided served as one source for definition of the threat. In order to illustrate the relevant parameters necessary to consider in fires over solid materials with added energy, a thorough literature review was performed. Topics included materials flammability and fire suppression, with the latter broken down into: a theoretical description of fire suppression, flow-field effects, effects of heat addition on suppression, and suppression of flames over condensed-phase materials. A major resource was the previous work to develop standard tests for suppression of fires in energized electrical equipment. By analyzing these in detail, and considering the relevant physics of the suppression process outlined in the review section, the desired properties of a standard test were developed, and the range of values of the most important parameter (the flux of added energy) was estimated.

This study reported here was conducted for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under Contact Number NA1341-02-W-0686. Hughes Associates, Inc. performed this work with assistance from Greenhorne & O'Mara, Inc. and Thornton-Tomasetti- Cutts, LLC. The study was commissioned to analyze the needs and existing capabilities for full-scale fire resistance testing of structural connections. The Scope of Work consisted of three separate tasks...Task 1. Identification of Building Collapse Incidents; Task 2. Survey of Fire Resistance Test Facilities; and Task 3. Needs Assessment.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been conducting research to characterize and understand thermal imaging cameras (TIC) performance. NIST's findings and recommendations are described.

This report describes a thermally-induced electrical failure (THIEF) model's ability to predict the behavior of power, instrument, and control cables during a fire. The model is intended to be incorporated as a subroutine for deterministic fire models, and it is of comparable accuracy and simplicity to the activation algorithms for various other fire protection devices (e.g., sprinklers, heat and smoke detectors). THIEF model predictions are compared to experimental measurements of instrumented cables in a variety of configurations, and the results indicate that the model is an appropriate analysis tool for nuclear power plant applications. This work was performed as part of the CAROLFIRE (Cable Response to Live Fire) program sponsored by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The experiments for CAROLFIRE were conducted at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Details of the CAROLFIRE experimental program are contained in Volumes 1 and 2 of this three-volume series.

This report describes new full-scale compartment fire experiments, which include local measurements of temperature, heat flux and species composition, and global measurements of heat release rate and mass burning rate. The measurements are unique to the compartment fire literature. By design, the experiments provided a comprehensive and quantitative assessment of major and minor carbonaceous gaseous species and soot at two locations in the upper layer of fire in a full scale ISO 9705 room.

This paper reports an experimental technique that is developed for instantaneous planar measurement of droplet size and velocity for dilute sprays in general and sprinkler sprays in particular. This particle tracking technique relies on photographic measurements of two-color fluorescence or fluorescence and Mie scattering from droplets to determine their size and velocity. Measurements were made in a plane that passes through the vertical axis of symmetry of an axis-symmetric sprinkler spray. Drop velocities and drop sizes down to 200 m were measured from the digitized double-exposed photographs of sprinkler sprays. The directional ambiguity was resolved by color differentiation. A combination of fluorescence and Mie scattering was investigated for a 250 mm x 350 mm measurement area, while two-color fluorescence was investigated for 460 mm x 540 mm measurement area. Dye selection and concentrations were determined by testing the fluorescence output of various water tracer dyes. Collection optics and laser powers were varied to optimize the color differentiation and maximize the resolution for drop size measurements.

This book is for everyone who wonders why fire engines are red, why a chief has five "bugles" while a captain has two, why fire hydrants are sometimes called "€œfire plugs"€ and why we toll bells and play bagpipes at firefighter funerals.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

This popular safety best-seller is designed to help the user quantify the expected damage of potential fire and explosion incidents in realistic terms, identify the equipment likely to contribute to the creation or escalation of an incident, and communicate the fire and explosion risk potential to management. Based on Dow's Fire and Explosion Risk Analysis Program, the index provides a step-by-step, objective evaluation of the actual fire and explosion, as well as reactivity potential of process equipment and its contents.

Zac Unger didn't feel like much of a fireman at first. Most of his fellow recruits seemed to have planned for the job all their lives; he was an Ivy League grad responding to an ad at a bus stop. He couldn't keep his boots shined, and he looked terrible in his uniform. Working Fire is the story of how, from this unlikely beginning, Zac Unger came to feel at home among this close-knit tribe, came to master his work's demands, and came to know what it is to see the world through a firefighter's eyes. From the raw material of his days' work--alarm calls both harrowing and hilarious, moments of triumph and grief--Unger has forged a timeless story of finding one's path, and a rousing adventure about the bravery and sacrifice of everyday heroes.

On the web: http: //www.zacunger.com

Beroes explains that a government-mandated warning label--costing about a penny and placed on dangerously flammable clothing--can protect everyone, from children to seniors, from painful, disfiguring, even fatal burn injury. (Technology & Industrial Arts)

On June 29, 1998, at Stock Island, Key West, Florida, a Dion Oil Company (Dion) driver was on top of a straight-truck cargo tank checking the contents of its compartments and preparing to transfer cargo from a semitrailer cargo tank when explosive vapors ignited within the straight-truck cargo tank. The ignition caused an explosion that threw the driver from the top of the truck. The fire and a series of at least three explosions injured the driver and destroyed the straight truck, a tractor, the front of the semitrailer, and a second nearby straight-truck cargo tank. As a result of its investigation of the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board identified three major safety issues and makes recommendations to the Federal Highway Administration, Dion, the Florida State Fire Marshal, the Florida Department of Transportation, the Florida Department of Agriculture, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the National Fire Prevention Association, the National Association of State Fire Marshals, and the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

On July 14, 2001, at the ATOFINA Chemicals, Inc., plant in Michigan, a pipe attached to a fitting on the unloading line of a railroad tank car fractured and separated, causing the release of methyl mercaptan, a poisonous and flammable gas. As a result of its investigation, the NTSB identified safety issues and detailed recommendations which are found within this document.

An unforgettable journey through the daily lives of the brave men and women who have made saving lives their profession.
Dennis Smith, author of Report from Engine Co. 82, traveled across the country talking to dozens of America’s firefighters to put together this powerful collection of their own descriptions of their most dramatic and intense experiences on the job. Their stories, compiled here, are timeless testimonies to the human capacity for heroism and nobility.
Focusing on the most courageous firefighters, from those who have been decorated for heroism to those who have been seriously injured, Firefighters presents the extraordinarily rich and rugged voices of men and women who fight urban building fires, who battle sweeping forest fires, who perform emergency rescues, and who face extreme danger and risk as part of their everyday lives. Sometimes brave, sometimes funny, sometimes bittersweet or filled with anger, these voices combine to make Firefighters both a riveting adventure drama and a moving chronicle of American heroism at its finest.

Introduction to Safety Engineering and Managment.

Legislations, Regulations and Standards.

Industrial Toxicology.

The Management of Personal Protective Equipment.

Management of Fire Hazards.

Industrial Noise Control.

Electrical Safety.

Determining the Cause of Accidents and Conducting Effective Safety Audits.

System Safety Analysis in Process Design.

Container and Spill Management.

Radiation Hazards.

First Aid.

Computer Systems and Statistical Methods for Occupational Safety and Health Management.

Appendices.

Index.

All fire fighters need the safe and controlled "real life" training offered through live fire exercises in order to be fully prepared for the hazards of the fireground. Live Fire Training: Principles and Practice to NFPA 1403, Second Edition provides a definitive guide on how to ensure safe and realistic live fire training for both students and instructors. Updated to address all the requirements for NFPA 1403, Standard on Live Fire Training Evolutions, 2018 Edition, this essential resource covers everything from Fire Fighter Physiology, Critical Incident Planning to Gas-Fired, Non-Gas-Fired Structures to Non-Structural Props.