When it all comes together
This one’s a little bit hard to describe, but there are moments in life that bear a lot of weight, in whichever way. Yesterday was one such moment. I’d been preparing for a “lift” workshop where the goal ist to free a car trapped underneath a truck. Everything until then had been paperwork, phone calls, e-mails and the like. The moment the trailer was delivered, everything suddenly unwound. It was real.
There’s more depth to this story, but this is not the time and place to dwell on it. I am glad it is over, and I am glad it worked out OK. Today was a huge relief. Oh, and there aren’t many things in life that beat chucking big things onto small things. Here’s a link to the pictures.
Ecto, aptitude test
This is as much a test of ecto, which I’ve just installed, as a wish to show a picture I took last Sunday. These guys are performing a Leistungsprüfung, which is like an aptitude check, with the small difference that it was acted: this is a recreation of a test taken back in 1961, including uniforms, fire engine and the like.
Interesting factoids: the basic Löschgruppe (Team of 9 Firefighters) includes the Löschtrupp (extinguishing team), as it was called then. Today, this attack team is called Angriffstrupp. Apparently, it was then unfashionable, or rather politically incorrect to use the word Angriff. Same goes for the Group Leader, or Gruppenführer. I still find the word Führer somewhat awkward, but have gotten used to it. Back then, this was also a no-no, so that position was called Löschmeister (extinguishing master, literally).
There’s a video of the test here, and some picture here . The aptitude test still exists today, although slightly adapted to modern firefighting. The purpose is to demonstrate that a team is trained and that the equipment is working, also it’s a bit of tradition and comradeship.
Dollhousing
During my visit to FDIC at Indianapolis, I was introduced to a phenomenon which had only recently received adequate attention: Wind Driven Conditions. In essence, it is quite simple: in a high-rise building, the wind presses against an open vented fire. The interior attack team makes entry to the flat and gets cremated in no time. No amount of water will be sufficient, and there’s no time for retreat.
NIST recently performed a series of tests including firefighting options, and this is what I aimed to recreate here. A dollhouse is nothing else than a plywood box which we use to demonstrate fire and smoke behavior.
In this case, I refined the dollhouse with a simulated corridor at the back, which represents the path of attack leading from an interior stairwell. On the A side, I had a turbofan blowing wind into the fire. Here is the resulting flame:
Which shows well why exactly FFs get grilled. So the solution must be to put the fire out initially from the outside, and then opening the door to the burning compartment.
Worked like a breeze, I am really pleased with the outcome.
Buildings and tactics
It would be wrong to dilute varying interior attack firefighting tactics down to one single variable, but it is worthwhile having a look at building structures. Here’s a typical house from around here:
As you can see, it is pretty much all brick, which means any fire is very likely to be compartmentised, ie contained in a single room. That is not to say there is no danger of spread, but it is a lot less likely, which also explains why we might be perceived as being less aggressive. I’d completely agree to that when it comes to ventilation – we usually don’t send a team to the roof to vent, as this won’t improve conditions in the fire room itself. It is an option if the entire building is full of heated smoke.
Incidentally, you might discover some free hanging electrical lines, which are a relic of old times: they tend to be underground, making ladder or tower work a lot more safe imo.
And it’s back to English, with a different perspective
This must be the third or fourth time I am flip-flopping this personal blog from English to German and back. It had pretty much laid in ruins for some time, not least due to Twitter. It’s so much easier to fire off a few short lines, and I am doing all the firefighting blogging over at FWnetz, in German.
I’ve been thinking long and hard about what to do with this blog, which I really didn’t want to die off. The solution only came to mind recently, at least it feels like it is worth a shot.
So, besides all things related to internet and photography, I’ll be focussing on firefighting too. Throughout he past few years, I’ve met so many interesting fellow firefighters around Europe and in the States, and there is more than a handful of online contacts too. Here’s a bunch I visited in Kardaun / Südtirol (Italy) to participate in a tunnel emergency practice:
So I know there’s a keen interest on happenings here in Germany, which I intend to write about, and perhaps, this blog can even serve as a hub for information exchange. First things first.
There’s also a technical motivation, as both FWnetz and this blog run on Wordpress, I should be able to test out a few things here before I start implementing them over there. In case you’re interested, the theme in use is White Space by Brian Gardner, who also created the Revolution Magazine theme in use at FWnetz.
There are still a few tweaks to be done, like getting rid of the green image border, but this is mostly set, so I’m ready to go. Over the next few days, I’ll slowly start updating my blogroll too. hooray :)
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Welcome
Welcome to Irakli West's personal pages on the Web. I am Danish, live close to Munich in Germany, and run FWnetz, an online magazine and training resource for firefighters. In real life, I am Regional Manager Northern Europe for Paratech and currently training to become a specialist in Urban Search and Rescue as well as Heavy Rescue (it's fun, challenging and serves a good purpose)
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