WAYNE’S STUFF 32
FROM A WEB SITE
Salvage Tools
The true reason of forming fire companies during 1700's and early 1800's was preservation of property. The personnel protective equipment did not exist nor were there telephones to report alarms to make a difference in saving lives.
Being rescued from inside a burning was very unlikely. On the other hand, buildings were not as tall nor filled with plastics and other modern day combustibles. Often early bylaws of fire companies stated that members had to have a number of fire buckets and a large linen bag at the ready at all times to respond to a fire. Insurance companies often paid the fire companies for extinguishing the fire. Money served as the reward and encouragement to put the fire out quickly. This would save the insurance company money on claims for property.
In colonial days if the fire company could save anything from being burned it prevented great personal disaster to the victims and was a major triumph for the fire company. Saving a barn and the feed may prevent your animals from starving and dying. In colonial days these were your livelihood. Saving beds were very important. It took months to have a bed made or later ordered from a catalog, if you even had the money to buy a bed. Therefore a "bed key" would be carried by colonial fire companies to take apart beds. The bed key was more like a wrench than a lock cylinder type key.
Paid departments were formed in the mid to late 1800's basically to stop the fights between fire volunteer companies on who was going to put out the fire. Often the building burned while the companies brawled. The first company to put water on the fire got paid a bonus by the insurance companies. So as a result of the cities having paid fire departments, salvage companies were formed. Insurance companies paid for salvage companies to respond and save the contents of their insured buildings along side the city's paid fire fighters. The paid departments were ensuring that the town didn't burn to the ground while the salvage companies saved property's contents of the insured building.
There are very few separate salvage companies responding on the first alarm today. Most salvage companies are private board-up services and fire restoration companies that come to the scene after the fire is out. These private companies services often will be covered by the building owner's insurance companies as a post fire claim.
Today most fire companies are able to stop or reduce the water damage as they fight the fire. With the use of nozzles equipped with shut off valves and the use of salvage covers, water damage can be limited and or controlled. Additional smoke damage is controlled by prompt ventilation.
DO YOU KNOW ..............
FROM A WEB SITE
One problem that has plagued fire fighters for centuries has been breathing in oxygen deficient and smoky atmospheres.
During and since World War II, new protective breathing equipment was developed and others have been improved.¹ >From the what amounts to be the first edition of the IFSTA Protective Breathing Training Book published in 1955 (researched for the book started in 1953), they were able to include information of three types of protective breathing equipment.
1. The self-contained type which consisted of the a) oxygen generating, b) demand regulator, c) oxygen re-breathing.
2. The filter type.
3. The supplied air type.
The supplied air type is basically a face piece with a long hose attached to an air supply (either air pump or cylinder) outside the hazard area. This type of setup is used in confined space rescues and for supplying air to the bucket during long term laddertower operation
NOTE BELOW WAS THE TYPE OF MASKS WE USED IN DETROIT IN THE 60S,. OURS WERE MADE BY MSA
Willson Permissible Universal Gas Mask Type WUG-N1. This mask was placed into service May 1948. This was a canister type filter respirator. It is basically a World War II gas mask fitted with a canister rated for fire fighting. The National Safety Council, the United States Bureau of Mines, and the American Standard Association set standards for the canisters of all filter masks and set the color coding of the different canisters. This group set the color standard for the fire fighting canister as an all red canister. This canister had several types of filters and chemicals inside to filter out and/or absorb the toxic chemicals.
There was only two problems with this canister. It was rated for only 2-3% of each chemical and could only be used in an atmosphere of at least 16% or greater of oxygen. A fire will consume oxygen to a much lower level. Other canisters for industry could handle higher concentrations of certain chemicals but no one canister could do high concentrations of all possible chemicals found in a fire. . The filter canister looks very much like the green Chemox canister except that it is painted all red. This unit has a mask with a hose running to the filter canister which was worn on the from of the chest.
NOTE I USED THE BELOW MASK ONCE IN A SUB BASEMENT IN THE 60S, I DIDN'T HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH IT.
MSA Chemox or Navy Breather. Chemox is a reference to the oxygen producing chemical in the canister.² The Chemox units had a canister that generated oxygen from the moisture in the breath of the user. There were two exposed soft bags or lungs that stored the oxygen for the user. The lungs and canister were worn on the chest of the user. To start the unit you would insert the canister by screwing a clamp at the bottom which would force the top into a piercing device. This was known as lighting off the unit. You would have to inflate the lungs. This would "prime" the unit. The moisture in the storage lungs would start the chemical reaction. Then you would put the mask on. Once you started breathing into the mask, your breath was routed into the canister were the moisture would continue reacting with the chemicals releasing more oxygen and at the same time absorbing carbon dioxide.
The units had a manual timer that the user would have to set when he lit off his canister. The timers could be set to 60 minutes. However the canisters were only rated for 45 minutes. The canister generated a great deal of heat during the chemical reaction. The user was protected by an air space provided in the chest harness thus keeping the canister away from the body. Disposal of the canister today is considered hazardous waste. THE United States Navy is still using the Chemox breathers on board their ships as of 1998).
THERE ARE demand only, pressure/demand, and positive pressure units.
Demand is air supplied only when the user takes a breath. If there is a leak in the seal of the mask the user could inhale toxic gases. Positive pressure provides the user with a slight positive pressure of air in the mask at times. If there is a leak the air will leak out of the mask instead of letting toxic gases in the mask.
Only positive pressure air packs are permit to be used in the fire service today. These air packs had two valves; a shut off valve and an emergency bypass valve. With the exception of the Scott 2.2 air packs which had a special fail open regulator that eliminated the need for an emergency bypass valve. The Scott 2.2 air packs also had a vibralarm the "buzzed" the face mask in stead of a low air warning bell. Scott 2.2 and 4.5 air packs are Scott's most up-to-date air pack on the market today (as of 11/97).
The original air packs used steel air cylinders or bottles. In order to cut the weight of the air packs the manufactures were able to make aluminum air cylinders. Today, the air cylinders are made of composite aluminum fiberglass wrapped cylinder which are lighter than the all aluminum cylinders. The weight of an air pack and cylinder weighs from 19 lb. for a composite 30 minute cylinder to 35 lb. for a unit with a 60 minute rated cylinder. The 45 minute cylinder and apparatus weigh 29.5 lb. and hold 65.6 cubic feet (1857 liters) of compressed breathing air.
The air cylinders are refilled by a cascade system or an air compressor. A cascade system is a series of larger compressed air cylinders connected in series. Gas pressure will flow from high pressure to low pressure until both cylinders equalize. At that point you close the large supply cylinder valve and open the next supply cylinder with a higher pressure until they equalize. You continue "cascading" through the bank of cylinders until the smaller cylinder is full or you can no longer increase the pressure of the smaller cylinder.
FROM A WEB SITE
Axes
One of the basic fire fighting tools is the axe.
The basic types are the flat head ax and the
pick head ax commonly known as the fireman's ax.
The flat head ax is a long handle ax that has a flat head opposite the blade. Looks very much like a single bladed wood's man ax. The flat surface is used to strike other prying tools in a sledge hammer like fashion.
Some very early version of pick head axes or fire axes look like battle axes from the middle ages. In some countries a modern smaller version is still used.
Another style of ax is the crash ax. They come in two basic shapes. The blade can either curved as like an backward "S" and the other is curved like the outer edge of a segment of a 90 degree slice of a circle. Both are designed to "chop" into metal cars or airplanes and work like a can opener.
In the past was a pompier ax. This is a small ax more like a hatchet. It was intended to be carried on a pompier belt (ladder safety belt).
Also in use is the Pry ax. The Pry ax is a small multi-function tool. A small ax blade, claw for prying, and the handle comes apart to assist in prying or to be used as a slide hammer. It can also remove nails, shut off gas cock valves. There is a Beil Tools which is very similar in design and function but the handle is flat instead of being round and some other minor differences.
FROM A WEB SITE
Gloves
The first gloves used for fire fighting were probability the members
own work gloves. Sometime during the 1950-1960's Fire Departments
started using what were locally known as red-ball gloves or fireball
gloves like most of the country. These gloves were a thin, bright red,
plastic coated glove. Before scotch-lite on the coats these were the
brightest thing on a fire fighter in the dark. The plastic coating help
kept the hands dry during very minor handling of hose such as when
picking up after a fire. However they offered very little protection for
temperature either hot or cold. They offered very little protection
against cuts, glass, or nails. The wristlets were very short which exposed
your wrist while working and they quickly got stretched out. This would
permit water to run down your arm and fill up your gloves. Since the
gloves were very often wet, your hand were subject to steam burns, and
your wrists would just be burn from touching hot objects often found
inside a burning building. But the real problem was if a fire fighter was
caught in a flashover the gloves would melt and stick to the skin. This
prevented the removal of the gloves which worsen the burns.
(NOTE: WHEN WE CARRIED OUT A BURNED BOX SPRING MATTRESS THE HOT WIRE IN THE BOX SPRINGS MELTED INTO OUR RED BALL GLOVES)
DO YOU KNOW:
During the 1970's, engine blocks on automobiles (mostly the original Volkswagen Beetle) were commonly made of magnesium.
REMEMBER HOW THEY FLARED UP WHEN YOU APPLIED WATER
During the 1980's the tail boards got smaller to prevent firemen from riding on the backend.
In the early 1990's the state also made a law that fire fighters must be fully dressed and in seat belts before the truck can respond.
FROM A WEB SITE
NOTE: BACK IN THE 60S WE HAD THAT SMALL ELBOW WE ATTATCHED TO THE TIP OF THE HARDIE GUN, ON TRUCKS, AND SHOT A SPRAY OF WATER, TO TRY TO PUT OUT A CHIMNEY FIRE . WE STUCK IT UP THE CLEANOUT IN THE BASEMENT
Chimney Brushes
Some departments carry an assortment of chimney brushes to help clear creosote clogged chimneys during a fire.
Others may use chains to knock down the burning creosote from inside the chimney liner. Use of water is discouraged to prevent from cracking the liner of the chimney any more than has already been done so by the fire.
Some departments use a Chim-flex extinguishing flare to aid in the extinguishment of a chimney fire. The chemicals in the
smoke of a Chim-flex help extinguish and break up the creosote in the chimney.
On severely damaged or clogged chimneys they dropp plastic bags of dry chemical extinguishing powder down the chimney.
They also have a small fine water spray piercing nozzle that we can place down the chimney and try to punch a hole through the creosote to extinguish the fire. Of course this will ensure that the chimney has to be rebuilt.
Hooks
Hooks serve the same purpose today as they did 200 years ago. Originally hooks were grappling hooks on a chain. Today hooks have evolved into a family of tools that can be describe as a long handle with a hook on the end.
The handles coming inlengths from 3' to 14'. Some have "D" handles for better gripping, but most are just straight poles. The hook or head comes in different shapes and sizes often with it's own name.
There are pike poles (the standard hook), eck-hooks used for ripping down plaster walls, drywall hooks, and so on. The poles are made of wood and still are today. Since about the early 1970's, fiberglass handles started to be sold. Both wood and fiberglass handles are commonly in use today.
The purpose of the hook is to rip apart objects to get at the fire and to separate the burning material from the unburned material. In colonial days they were used to rip down walls, chimneys, and straw roofs all from the outside to ground level so that the fire could be extinguished.
Today we use hooks to pull ceilings and walls to get at the fire in the void spaces of a
house. We also use them to rip part trash piles, bedding and alike.
They range in size from 3' (the closet hook for working in tight places) to the standard 6' and 8' hooks. Ladder trucks oftencarry more hooks than engines (hence the name hook & ladders companies)