Visible smoke conditions. The rescue of occupants

THE RESCUE OF OCCUPANTS

The most important and hazardous duty of a firefighter is the rescue of occupants from buildings involved in fire. These are certain search procedures that will help to find and rescue victims successfully and safely. Completely search each room and make sure that it is empty. Start your search on an outside wall. This will allow you to ventilate by opening windows as soon as possible. Ventilate only if ventilation does not cause spread of fire. Move all furniture, searching behind and under all furniture. Search all closets and cupboards including shower stalls. After searching the room, leave a sign indicating that the room has been searched. Close entry door to room to prevent the spread of fire. Occasionally, pause during search and listen for cries of help or other such signals.

If you find victims inside the building make sure they are safely out. If necessary you may share your breathing apparatus with a person you are rescuing. This is accomplished by removing your facepiece. Place the facepiece on victim’s face, allowing for two or three breaths. Then take two or three breaths yourself. Repeat this procedure until you are both safely out of the building. Shallow breathing will extend the remaining air in the breathing apparatus.

If you become trapped in a hallway or stairs try to move down. Never go up. Conditions will be worse on upper floors. If unable to go down and out, go to a room off the hallway. Close the door behind you. Open the window, call for help or drop available articles out to attract attention.

Smoke conditions will vary according to how burning has progressed. A free-burning fire must be treated differently than one which is in the smoldering stage. A fire which is localized is frequently mistaken for a large fire because of the great volume of smoke. Smoke accompanies most ordinary forms of combustion, and it differs greatly with the nature of the substances of materials being burned. A fire that is just starting and is consuming wood, cloth, and other ordinary materials will ordinarily give off gray-white or blue-white smoke of no great density. As the burning progresses, the density may increase, and the smoke may become darker because of the presence of large quantities of carbon particles.

Black smoke is usually the result of burning rubber, tar, roofing, oil, or other flammable liquids. It is said that brown smoke may indicate nitrous fumes and that gray-yellow smoke is a danger signal of approaching back draft. A firefighter should remember that the materials which smoke contains can only be determined by chemical analysis. Although the smoke colour may be of some value in determining what is burning, it is not always a reliable indicator.

It is sometimes quite easy for firefighters to classify what is burning by distinctive odours, especially during the early stages of the fire. Smoke from burning rubber, rags, pine wood, feathers or grass all have a characteristic odour and will permit a firefighter to determine what kind of material is burning. As the smoke grows denser, irritation to the nasal passages soon decreases the ability of firefighters to recognize odours.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-29