Magazines
magazines
social networks
up-to-the-minute update
Articles
Below you will find a selection of articles from our Asia Pacific Fire magazine. These articles focus on protection, prevention and safety. Including the latest firefighter equipment, apparatus and detection systems.
While the unearthing and destruction of chemical weapons is day-to-day business for defence and response agencies in many parts of the world it has not historically been a concern for the Australian response community. In recent years however this has begun to change. As legacy sites from WWII come under increasing scrutiny and pressure from development there has been a corresponding increase in exposure to sites where chemical weapons were stored or are rumoured to have been stored in times gone by.
Surging sales of hybrid and electric vehicles point to a pressing need for updated training to prepare rescuers to respond to crashes involving these types of vehicles. To meet the challenges on today's roads, rescuers also need knowledge of advanced steel used in auto manufacturing and techniques for extricating patients using only hand tools.
Are we responsible for creating disasters? Can we help reduce disaster risks and increase resilience? Admittedly, increasing resilience involves more than risk reduction, but intuitively, improving resilience plays a major role in reducing risk.
Watermist fire protection systems are fire suppression systems that have emerged as an alternative fire safety solution for specific applications over the past few decades - but are they suitable for commercial low-hazard occupancies?
Injecting compressed air into a solution stream of water and concentrated foam has been a method of fire fighting for over 70 years. The CAFS features most regarded are in its ability to blanket a fire and cause self-extinguishment. However, some would argue that conventional CAFS has its limitations.
The consequences of a major industrial fire can be catastrophic, potentially impacting on the business' ability to survive, workforce safety and employment, the local environment and the surrounding community.
Australia held its first National Forum and Workshop on "Fire Fighting Foams and the Environment", recently, as part of the major Clean Up 2011 Conference, which raised some important questions.
NFPA expands its reach to address the global wildfire problem.
Restaurant fires typically start in the kitchen. Annually they cost millions of dollars in lost revenue and repairs, risk the lives of staff and diners, and cost tens of thousands of jobs. However, restaurant kitchen fires are preventable if appropriate suppression systems are installed, tested and maintained, and if management implements effective cleaning and grease removal regimes and safe working practices.
Over the past several years a debate has raged over the use of fluorinated versus non-fluorinated foam. Much of the debate has cantered on the environmental acceptability of fluorine- foams and their long-term viability in the market.
The type of personal protection equipment required for marine and offshore applications is increasingly being designed to protect against the specific nature of the hazards most commonly encountered.
Society has learned to accept fire as one of the many risks to life and property that simply must be effectively managed. Improved fire detection and protection systems, tougher construction codes, more extensive safety standards and more sensitive planning have all helped reduce the threat over recent years. But better ways still need to be found.
Lessons learned in North America and the EU about the next-generation Halon alternatives
Hangers are getting larger, as are the aircraft they are designed and built to accommodate. Both the hanger structures and the aircraft are also becoming increasingly expensive to build, which is raising the stakes when it comes to hanger fire protection.
The use of ethanol has increased significantly, creating new challenges for first responders. So much so that SP Fire Technology and the Swedish Petroleum Institute have taken the initiative and developed a proposal for a research project on ethanol tank firefighting called ETANKFIRE.
The physical and emotional burden on USAR personnel deployed anywhere in the world is enormous. For this reason alone, the equipment they choose must perform in the toughest of environments.
Incident Command in industrial settings is beginning to emerge as a distinct research topic for training specialists interested in selection, training, decision making, stress management, leadership and teams working in critical situations. While there have been significant advances in the area of training programs, the use of specially designed simulators for incident commander training consistently demonstrates superior depth, quality and consistent outcomes from individuals particularly when assessed against industry competency standards.
To varying degrees, road deaths in relation to population size in the developed countries have fallen fairly consistently for many years. The improvement in road safety generally has obviously been a major factor, but so too has the speed in which injured casualties can now be extricated from crashed vehicles.
We seem to depend on airports more than ever with passenger numbers rising through most major hubs, but what types of systems are used to protect the aircraft we rely on, to get us safely to our destinations?
Combine toxic atmospheres with conditions of low visibility, entanglement hazards, moving parts, the risk of engulfment and restricted methods of entry and you are presented with the possible conditions within a confined space and one of the most challenging forms of technical rescue.
Taking decisions on which thermal imaging camera to buy can be a high-risk strategy if you rely on sales brochures and specification sheets to tell the whole story. There is only one sure-fire way to make the right decision and that is to hands-on test the shortlisted cameras against your own purchasing criteria.
Although flammable and toxic gas hazards are generally well understood by operators, technicians and safety personnel in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries, continuous training and refreshment of knowledge is essential to avoid potential incidents caused by complacency.
In the majority of automatic fire systems, the end result of the detection of a fire is the initiation of audible or visual warning devices that alert the occupants to the danger so that they can evacuate the premises. So, the primary function of the system designer is to ensure that the output levels of these devices are adequate throughout the protected area.
Anyone who has visited any of the recent emergency services exhibitions will confirm that the development of firefighting vehicles continues apace. Here we take a look at just a few of the new vehicles that will soon be appearing on fire department shopping lists.
Example Issue 45
The 7.1Mw earthquake that struck New Zealand's South Island on 3rd September was larger than the earthquake that devastated the Caribbean Island of Haiti earlier in the year, killing 230 people, destroying 250,000 homes and 30,000 commercial buildings.
With the current confusion surrounding firefighting foam technology, it is time to review what we know, and what is new; to bridge the information gap of the past eight years and understand where we are in 2010.
Fires in road tunnels can be very serious and difficult to fight. In addition to the necessary resources, there must also be proper incident planning. SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden has carried out an investigation into how best these problems can be solved.
Swiftwater poses many dangers to the rescuer. It is a dynamic environment where one small mistake or misjudgement can snowball into catastrophe.
The recent NFPA Technical Meeting in the USA accepted a number of Standards, several of which are going to impact on the provision of fire protection.
