In 1991, a lot of fire occurred in public place, and caused many persons dead and injured. For example, the fire happened in Kaohsiung Citi hotel at the midnight on Oct.24, 1992, the death-toll of accident was 18 lodgers dead, and the fire happened in Taichung welcome Restaurant at 19:20 on Feb.15,1995, the death-toll of the accident was 64 persons dead. To strengthen protecting up on protect people¡¦s life and property,enforceing the prevention of disaster, central government established National Fire Agency on Mar.1, 1995. National Fire Agency is subordinated to the minister of Interior, they started to study the statute of fire and pursue 12 projects related to the prevention and rescue of disaster. They reorganized the fire department, up the level from subject to police department to subject to municipal government. The earthquake happened on Sept. 21, 1999, gave a trial on the prevention of disaster system and the ability for cope with exigency. The minister of Interior discussed the disaster actual situation,and referred to the legislation of developed countries (USA, Japan), and draft the new ¡§prevention of disaster¡¨ plan. The minister of Interior set up a prevention of disaster committee that belongs to central government. City, prefecture and province set up the prevention of disaster proceeding, all the fire departments will be the business general staff units of City, prefecture and province, and will be the main disaster salvage unit. Due to the environment of disaster prevention change and reorganization, the research is trying to see if fire department could take the responsibility for the disaster salvage in the whole disaster prevention system through documents and how to cooperate with each level of government to consolidate the rescue resource, heighten the disaster prevention efficacy and to lower the loss of people¡¦s life and property. Under the mentioned subject, the research analyses the possible influence factors that fire fighter might face with. (e.g. the equipments, facilities, management, backup support, expense and personnel etc¡K)

Study in the field of product development about Illuminating material for fire-fighter garments & others in the future / Program: Magisterutbildning i Applied Textile Management

Roof venting is often utilised in large warehouses to remove smoke in order to reduce damage to a building and its contents, and to maintain access for fire-fighters. In New Zealand, the Compliance Document for the New Zealand Building Code C clauses recommends 15 % opening area for unsprinklered single floor buildings. This opening area is required to be designed for effective fire venting. There is no justification for why 15 % is required, and no definition of how fire venting qualifies as being effective. Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) was used to simulate the performance of various roof venting strategies in two different-sized industrial warehouses (both larger than 1,500 m²) with a 50 MW fire with both a rapid and an extreme t³ growth rate. In particular, roof venting areas of 15 %, 10 %, and 5 % of the floor area were tested with each of the following inlet areas for make-up air: 100 %, 50 %, and 0 % of roof venting area. In each of these cases, the vents were treated as permanently-open holes in the roof. It was shown that roof venting with 15 % geometric area is ample to provide and maintain tenability for fire-fighters. With sufficient inlet area for make-up air, smaller venting areas could also be employed. Further simulations were run to test the effect of square-shaped vents that opened simultaneously at 100°C compared with square-shaped vents that opened sequentially at 100°C, 200°C, and 300°C, and strip-shaped vents that opened progressively as each portion of a vent reached activation temperatures of 200°C and 300°C. Vents that opened at 100°C were intended to represent mechanical vents, while vents opening at higher temperatures were intended to represent plastic sky-light or drop-out type vents. The activation temperature proved to be more influential than the opening sequence or shape: there was a significant advantage to be gained by having vents that activated at 100°C as opposed to 200°C or 300°C. The role of downstands in aiding the effectiveness of roof venting was also investigated, with downstand depths of 10 %, 20 %, and 30 % of the ceiling height being simulated. Downstands were shown to be incredibly useful for exhausting smoke and hot gases, provided their installation was appropriately coordinated with placement of roof venting. It is concluded that a clear definition of effective fire venting must not only include the area of roof venting, but equally important is the definition of required inlet area for make-up air, as it plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of the specified roof venting area. In addition, the clear aerodynamic area should be specified. This could be achieved by use of a discharge coefficient that describes the proportion of the roof venting area that is clear aerodynamic area for a particular material, vent, and geometric area. Development of a clear definition of effective fire venting will help to determine how an economic fire protection system can be continued to be used, while going a long way to ensuring predictable and tenable conditions for fire-fighters in New Zealand.

This report comprises a product development of an ergonomically designed hose basket that can be used by the firefighters when storing or carrying a fire hose. A study on ergonomics in the profession as a firefighter conducted by the Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) showed that fire hose deployment was very physically exhausting. This study also revealed that some load may become too heavy and difficult to carry due to the design of the equipment. Injury to the user during lifting is common within the profession. Therefore there is a need for equipment that is more ergonomically designed.  The project follows a product development phase that includes market research and feasibility study which was accomplished by a literature study and through study visits and interviews at fire stations.  A common type of hose basket was used as the starting point for the project. This hose basket is in this report referred as "Skövde basket" and was considered heavy and un-ergonomic to carry, especially for shorter people. From the gathered information a ‘house of quality’ and a two-step idea generation was created. Several concepts that were made opposed the Skövde basket in an evaluation matrix. A material selection using a program, CES Selector 3.2 was made on the winning concept that became a hose basket which is carried under the arm.   The hose basket was then constructed in the program Creo Parametric 4.0 and detail drawings were created. A prototype was then made and tested by firefighters of both sexes and of different heights. The results pointed out improvements and deteriorations from the Skövde basket. The deterioration was that the basket became more difficult to pack, which was due to the reduced number of bars. Improvements were noticed on lift height; significant increase on lift height facilitated easy carrying by shorter individuals. / Denna rapport omfattar en produktutveckling av en ergonomiskt utformad slangkorg som kan användas av räddningstjänsten då brandslang ska placeras ut. Enligt en studie kring ergonomi inom räddningstjänsten gjord av Research Institutes of Sweden, RISE, ansåg många brandmän att slangutläggning var mycket fysiskt ansträngande. Syftet är att främja ergonomi inom brandmannayrket. Trots de fysiska kraven hos brandmän, kan vissa laster bli för tunga och svåra att bära på grund av utrustningens utformning. Därför behövs utrustning som är mer ergonomiskt utformad.   Projektet följer övergripligt en produktutvecklingsfas där det ingår dels en marknadsundersökning och en förstudie vilket gjordes genom en litteraturstudie, intervjuer och studiebesök på brandstationer.   En vanlig variant av slangkorg användes som utgångspunkt för projektet, denna slangkorg kallas i rapporten för ”Skövdeväskan” och ansågs tung och oergonomisk att bära, framför allt för kortare personer. Utifrån den information som samlats in gjordes ett kvalitetshus och en tvåstegs idégenerering där koncept togs fram. Koncepten ställdes mot varandra och mot Skövdeväskan i en konceptvalsmatris. Materialval med programmet CES Selector 3.2 gjordes på det vinnande konceptet som blev en slangkorg som bärs under armen.  Slangkorgen modellerades sedan i programmet Creo Parametric 4.0 och detaljritningar skapades. En prototyp konstruerades och denna testades av brandmän av båda könen och av olika längd. Testpersonerna fick därefter göra en utvärdering som visade på både förbättringar och försämringar jämfört med Skövdeväskan. Försämringar som uppkom var att korgen blev mer svårpackad vilket berodde på det reducerade antalet stödstänger i ramen. Förbättringar gjordes på lyfthöjd vilket underlättade framför allt för de kortare personerna.

Every year, approximately 100 people die in fire related incidents in Sweden. ”Seek” is designed to assist fire fighters to locate people faster in smoke diving procedures. ”Seek” identifies people and possible dangers within the building before the smoke diving procedure begins. This allows the operation to be streamlined and planned, as well as avoiding risks which fire fighters are exposed to today. The early overview created by the ”Seek” smoke detector not only saves time in planning but reduces the time from accident until the people in the burning building can receive skilled care, increasing their chance of survival.

Forest fires has become an increasing threat all over the world. Pollution and rising greenhouse gases has led to an ever increase in global temperatures. Sweden has previously been spared from larger fires, but in the past few year it has been been made clear that these climate changes will affect the number and intensity of forest fires.  In this project I have investigated how forest fires work and how the process of  extinguishing them looks today. With a focus on the personal equipment I have looked into how to improve the working environment and the safety for fire-fighters. Using the design process this problem is tackled from a holistic point of view, looking at both the users and context. The solutions presented in this project is a professional safety product called “Phoenix. PPe Wildfire respirator”. A lightweight portable oxygen harness with an attached emergency mask.

The very nature of the fire fighting environment makes thermal degradation of turnout gear inevitable. Standards that are currently in place to ensure that new gear performs adequately for the protection of the fire fighter do not provide a quantitative measure for assessing this gear once it is in service. When the performance of the gear is compromised due to degradation, it could put the fire fighter wearing the gear at unnecessary risk. A non-destructive test that indicates the end of the useable service of the garment would be a benefit to the fire service. Full scale fire tests were conducted to suggest a range of heat fluxes that turnout gear specimens should be subjected to in order to simulate degradation caused by in-field use of the gear. A series of destructive tests were conducted on exposed specimens. A number of non-destructive tests were performed on the same specimens. The results of destructive and non-destructive tests were compared. This research explored some options for non-destructive tests of turnout gear. Digital image analysis and colorimetry were both offered as possibilities for a diagnostic test of this gear. Correlations between destructive performance tests and the colour changes of the outer shell fabric could be used to develop non-destructive tests to evaluate every garment owned by a department. More work is required to improve these test methods, but the door has been opened to better testing for in-use gear, and ultimately to provide better protection for the fire fighters who use this clothing.

The very nature of the fire fighting environment makes thermal degradation of turnout gear inevitable. Standards that are currently in place to ensure that new gear performs adequately for the protection of the fire fighter do not provide a quantitative measure for assessing this gear once it is in service. When the performance of the gear is compromised due to degradation, it could put the fire fighter wearing the gear at unnecessary risk. A non-destructive test that indicates the end of the useable service of the garment would be a benefit to the fire service. Full scale fire tests were conducted to suggest a range of heat fluxes that turnout gear specimens should be subjected to in order to simulate degradation caused by in-field use of the gear. A series of destructive tests were conducted on exposed specimens. A number of non-destructive tests were performed on the same specimens. The results of destructive and non-destructive tests were compared. This research explored some options for non-destructive tests of turnout gear. Digital image analysis and colorimetry were both offered as possibilities for a diagnostic test of this gear. Correlations between destructive performance tests and the colour changes of the outer shell fabric could be used to develop non-destructive tests to evaluate every garment owned by a department. More work is required to improve these test methods, but the door has been opened to better testing for in-use gear, and ultimately to provide better protection for the fire fighters who use this clothing.

Thesis (M.A. (Social Work)) -- University of Limpopo, 2017 / The aim of the study was to explore the factors that contribute to occupational stress among the fire-fighters employed by the Polokwane Local Municipality, Capricorn District of Limpopo. The study focused on the following variables: working relationships, work load, nature of work, deadlines pressure and work-home balance. The nature of the study is qualitative. The study data was collected from July to September 2015. The researcher interviewed fire-fighters in Polokwane Local Municipality. An in-depth semi-structured interview was utilised as the data collection method. The instrument used in the study was a semi structured interview schedule. Data was thematically analysed. The study findings showed that working relationships, work-load, nature of work, deadline pressure and work-home balance contributed to occupational stress. The study also found that occupational stress had negative effects on both the fire-fighters and their organisation

Genom kvalitativa intervjuer med ledare inom Räddningstjänsten undersöker studien hur ledare bygger relevant erfarenhet från krisövningar inför hanterandet av framtida kriser. Fokus var en tvådagars scenariobaserad krisövning vid Revingehed som simulerade ett omfattande jordskred och en terrorhändelse. Fem räddningsledare har intervjuats, samtliga är valda utifrån deras position under övningen. Analysmetoden är tematisk analys. De fyra teman som framkom ur analysen var: (1) Känsla av kris, vilket upplevdes svårt att uppnå under övning och enligt intervjupersonerna sällan upplevs i verkliga händelser. Oklarhet var den aspekten som kunde återskapas. (2) Stress och press, vilket framförallt upplevdes i den inledande fasen av övningen på grund av informationsbrist och inte på grund av samarbetssvårigheter eller svåra prioriteringar. (3) Upplevelsen av andra deltagare/organisationer, som generellt var god. Samt (4) Speciell och meningsfull övning,vilket innebar att övningen präglades av högt engagemang, en upplevelse av realistiska reaktioner och en hög upplevd meningsfullhet med en positiv effekt på deltagarnas generella upplevelse av övningen.  Den viktigaste slutsatsen är att övningen upplevdes som relevant för att öka beredskapen inför omfattande samhällskriser, men att ledarna inte själva förbereds för en subjektiv upplevelse av kris och stress. Diskrepansen mellan upplevelser från övningar och upplevelser av verkliga kriser kan i förlängningen ha viss effekt på ledares agerande iskarpa påfrestande situationer. / The paper studies how leaders use crisis exercises to build relevant experiences to better handle future crises, through qualitative interviews with leaders within the Swedish Fire brigade. The focus was a two-day scenario-based crisis exercise at Revingehed which simulated an extensive landslide and a terror incident. The study uses a semi-structured interview format with five participants, chosen because of their positions during the exercise. The method it uses is thematic analysis. The themes that emerged were: (1) Feeling of crisis, which was seen as hard to achieve during an exercise but also as rare during real incidents. Ambiguity and confusion wereaspects that could partially be recreated; (2) Stress and pressure, which was mainly felt during the first phase of the exercise due to a lack of information, and not difficulties cooperating or hard choices and prioritizations; (3) their View of other participants, which in general was good; and (4) Special and meaningful exercise, which meant that the participants experienced a high level of commitment, realistic reactions and a high sense of meaningfulness, which affected the general exercise experience positively. The most important conclusion is the participants’ view of the exercise as relevant to heightening preparedness for large societal crises, while not preparing the leaders themselves for a subjective sense of crisis and stress. The discrepancy between experiences from exercises and authentic crises could have implications for leaders’ actions under considerable stress.