Fire Fighting
Fire fighting is basically an act of carrying out various procedures to extinguish an unwanted fire. Fire can grow exponentially quickly and can rapidly spread to risk hundreds and even hundreds of thousands of lives, so in that case the first and the foremost step of the fire fighting operations is a reconnaissance to search for the origin of the fire and spot the specific risks. There are specific people that are involved in this act of fire fighting and they are called as fire fighters. They prevent fire and destruction of life and property threatened by fire. These fire fighters have all the knowledge and expertise for successful and safe fire fighting. There are also certain fire fighting organizations that not only helps in preventing fire and giving all that required knowledge to prevent fires but also helps in design and implement fire-prevention programs, which may include such measures as requiring fire alarms, regularly located fire-extinguishing equipment, the use of fire-retardant construction materials, and safe electrical wiring.
Generally for a fire to occur there must be available oxygen, a supply of fuel and enough heat to kindle the fuel. According to these things there are also three ways of fire fighting by which one can successfully extinguish the fire they are: to smother it, to cut of the fuel supply or to cool it before the flammability temperature. There are two major rules of fire fighting that are followed by professional fire fighters:
- Do not harm yourself.
- Do not hurt other people in the process.
Thus fire fighting involves proper education, research and development of various methods and professional standards including safe building design and inspection work.
Fire fighting strategies have the following basic procedures: arriving at the scene of fire, assessing the nature of the fire by determining its intensity and extent, the type of fuel, the danger of entering the fire area and the effective techniques for extinguishing the fire.
In fire fighting fire fighting apparatus plays a major and a very important role. The techniques that are involved in fire fighting are greatly revised and now it is done with more modern equipments and moreover these fire fighting vehicles are equipped with highly specialized equipments. There are ladder trucks providing access to tall buildings in case of fire. Snorkel trucks enable fire fighters to douse fires from above. Steam powered pumps are also that could provide large volumes of water at a substantial pressure. In addition to this modern fire fighting apparatus includes rescue trucks, mobile laboratories, searchlight cars, double-ended tunnel engines, smoke ejectors, high-pressure spray trucks and foam trucks etc. There is a commonly seen metal cylinder with a hose attached to it which is an active fire protection device to control fire. It may emit a solid, liquid, or gaseous chemical. Therefore fire fighting needs essential expertise and modern fire fighting apparatus to prevent the loss of life and property from fire hazards.