If a fire wants a fight, why don't they all just come right out and confront firefighters face-to-face? Why do some fires insist on hiding inside car engines, attics or high floors of a skyscraper?
Why can't fire just be a man and face its inevitable demise?
Sometimes, the most dangerous fires are the cowardly ones, also known as concealed fires. These fires are in hard-to-reach places for a direct attack, but they can do a lot of damage and cause a lot of problems for firefighters, so that they are often having to attack structure fires from a position of safety that is removed from the seat of the fire.
However, with enough experience with fire science and the physics of water propulsion, firefighters have developed some different tools to help firefighters go after these concealed fires, at least in terms of knocking down the fires so they can't pose any more threats while buying time for resources to get access to the fire and extinguish it. These tools won't put out the fires, necessarily, but they will do an effective job at knocking down the fire and cooling it off while crews work to get in position to take on the fire directly.
Following is a brief description about several alternative nozzles designed for different concealed-fire scenarios. Based on your department's experiences with these types of fires will determine whether you should include one or more of these on your trucks.
- Piercing nozzle As the name suggests, these nozzles are designed to pierce enclosed spaces like walls, attics or shipping containers. These nozzles are supposed to pierce into the space to deliver as much as 300 gallons per minute of water into the space, which is effective at knocking down flames. These will have a tip made of stainless steel or some other special metal. A shutoff valve, however, is not included, so you will have to research carefully to determine if this will be a necessary addition.
- Cellar nozzles Also known as distributors, these are designed to get into cellars through a hole in the floor of the first floor. These nozzles are designed to distribute water at a rate as much as 550 gallons per minute to soften a cellar blaze. Crews who work with this nozzle, however, have to be aware that they will be accessing through a floor that may have already been weakened by the cellar fire, so a decisive and quick attack will be necessary.
- Navy-style nozzle This is so named because many Navy ships have tight compartments and small engine rooms where fires could burn unnoticed and can't be directly attacked immediately. This nozzle has an applicator that has curvature to it to allow spraying water or foam around corners, under doors or even under engine compartments in cars. The nozzle coats the interior of the space to retard the fire's growth and spread.
- High-rise nozzle This is designed for skyscrapers. When you get to the really high floors, usually fire crews have to go to the fire floor to attack, which is not usually the best safety position. This nozzle actually allows fire crews to operate from a floor or two below, suppressing the fire with as much as 625 gallons per minute.
