Fire Fighter's Protective Clothing and Thermal Environments of Structural Fire Fighting.
Fire Fighter's Protective Clothing and Thermal
Environments of Structural Fire Fighting.
(1792 K)
Lawson, J. R.
NISTIR 5804; 26 p. August 1996.
Sponsor:
U.S. Fire Administration, Emmitsburg, MD
Available from:
National Technical Information Service
(NTIS), Technology Administration, U.S. Department of
Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161.
Telephone:
1-800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000;
Fax: 703-605-6900; Rush
Service (Telephone Orders Only) 800-553-6847;
Website:
http://www.ntis.gov
Order number: PB98-175128
Keywords:
fire fighters; protective clothing; structures;
environments; heat transfer; burns (injuries); thermal
insulation; fire load; building technology; flashover;
fire data
Abstract:
Fire fighter's protective clothing is designed to
perform several functions. Of these, protection from
heat and flame is one of the most important. Today's
fire fighter protective clothing designs are based on
years of field experience and research studies which
addressed structural fires. Much of this work has
concentrated on the fire environment where a fire
fighter suddenly becomes enveloped in flames. This
exposure generally results in serious life threatening
injuries and sometimes death. Little appears to have
been done to address the conditions where most burn
injuries occur, outside of the flaming envelope. This
paper attempts to define the general thermal environment
at locations where fire fighters stage and begin their
attack on a fire. A great deal of research has been
done to evaluate structural fires as they relate to
building design, materials and contents. Only small
elements of these data have been used in evaluating the
thermal environment around fire fighters during normal
attack situations. Results from early and recent
studies clearly demonstrate the severity of thermal
environments at fire attack staging areas. The flow of
hot gases from a doorway or through a window may be well
above 400 DGC (752 DGF) and may extend tens of meters down
a corridor or across an adjoining room ceiling. Thermal
radiation from a room's open doorway or window may reach
levels which will cause burn injuries to exposed skin
and cause charring or ignition of protective clothing
fabrics which result in burn injuries to protected skin.
Surface temperatures of solids within this staging zone
may easily exceed 100 DGC (212 DGF), and touching these
surfaces without protection could result in a sudden
burn injury. A brief scenario is presented which serves
as an example of how a fire fighter could receive second
degree burns while attacking a fire from outside of the
flaming envelope.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899