FIRE SAFETY PERFORMANCE USING ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES Article by PJ Mohan ,Sr.Faculty, NIFS

The goal of any fire fighting operation is to

•     To Protect lives and to minimize property loss and injuries.

•     To Protect the firefighter from harmful effects of fire fighting.

•    To improve the operational efficiency of fire equipment and the effectiveness of fire protection.

The existing fire suppression systems, fire sprinkler systems, Fire Detection and alarm systems, Fire hydrant system, Fire extinguishers are continuously getting enhanced from human-based operations to automated and collaborative operations. Since time is very critical in fire fighting operations it is very critical to understand the nature of fire, thermal conditions, distribution of smoke and toxic fumes, hence technology is required to track real-time information, analyze and accordingly give required decisions for firefighters to tackle the fire. Some of the important technologies that would help in this direction are

SMART SENSORS: Sensor technologies are becoming easy to integrate into any system and they are becoming cheap, Firefighters equipped with sensors will help track about their health and their location. Pressure and air sensors in fire hydrant lines will wirelessly transmit information for any problems so that maintenance personnel can immediately attend to it.

CLEAN AGENTS: Halon and HFC systems have high Global warming potential and harm the environment, In order to overcome Global warming potential, environment-friendly products like NOVEC 1230 by 3M are slowly replacing other systems.

WATER MIST SYSTEMS: High-pressure water systems above the range of 500 PSI with specialized nozzles produce fine mist and smaller water droplets which has the potential to rival CO2 flooding systems which are dangerous for people working there and water as a natural resource is easy to get replaced.

DIRECTIONAL SOUNDERS: Conventional alarm devices will tell what to do after an alarm is set off, but these directional sounders use technology to use all frequencies in audible range so that people can comprehend the direction of the sound and escape fire or emergency. Directional sounders tell people where to go.

Once implemented, In order for any new technologies to give acceptable and beneficial results, its adoption and integration into the existing fire fighting operations play a vital role. For this to happen organizations should impart sufficiently required training programmes to all operating personnel with experts for effective and efficient utilization of new technology.