PMV guides methods and basic measures of fire fighting

In recent years, the fire cases that caused serious consequences consecutively have still occurred. This is a warning for fire prevention, especially in the enterprises and the market areas, business centers, causing huge losses of lives and properties.

To prevent abnormal fires occurring and limit the damages when there are fires, we need to take appropriate fire protection measures. Phat Minh Vuong (PMV) security company shares a number of methods and basic measures for fire fighting.

1. General issues on the work of fire fighting:

The concept of fire fighting: In the fire protection law, the word “fire fighting” is interpreted that it includes mobilizing, deploying forces and means of fire fighting, cutting power cuts, organizing escape, rescuing people and properties, stopping fire spread, extinguishing fires and doing other activities related to fire fighting.

However, in the science of fire protection, the fire fighting process is the use of fire fighting forces and means to create the conditions to stop the fire. In other word, it is to reduce the combustion temperature. In summary, for fire fighting, there are forces, facilities, water and fire-fighting materials and fire fighting commanders to organize and administer the activities to extinguish the fire and minimize the damages to people and property caused by the fire.

Basic measures in fighting: fire protection Law (Article 30) stipulates the basic specific measures need to be taken in firefighting operations are:

– Mobilize fastest forces and means to extinguish the fire immediately.

– Focus on rescuing people and properties and against fire spread.

– Command in fire fighting.

– Give information about fire alarm and fire fighting: (Article 32 of the Law on Fire Protection)

– Give information about fire alarm by signals or phones. (For the villages, hamlets, you should focus on using the commands to fire alarm information for the members of the civil defense and the phone should also be of interest to the fire alarm to police units).

– Fire alarm telephone number is the only one in the country.

– Responsibilities for fire fighting and participating in fire fighting: (Article 33 of the Law on Fire Protection)

– The fire detectors shall alarm fire in the fastest way; agencies, organizations, households and individuals near the fire quickly give information and participate in fire fighting.

– Fire protection forces after receiving a warning in the province are assigned to manage or received mobilization orders to immediately fight; in case, forces receive fire alarm information outside the areas assigned to manage, the forces must immediately notify the fire protection forces and report to their superiors.

– Health agencies, electricity agencies, water supplies, urban environment agencies, traffic agencies and other related agencies after receiving the request of the fighting commander must quickly mobilize forces and means to the scene to serve fire fighting.

– The police, militia and self-defense organizations are responsible for maintaining orders, protecting the region and participating in fire fighting.

– Water and fire fighting materials: (Article 35 of the Law on Fire Protection)

In case of fire, water sources and other fire fighting materials must be prioritized for firefighting.

– The firefighting commander: Under fire protection law and decree guiding the implementation of fire protection law, the fighting commander is:

– In all cases, the person with the highest position of fire prevention posse or higher present at the scene is the fire fighting commander.

– When fire protection police forces have not arrived within his management, fire-fighting commander is one of the following individuals: the head of the base, the captain of fire prevention posse or the authorized person; the village head (or equivalent level), civil defense captain or the authorized person; the vehicle commander, the driver, the forest owner or the authorized person if forests belong to agencies and organizations.

– The heads of agencies, organizations and communal chairman who are present at the fire, directing and commanding the fire fighting.

2. The method to stop the fire:

Scientists have been studying ways to stop the fire and they are divided into 4 groups:

– The method of cooling the fire or inflammables

– The method of reducing the concentration of the reactants

– The method of isolating the reactants with the fire

– The method of inhibiting burning chemical reactions

The methods of cooling is to lower the temperature of the combustion or lower the temperature of flammables than its burning temperature. This method is applied mainly to extinguish fires solids but seldom for liquids and gases because lowering the temperature of the combustion than the temperature of burning is very difficult. In fact, water is capable of fighting but it has a strong effect with alkali metals, alkaline-earth metals and some other substances, so it is careful with using water for fire fighting when determining what kinds of substances.

The method of isolating the reactants is being prevent the contact between fire elements and oxidizers in the combustion reaction zone. In fighting, we can use the isolation method by foam, fire extinguishing powder, explosive products, fire fighting departments and creating distance. This method is applicable to extinguish most fire forms. However, we need to combine spraying cooling water to eliminate the fire back.

– The method of reducing the concentration of the reactants is to make the concentration of the reactant materials limited to lower than the concentration of their burning.

You can implement this method by changing the ratio between flammables and chemical oxidants or maintain the concentration ratio that reduces their components by adding inert substances to the fire, namely by spraying, misting steam, inerts, fire extinguishing powders and products of combustion (smoke and gas do not burn).

– The method of inhibiting (suppression) fire is disabling the activation of the operational center of the fire chain reaction. The substances used to extinguish the fire by this method include some kinds of fire extinguishing powders.

In the 4 methods above, the methods of cooling, reducing concentrations of reactant combustion and isolation are effective methods in terms of physiology. In fact the work of firefighting often uses a combination of methods. In which, there is always one method that plays a key role while the remaining methods are only supplementary.

3. Fire-fighting measures:

In the tactics, there are 4 fighting methods:

– – Fire-fighting measure by the fire

– – Fire-fighting measure the circumference

– – Fire-fighting measure by area

– – Fire-fighting measure by volume

– Fire-fighting measure by the fire: It is applied when it is necessary to control the fire not to continue to grow. In this case, fire fighting commander deploys forces and means at the perimeter of the fire section where the fire spread occurs. Then, conduct to extinguish every part of the area, gradually the fire completely.

– Fire-fighting measure by the circumference: It is applied when the forces and means of fire fighting afford to extinguish the entire area of the fire, or the fire is growing in all directions and the thread of the fire is equal to all directions. If we do not extinguish the fire in all directions, the fire will grow and cause serious consequences. This case requires the mobilization of a large numbers of forces and vehicles to be able to extinguish the fire in the perimeter.

– Fire-fighting measure by area: It is applied when fighting forces are capable of spraying fire fighting materials on the entire area of the fire.

– The adoption of fire fighting measures by the fire perimeter and area depends on the characteristics of the fire as well as the ability of forces and means of fire fighting.

For example, for a liquid fire, we can only apply the fire fighting measure by the area. For a solid fire, it is always ineffective when you apply the fire fighting measure by the area. The effect of water nozzles is limited (10 m for stationed monitors, 5m for portable monitors). Thus, despite the enough forces and means of fire fighting, we can not spray fire fighting materials simultaneously on the entire area of the fire.

– Fire-fighting measure by volume: It is used when we extinguish the fire with inert gas or air bubbles. This method is very effective against fires in closed rooms or basements in cables, tunnels that are not too large.

– In fact, fire fighting applies diverse measures such as spraying directly onto the surface of the fire, spraying on a point, spraying the entire flammable surface…

– Fire fighting measures should be very diverse. It depends on the specific circumstances to adopt a flexible and affordable way to attain high fighting efficiency.

4. The general principles of fire fighting activity:

– The spread of the fire is the direction of the fire spreading quickly. The direction of the fire depends on the wind direction, the direction of air exchange in a fire and how to arrange the type of fire materials and the nature of the substances in the fire.

– The direction to extinguish the fire is the direction that is concentrated by forces and means, attention of the commander. Determining the direction is based on the following scenarios:

– Stop the fire to rescue the victims.

– Stop the fire to spread to areas where flammable, explosive, toxic materials are likely to cause great harms.

– Prevent the fire from spreading to the region to multiple documents and high-value goods.

– Prevent the fire from continuing to spread to the next section which is likely to lead to a large fire.

– Block the development direction of the fire.

Stopping the spread of fire needs:

– Quickly deploy fire fighting sprinklers in the original direction of the fire and prevent the fire development.

– Collapse parts of buildings in order to lower the fire, limit the fire spread or to create distances to stop the fire.

– Remove the fire materials in front of the fire to create physical distance to stop the fire spread.

– The first water nozzles are used to control the spread of fire, protect and check when moving the area to rescue people and understand the situation. Thus, they have a large impact on the efficiencies and results of fire fighting.

– When fighting, participating units should always take precautions to protect those involved fighting, who were trapped in a fire, properties, materials, facilities not to spray water.

– When fighting if necessary, the commander fighting must open holes for drainage of smoke and louvers to reduce the concentration of smoke creating favorable conditions for rescue and firefighting. You must pay attention to the minimum ability to fire spread and development.

Contact Info
Phat Minh Vuong Security Services Company Limited
40/18 Tran Nao Street, District 2, Ho Chi Minh City
Tel: 08- 3740 7026 – 27; Fax: 08- 3740 7028
Email: hcm@pmvs.com.vn
Website: www.pmvs.com.vn