Review of foreign websites on fire safety topics.

Review of foreign sites on fire topics.

The concept of «fire topics» is quite broad. It includes training of preschoolers (basics of life safety), and discussion of the specifics of remuneration of helicopter pilots when extinguishing oil tankers, and description of communication equipment suitable for work in a fire.
Personally, I am closer to equipment, especially electronic, no matter whether for radio communication or for adaptive control of the pump in a mobile hand fire hose. However, I will start the review with sites dedicated not to equipment at all, but to fire department employees.

http://firerescue1.

An overseas portal (online newspaper) dedicated to firefighters, rescuers, their work and equipment. What do they write about? For example, a much-discussed article about the positive results of introducing strict standards for construction in fire-hazardous areas in California. California is famous for its forest or prairie fires in the dry summer months. In most cases, when a wildfire threatens to approach, the population is completely evacuated. However, people usually stay in houses built according to fire safety requirements and protective landscape planning. Some inconveniences associated with smoked walls of the house are, of course, trifles compared to evacuation for several days and the risk of losing the entire house and all property. True, the corresponding construction solutions are quite expensive and are currently used only in luxury communities, the owners of which have something to protect.
Another issue under discussion is the need to strictly adhere to strict work standards, even if the fire brigade has not seen anything more dangerous than burning garbage cans in its practice for several years. It is precisely by getting used to the permissibility of minor, and then major deviations from the norms in the event of a real danger that rescuers suffer huge losses.
So, let's move on to a related site created by the government administration: http://firefighternearmiss/

A site for collecting messages about cases where «it got away with it.» Real serious fires with many victims are rare, and it is unclear to what extent the victims are caused by errors, and to what extent by objective reasons. And who would dare to condemn heroes, especially fallen heroes.
This site describes much more common situations where a mistake or violation of standards led to a dangerous situation, but everything turned out okay. The fire was not too serious, colleagues corrected the mistake, nothing happened. These are the cases that are analyzed by recognized experts (without publicly indicating who made the mistake and when) and discussed on the site.
For example, such a description: «One of the fire brigade fighters forgot his contact lenses that day, but still took off his glasses when putting on a protective mask and did not warn his colleagues. In the burning building, he was unable to correctly navigate using the thermal imager and led his partner into an area with an unacceptably high temperature. Fortunately, he ran into an obstacle, his partner realized that he could not see anything, and took the thermal imager himself. The fire, fortunately, developed slowly enough, and despite the loss of time, they managed to leave the danger zone before the air supply devices turned off.»

From this site, by following the link to the recommended training simulator, we get to http://flame-sim/pricing/demo.php

This site allows interactive modeling of fire development, playing out different scenarios depending on the actions of the fire brigade, and teaches the correct techniques. Fully functional software works in conjunction with a remote control like a game console, allows you to customize the appearance to match the terrain, climate, and appearance of a specific fire brigade, so that trainees do not feel like they are in an alien world.
More formal sites belong to public associations. Such associations, as is known, are very numerous and they play a very important role, often more significant than government departments.

http://vcos.org/
A site dedicated to volunteer or combined fire brigades, rescue teams and paramedics. Volunteer brigades have traditionally played a very large role in the United States: this includes the National Guard (military reserve units), the sheriff's system with its usually half-paid law enforcement assistants, and fire brigades that assemble only when necessary.
This site contains a lot of useful information on organizing voluntary service, as well as a rich set of links to useful sites — http://vcos.org/links.html. From here we go to the site of the «parent» organization — the association of fire chiefs:

http://iafc.org/

This public association, created in 1873, actually manages the work of more than 1.2 million firefighters and rescuers in several countries. By the way, in our review in North America, we will regularly encounter «national» and «international» organizations. The former are strictly limited to the United States or Canada, and the latter usually extend their influence to both the United States and Canada, and often to Mexico. But, in fact, due to the dominant number of US residents, the most important region for all of these organizations is the United States.
What do we find in the «news» section of this site? For example, a call for vigilance: «Although there are no clear signals of possible terrorist attacks, the upcoming presidential elections, the subsequent change of administration, as well as the growing economic turmoil combined with the traditional pre-holiday chaos are a compelling enough reason to increase the readiness of rescue teams, especially in large population centers. The Association recommends updating emergency plans, checking readiness for coordination with law enforcement and local governments, and assessing the possible consequences of large gatherings of people in the proposed gathering places.»
It is also recommended not to miss the upcoming second edition of the «Guide to Measures of Protection against Terrorism».

http://iaff.org/

Firefighters Association. Unlike the Association of Fire Chiefs, this association is more like a public organization, its goal is not only (and not even so much) to protect society from fires, but also to protect the firefighters themselves from the stupidity, greed and incompetence of local authorities.
In the news — a message about the approval by the Department of Security (analogous to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, deals with the coordination of police forces and anti-terrorist organizations and civil defense, firefighters and rescuers) of standards of competence of rescuers and paramedics in relation to hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction. This is a set of topics on which all employees must undergo training and pass exams. There are many such standards, now they have also added on weapons of mass destruction.

The next interesting site is http://firewise.org/
This site is a joint initiative of a number of organizations (both governmental and public), designed to inform building owners, builders, and local government activists about ways to reduce the danger of «wild fires» (forest, steppe, etc.). It is not only about proper planning of buildings and landscapes, but also about organizing response forces, and maintaining fire safety measures in proper condition on a daily basis.

The site contains a lot of information for a wide range of people, everyone who can, in their own place, influence the overall level of fire protection.

Finally, we move on to even more official organizations.
http://nfpa.org/

National Fire Protection Association. A public organization that unites both other public organizations and enterprises in various industries — construction, production of protective equipment, electrical engineering. It is this association that is the developer of most national codes, subsequently approved by the Department of Safety. In particular, the aforementioned standards of competence of rescuers in relation to weapons of mass destruction were also developed by NFPA, and the department (DHS) only approved them.
On this site you can find and buy many interesting regulations and manuals on fire safety.

Actually, the site of the administration for fire protection http://usfa.dhs.gov/
This government organization is part of the emergency management agency, which, in turn, is part of the department of security.
http://fema.gov/

http://dhs.gov

Well, enough about the official strict sites, plastered with single-headed eagles. Let's move on to more lively sites, where real working people communicate.
http://fama.org/about/
Association of manufacturers of equipment for fighting fires.

The main issue being discussed is SAFE TRUCKS SAVE LIVES. Fire trucks are fast, but they are filled with water or foam (an extremely unstable structure), crews of firefighters are rushed into them and are loaded with equipment that will save their lives in a burning building, but will not help them survive a car accident.
Here is a very interesting website:
http://iccsafe.org/

The International Advisory Council is a relatively young organization compared to NFPA, which has international status and is actively creating a new generation of standards (codes) in the field of building safety, in particular in relation to fires.
The association, as always, is very informal, its requirements are not mandatory in themselves, but they are usually approved by local authorities (at the state or city level) — it is not possible to conduct their own research in each village.
One of the latest amendments to the building safety code, adopted by this organization, is very controversial and caused a wave of discussions (of course, not on the organization's website).
The point is that all newly constructed residential buildings, including single-family homes, must have sprinkler fire extinguishing systems installed starting January 1, 2011. The history of this requirement is quite long. And a fair amount of time has been made ahead so that builders can learn how to install such systems, and engineers-specialists in the design and maintenance of sprinkler systems have been trained.
The most severe requirement, in our opinion (even fire alarms are not actually mandatory even in multi-apartment multi-story residential buildings) is explained by the fact that statistical data for the period from 2000 to 2004 show that 34% of deaths from fire occurred in buildings with working alarms. This is more than in the previous period, when it was 24%. And as alarm systems age, we can only guess how much their effectiveness will fall. Especially since most people are too lazy to even change the batteries in autonomous detectors.
However, the National Association of Builders
http://nahb.org/
demands that this decision be reviewed as not sufficiently taking into account the interests of all parties.

They claim that the Sprinkler Action Group (a specially formed advocacy group pushing for the legislation) unfairly secured a monopoly vote during the final council meeting before the vote.
Here is the advocacy group's website:
http://ircfiresprinkler.org/

This advocacy group is actively supported by the NFPA. This initiative by NFPA has become the first since the famous (to some it is famous, but for me it was the first time I heard about it. – A.O.) campaign of 2006 for safe cigarettes – http://firesafecigarettes.org/

This initiative group demands a ban on cigarettes that do not meet fire safety requirements. It must be said that this group has not achieved such decisive success as the group in support of sprinklers. Its initiative is partially supported by the authorities of only a few states. Apparently, at least sprinkler manufacturers are interested in the sprinkler initiative, while no industry is interested in safe cigarettes, and therefore this initiative does not have sufficient financial support.

A heated discussion of the sprinkler initiative is taking place, for example, on the website of this magazine:
http://firehouse/

This is a paper magazine, but, like all modern magazines, it is well represented on the Internet and not only posts its latest issues there, but also organizes Internet communities of interest.

Another paper magazine is http://fireengineering/magazine/current_issue.html

There is also a serious public group of firefighting experts around his site, who have created their own advisory council.
http://community.fireengineering/

You can read, for example, the blogs (personal journals) of these experts.
http://pennwellblogs/fireengineering/

There, in particular, there is also a wide discussion of whether sprinkler systems are really useful in small houses or their effectiveness is greatly exaggerated by those interested in increasing the volume of sprinkler production.

Another magazine and its website:

http://fentonmagazine

This is a Canadian magazine, the process of legislative initiatives there is somewhat less active, on the pages of the magazine and the website they mainly discuss issues of organizing the fire service.

And another website of a paper magazine, again from the USA –
http://firerescuemagazine/

All the websites of magazines, in addition to the articles themselves, are also good for lists of advertisers (with links to their websites), and among them there are always all the main manufacturers of equipment. In addition, there are sections of links to many interesting websites on the specialty.

A magazine aimed at fire brigade chiefs –

http://firechief/

And here is an English publisher, publishing 3 magazines, including for Asian readers, all articles are available online.
Here is the most Asian magazine of the three — http://mdmpublishing/Mags/default.aspx?mag=apf

The last article is about the specifics of the fire alarm market in the Pacific region.

The article analyzes the development of national standards through the stage of simple copying of European and American standards to the modern stage of taking into account the specifics of large-scale industrial construction, which is developing so rapidly in the main East Asian countries.
As in the rest of the world, one of the main problems is the fight against false alarms. Large volumes of valuables or high-tech equipment concentrated in one place must be reliably protected from fire by automatic fire extinguishing systems. However, a false start of extinguishing itself can cause damage commensurate with a fire.

But the measures proposed in this standard are nothing new for us: automatic re-query of the sensor status and extinguishing start only upon alarm from two detectors.

Two other magazines are aimed at European readers
http://mdmpublishing/Mags/default.aspx?mag=iff– is dedicated to the work of firefighters (fire fighting).

http://mdmpublishing/Mags/default.aspx?mag=ifp

Dedicated to automatic fire extinguishing and fire alarm technology.
It also discusses the reform of fire safety regulations that began in 2005.
If previously in Britain all buildings (especially public ones) were issued a fire safety certificate based on an examination of their condition, now certificates have been cancelled. However, all owners of buildings for both industrial and entertainment purposes, residential buildings, including even owners of single-family single-storey houses or semi-detached townhouses so popular in England — all owners of all houses are obliged to conduct an analysis of possible causes of fire, possible materials that will burn, sources of oxygen for combustion, possible consequences of fire and develop a risk reduction plan and consistently implement new and new measures to reduce the risk. That is, instead of a certificate, each building must have a Risk Assessment document developed by the person responsible for the building.

http://communities.gov.uk/fire/firesafety/firesafetylaw/
Here is the website with this order and subsequent clarifying documents.
As always in old democratic states, this order from the central government is not mandatory; local governments can adopt their own, but, as a rule, they only tighten the requirements locally, taking into account local specifics.
In addition to the very short directive on the need to conduct a fire risk assessment, the site contains dozens of guidelines, even more non-binding, recommending how exactly to conduct a risk assessment in different types of buildings.
A characteristic English feature. Documents are formally even advisory only in England and Wales (remember, England is actually only a small part of Great Britain, which we are accustomed to indiscriminately calling England). However, it is not difficult to guess that Scotland and Ireland do not have their own research centers and the same guidelines are used there quite voluntarily.
Another characteristic feature of English lawmaking. The specified document can be obtained in alternative formats, for example, in audio format or printed in Braille.

Here is confirmation of the effectiveness of such “voluntary” — for example, the county (county) of Cornwall simply posted the recommendations in full on its website, indicating that they are mandatory in the county.

http://cornwall.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1391
The main website of the government agency for fire fighting is http://fire.org.uk/
The most recent document, currently being discussed, is the recommended measures to reduce false alarms.

Almost all calls to the fire brigade as a result of the automatic alarm system being triggered turn out to be false. The recommended measures to reduce false alarms, as strange as it may seem, do not concern technical measures to improve alarm systems, but the procedure for concluding contracts between building owners and monitoring centers (in our language, PCN), and those, in turn, with local fire brigades. In particular, users are advised to either agree to the procedure for confirming alarms by phone, or pay for false calls to the fire brigade. It is assumed that building owners themselves will quickly find out that it is cheaper to install a modern addressable system with multi-criteria sensors and constant self-monitoring than to pay for false calls.
As for technical measures, they are described in the rather old standard BS 5839-1:2002 — Limitation of false alarms. You can find it on the same British Standards Institute website that we advertised last year. However, if you wish, you can purchase them through the Russian Research Institute of Standardization or through dozens of commercial organizations, including immediately with translation into Russian.

Emergency Services website — Rescuers and Firefighters. http://frsonline.fire.gov.uk/
It should be noted that the fire services in Great Britain have a very complex structure. There are state-owned, centrally controlled from London — they mainly monitor large strategic cities, especially important enterprises and government facilities. There are municipal services, which are primarily responsible for the main territory of the country. They rely heavily on volunteers outside the state, who are called in the event of a major fire or for regular training and duty. There are also private firefighters as part of commercial security services.
Industry. Let's now move on to the industry closest to me personally — automatic fire alarm systems. What's new on the websites of the pillars of industry, what are they proud of, what do they advertise?

Tyco
http://tycofireandsecurity/Internet/firedetection.jsp
A huge corporation that has united many of the most famous companies in the field of security and fire safety under its umbrella in recent years.
In particular, in terms of fire safety, the key trademark is Simplex-Grinnell.

http://simplexgrinnell/fire/products/breakthru.jsp
What are they proud of at Simplex?
TrueAlert™ Intelligent Fire Notification For The 21st Century.
Addressable alarms. Apparently, no one is surprised by addressable alarms anymore; addressable alarms are now in fashion.

A new series of detectors, with built-in alarms, with a new design and with the maximum possible set of alarm types. In particular, a two-beam optical detector (see picture), capable of distinguishing steam from smoke and different types of smoke.

The second technologically advanced detector from ESSER is the so-called blue sensor. Instead of conventional IR radiation, it uses a blue LED, which allows detecting smoke much earlier, including smoke with very small particles, which is fundamentally undetectable by IR sensors, for example, smoke from an open fire on wood.
Here it should be remembered that the European standard considers 8 different types of smoke and proposes to protect against the most probable ones in a specific place, unlike our fire alarm systems, which allow the universal installation of a single type of detector tuned to the smoke of «smoldering cotton».

Another feature of the new series of detectors is the availability of versions with built-in alarms, both conventional light (flashes), sound (sirens), and voice alarms in the detector body.
Finally, the most famous, one might say, almost entirely Russian manufacturer is System-Sensor. But we will look at its American website, and not at the website of the Russian branch.

http://systemsensor/flex/
The first advertised new product is a device for mounting a sensor for monitoring air in air ducts. A tube is inserted into the duct, taking part of the flow and carefully directing it to a regular sensor.

Detects not only smoke, but also gas (carbon monoxide), and heat (maximum differential), and flame (optical sensor). Strictly speaking, it has been advertised for several years, including on the Russian website «System-Sensor», but it is still a very interesting device, although it uses a short-lived electrochemical CO sensor. The biggest drawback of this sensor (as well as advanced ESSER sensors) is the complicated relationship with the fire safety system. The existing rules do not contain direct recommendations for the use of multi-criteria detectors. Therefore, from the fire safety system point of view, they are usually carried out as «smoke optical» with additional means to reduce the likelihood of false alarms, which, of course, does not allow for the full effective use of all their capabilities.