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Laboratory computers determine whether the mannequin’s exposure to heat over time would have produced first, second or third degree burns, or no burns at all. (Skin temperature must equal or exceed 44oC (111oF) to burn.)
Tests show the U.S. Navy’s new suit made from highly flame- and heat-resistant Zylon® and aramid apparently works well. The engineers hope to have the gear aboard naval vessels by 2006; it will take up to one or two years beyond this date to reach civilian fire departments.
For more information, go to
www.wpi.edu/News/
Transformations/2004Winter/
investigations.html. or contact Dr. Jonathan Barnett,
jonathan.barnett@wpi.edu or Jay Kramarczyk,
JFK@RWSullivan.com.
Mannequin Coming out of Burn – Intact.
The purpose of the conference was to identify emerging issues in healthcare facilities (retirement communities, assisted living facilities, nursing homes), begin a discussion, and develop recommendations to improve resident safety. The report, Healthcare Fire Safety Roundtable Report, Washington, DC, summarizes the recommendations and strongly encourages the IAFC to devote staff and resources to ensure that the report’s recommendations are carried out. Of interest are two national plans that were suggested: 1) Develop a national plan to address
evacuations and a Defend-in-Place concept for healthcare/long term care facilities; and 2) Implement a national plan to transition from unannounced to announced fire drills for healthcare/long term care facilities.
Recent catastrophic fires in public assembly occupancies that resulted in large life loss identified the need to develop strategies for enacting building code changes emphasizing life safety and fire threat reduction in nightclubs and other places of public assembly. As a result, the IAFC held two Emerging Codes Issues
Roundtables; one in Bellevue, Washington, on May 6-7 and the other in Nashville, Tennessee, May 27-28. Invited participants represented diverse interests from the code industry and the fire service communities. The types of occupancies discussed were: nightclubs and restaurants; places of worship and school auditoriums; arenas, stadiums, and theaters. Among the conclusions, two are of special interest. First, the fire service community should document its successes and failures to assist the fire prevention community in learning what works and what does not work.
Second, inspection professionals should visit a multiple use facility duringan actual event to evaluate and assess safety hazards and identify special concerns.
To learn more about the workshops, and the conclusions and recommendations, the report, Emerging Fire Code Issues Roundtable Report, Nashvile, TN and Bellevue, WA, may be downloaded. For additional information, please go to the IAFC web site: www.iafc.org.
What are the best compressed air foam (CAF) delivery densities? This important question recently was addressed by George Crampton, National Research Council of Canada (NRCC), in his report, The Determination of a Safety Factor for the Application Density of Compressed-Air Foam on Flammable Liquid Fires. CAF is accepted as and has been proven to be an effective fire suppression material for Class A and for Class B fires.
In his report, George describes a series of five full-scale Class B fire
tests designed to compare low- and high-water flow conditions with the normal CAF design flow conditions and a standard foam water suppression system at the full delivered density of 6.5 l/min/m2. The Foam Equipment and Liquid Concentrates Standard (UL162) is used for the fire condition, suppression grid spacing and the method for determining burn-back protection. Burn-back time and extinguishing performance from these adverse condition tests must meet the criteria stated in the standard and must compare favorably with the performance of a standard foam
water suppression system at its full delivered density. Foam-water sprinkler systems are designed with a safety factor of 1.6 when used to protect against flamm-able liquid fires. Compressed air foam systems offer an alternative to foam-water sprinkler systems. The tests conducted at NRCC indicate when CAF is used at the normal design density of 1.63 l/min/m2, that compressed air foam appears to offer a safety factor that is greater than 1.6. However, the reduced flow compressed air foam provided only 10 min of burn-back protection while the normal flow CAF provided 30 min
of
burn-back protection. To learn more
about the test procedures and results go to Research Report 180 at
http://irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/
fulltext/rr180/ . If
additional information is needed, contact George Crampton,
George.Crampton @nrc-cnrc.gr.ca.
Test 1 (CAF/67 1/min)