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| KFD protects surroundings as house burning experiment continues. |
the ATF mission, the fires have provided some unique training opportunities for KFD.
The ATF-KFD relationship has been ongoing and has expanded to include support for fire testing needs of NIST, USFA, Harvey Mudd College, the ATF Fire Research Laboratory, as well as other agencies.
Chief Smith, Commander Crawford, Capt. Reavis and the KFD firefighters have been outstanding in supporting the wide variety of fire test requests. They have demonstrated their professionalism and flexibility during an often challenging and somewhat unpredictable fire test schedule.
ATF is interested in additional opportunities to burn in many different types of structures to add to the storehouse of knowledge that can be used by fire investigators. Contact: Agent Lester Rich, Charleston, SC Office, ATF, 843-727-4275; e-mail LVRICH@charl.atf.treas.gov
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| Optical Beam Meter with a LED Being Used to Study Smoke |
To improve the study of life safety in burning buildings, Australian scientists have developed a smoke meter that allows the accurate study of smoke in building fires and remains undamaged through flashover. Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Fire Science and Technology Laboratory’s smoke meter measures the optical density
of smoke, thus allowing researchers to better understand the visibility issues of occupants and fire fighters in a building fire.
The High Temperature Smoke Meter can measure the smoke in regions of the fire not possible with other meters. It is an optical beam type meter using an ultra bright monochromatic focused light emitting diode
(LED) as a source. With a double-skinned casing that prevents the sensors from over heating. Cooling is supplied by compressed air.
For additional information, contact Dr. Dilip Manuel, telephone: (61) + 3 9252 6073; e-mail: Dilip.Manuel@dbce.csiro.au
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| SFPE Logo |
The Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) produces guidance documents for engineers performing fire safety designs. These documents are widely accepted statements of best engineering practices. SFPE has created a new task group that will develop guidance on accounting for fire department operations in engineered fire protection
design. Viewing the fire service as one of the fire protection systems for buildings, guidance will be provided on how the contributions of the fire service to fire safety can be considered during the building design. Guidance also will be provided on how engineers can best design buildings and fire safety systems so that they facilitate
fire department operations. The Evaluating Fire Service Contributions to Engineered Fire Protection Design task group is one of seven SFPE task groups. For information, see http://www.sfpe.org/taskgrm.html or contact Morgan Hurley, SFPE Technical Director, at 301-718-2910 or mhurley@sfpe.org .