Firefighter - 2020 - 20

INDUSTRY

The Villages Fire Rescue

FIRE GROUND VENTILATION FOR

By Christopher Burris

THE ROOKIE

Today's fires are burning hotter and with higher velocity than ever before in the history of firefighting.

This rapid development of heat and
gases requires a solid understanding
and practice in effective and properly
coordinated ventilation. This ventilation
removes heat, toxic gasses, and can
increase victim survivability, as well as
increase overall safety and functionality
for Firefighters inside the structure. That's
easy to say, but how is it done, why is it
done, and when do you do it? Do they
just walk up and pop open the closest
window, or is there more to it? These
are all topics we're going to explore and
hopefully along the way we can expel
some myths about ventilation to build
some confidence.

WHAT IS VENTILATION?
A simple question with a simple
answer backed with a lot of complex
chemistry and physics. Ventilation
is the removal of air from one
environment in order to improve its
condition. This movement is either
natural or facilitated and can have a
direct impact on conditions inside an
enclosed space. Let's put that into the
perspective of firefighting. When a fire
starts in a building, it produces heat,
smoke, pressure, and toxic gasses.
The produced heat travels through the
building in the forms of convection
and radiation. This increase in heat

stimulates the products inside to begin
to break down and release flammable
gasses (off gassing). These flammable
gasses then ignite and produce more
heat, which then releases smoke. The
release of both gas and smoke increase
the atmospheric pressure inside the
building. The increase in pressure
through the principle of atmospheric
diffusion allows the convected heat to
travel further and increase the cycle
throughout the space. This process is
the basis of the fire tetrahedron. The
remaining parts are ignition, and oxygen
supply. With products in homes today,
the fires are able to burn much faster at

Firefighter - 2020

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