PROVING THE NEED FOR FIREFIGHTER STAFFING:

A new study issued today by NIST shows that the size of firefighting crews has a substantial effect on our ability to protect lives and property in residential fires.

 
The study found that four FF firefighting crews were able to complete 22 essential firefighting and rescue tasks in a typical residential structure 30% faster than two-person crews and 25 percent faster than three-person crews. 

The report is the first modern report to quantify the effects of FF crew sizes and arrival times on the fire service's job of rescue and firefighting operations for residential fires.

SIMPLY PUT:

The four-person crews were able to deliver water to a similar-sized fire 15 percent faster than the two-person crews and 6 percent faster than three-person crews, steps that help to reduce property damage and lower danger to the Firefighters. 

"Our experiments directly address 2 primary objectives of firefighters: extinguishing the fire and rescuing occupants," said Lori Moore-Merrell of the IAFF, a principal investigator on the study and long time Secret List member.

The four-person crews were able to complete search and rescue 30 percent faster than two-person crews and 5 percent faster than three-person crews, Moore-Merrell explained. Five-person crews were faster than four-person crews in several key tasks. The benefits of five-person crews have also been documented by other researchers for fires in medium- and high-hazard structures, such as high-rise buildings, commercial properties, factories and warehouses.

NIST researchers and their fire service partners conducted more than 60 controlled fire experiments to determine the relative effects of crew size, the arrival time of the first fire crews, and the "stagger," or spacing, between the arrivals of successive waves of fire-fighting apparatus (vehicles and equipment). The stagger time simulates the typically later arrival of crews from more distant stations as compared to crews from more nearby stations.

Crews of two, three, four and five firefighters were timed as they performed 22 standard firefighting and rescue tasks to extinguish a live fire in the test facility. Those standard tasks included occupant search and rescue, time to put water on fire, and laddering and ventilation. Apparatus arrival time, the stagger between apparatus, and crew sizes were varied.

The fire modeling simulations demonstrated that two-person, late-arriving crews can face a fire that is twice the intensity of the fire faced by five-person, early arriving crews. Additionally, the modeling demonstrated that trapped occupants receive less exposure to toxic combustion products-such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide-if the firefighters arrive earlier and involve three or more persons per crew.

"The results of the field experiments apply only to fires in low-hazard residential structures as described in the NFPA Standard 1710, but it provides a strong starting point," said Moore-Merrell. Future research could extend the findings of the report to quantify the effects of crew size and apparatus arrival times in medium- and high-hazard structures, she said.

The next step for them is to develop a training package for Firefighters and public officials that would enable them to have both quantitative and qualitative understanding of the research, a project also funded by FEMA's Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program. THATS THE KEY.

The Report ( 50 pages plus appendices and references)  on Residential Fireground Field Experiments can be downloaded here.

http://www.nist.gov/bfrl/fire_research/upload/Report-on-Residential-Fireground-Field-Experiments.pdf

The Conclusion page can be downloaded here http://www.nist.gov/bfrl/fire_research/upload/Report-on-Residential-Fireground-Field-Experiments.pdf