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Forget the water hose! Firefighters of the future may simply "zap" fire out of existence with an electric wand:
Currently, firefighters use water, foam, powder, and other substances to tame flames. But a team from Harvard University’s Whitesides Research Group has shown that electric fields can snuff out fires too—potentially reducing water damage as well as environmental threats posed by fire retardants.
The scientists connected a thin wire to a 600-watt amplifier—roughly as powerful as a high-end car stereo and about as big as a file cabinet—plugged into the wall.
The "wand" system generated an electric field with the strength of a million volts per meter, "approximately the field necessary to generate a spark in dry air," said chemist Ludovico Cademartiri, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard.
Whenever the researchers brought the electric wand close a burner emanating thin jets of fire up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) tall, the flames almost instantly went out.
Bonus: if they say “Aguamenti” when extinguishing the fire: Link
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The firefighters in Luoyang, Henan Province, China, have an awesome new tool to use against fires. It’s a water cannon that can shoot 3 tons of water 120 meters away. One source says that it’s powered by a fighter jet engine. The total cost was about $456,000. You can watch a video of the machine at the link.
Orville Douglas Denison thinks that telescoping ladders used by firefighters are too slow for firefighters to use effectively. So he designed a system that would lift up firefighters on something like a conveyor belt or an escalator:
In a rescue, firemen could extend Denison’s hydraulic ladder to windows as high as 113 feet. But rather than clamber up the ladder, the firefighter would hop on, and the rungs would roll up at 200 feet per minute—more than twice the average climbing speed of a firefighter weighed down by 130 pounds of gear. The firefighter would ride to a window, load unconscious victims into a rescue bag, hook the bag to the ladder, and shift it into reverse to bring the person to safety. Denison says it can now take up to 15 minutes, and sometimes several men, to carry one victim down a ladder from 10 stories. He estimates that his ladder could lower four people to the ground in less than four minutes.
Link | Image: Kevin Hand
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Someone in Liverpool came up with the brilliant idea of equipping motorcycles with firefighting equipment.
Liverpool is the first city in the UK to roll out two of the £30,000 bikes, which have pumps with a range of 11 metres, in a six-month pilot scheme. With 50 litres of water and chemical foam on board each specially modified BMW bike, they are capable as a pair of putting out two burning cars in two minutes.
The man in charge of the project added: “We have no intention of using them to replace fire engines. “Our two biggest work streams are automated fire alarms and anti-social small fires, which is what they will be used for.”
It appears to be a very clever idea. The bikes can navigate through traffic more quickly than full-size equipment, at lower cost and using less manpower.
Link. Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Wire.
New York City has over four hundred miles of coastline, and consequently the police and fire departments of that city need advanced boats that can fight crime, fires, and respond to disasters in the water. The Three Forty Three, named after the 343 firefighters who died on 9/11, will soon replace a firefighting vessel launched in 1954. At a cost of $27 million, it has a crane that can extend fifty feet over the water, a decontamination shower, and an on-board triage center:
•The vessel is the longest and heaviest fireboat in the world, Mr. Cassano said. Its speed is about double that of the McKean, and it pumps about 50,000 gallons of water a minute — about 30,000 more than the McKean. (A regular fire truck pumps about 1,000 gallons a minute.) For fuel fires, the new boat has 3,600 gallons of foam concentrate; the McKean had 500.
•The Three Forty Three has a pressurized cabin, “and there will be filters for the air so we can get close to a hot zone,” said Mr. Cassano, referring to chemical spills. “In the past, if we knew there was a chemical incident we couldn’t get very close.”
Link via Fast Company | Image: New York Times
In early January Tokyo’s Fire Department struts its stuff with a large exhibition known as Dezomeshiki which has parades, firefighting vehicles, and firefighting techniques. It’s a 5-year old’s dream come true! Professional firefighting in Japan goes back centuries starting with the hikeshi, acrobatic firefighters who are now one of the highlights of the Dezomeshiki. They scale bamboo ladders and perform acrobatics stunts.
There have been professional fire fighters in Japan since the 17th Century. They were known as hikeshi. Unlike modern firefighters who seek to extinguish fires, the hikeshi’s main task was to pull down buildings near the fire so that the flames would not spread.
From the Upcoming 
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Comments Off The Fire Spy Robot, developed by the South Korean firm Hoya Robot, can be thrown into a burning building, roll through fire, take pictures, and inform firefighters outside of the conditions inside. In addition to reconnaissance duties, it can tow a water hose and spray the fire:
The little two-wheeled robot can roam through the blaze spraying water from a fire hose and looking for trapped people. Its onboard light and camera helps firefighters pin-point people before they enter the building themselves. The robot also gives them enough information to decide on the safe routes, and quickly develop a rescue plan.
The Firefighters Assistance Robot is a small device resembling a miniature tank and measuring just 12.5 cm in diameter and weighing 2 kg. It can travel at 1 foot per second and withstand a fall of over six feet. It can also survive temperatures as high as 160 C (320 F). The operating time of the robot inside a burning structure is up to 30 minutes.
Link via Popular Science | Company Website
