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INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY SHAPING GLOBAL FIRE SERVICES
FIRE SERVICES JOURNAL TAKES A LOOK AT SOME OF THE MOST ADVANCED TECH GEAR AVAILABLE TO FIREFIGHTERS ON
THE MARKET
FEATURE
Firefighting techniques break down into a few categories: Preemptive, suppressive, and survival. Preemptive technologies work to prevent a fire before they begin.
Suppressive technologies are techniques employed to douse flames which have already begun burning.
Finally, in worst case situations, survival technologies work to save firefighters and civilians from potentially deadly scenarios. Let’s take a look at some of the more innovative technologies currently being tested or which are being rolled-out to fire services.
FIREFIGHTING
TECHNIQUES BREAK DOWN INTO A
FEW CATEGORIES: PREEMPTIVE, SUPPRESSIVE, AND SURVIVAL.
Sweden’s futuristic
firefighting helmet
The C-Thru firefighting helmet presents a futuristic protection device which integrates many technologies. Somewhat similar to a fighter pilot's helmet, certain information is projected onto the lens providing a useful heads-up display including information like temperature, remaining oxygen, and C02 levels. A thermal imaging camera can also be
implemented to enable firefighters to retain visibility even in thick smoke.
Fire shelters made from
space-age materials
Following the tragic fire of Yarnell Hill in Arizona, 2013, NASA Langley Research Centre launched a collaborative initiative with the U.S. Forest Service to see if their space-age technology could provide a shelter to save firefighters.
So far NASA engineers have developed shelters with a thickness of less than a millimetre. The lightest prototypes weigh just 4.3 pounds (1.95 kg) and can be packed up into a space the size of a half-gallon milk
container. NASA anticipates publishing their findings sometime this year with hopes to launch the shelters later in 2018.
According to NASA “The technology that protects spacewalking astronauts may soon be available to firefighters on the ground through the development of an advanced suit offering greater protection, endurance, mobility and better communications.”
Fires kill more than 5,000 people each year in the U.S. alone. Almost 30,000 more are injured.
For firefighters, those numbers reach 100 and 100,000 respectively. NASA has long
C-THRU HELMET
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