Study of the Fidelity and Safety of the Fire Service Training Environement

Abstract

Recent firefighter line of duty deaths as a result of rapid fire progression have

highlighted that there is a deficiency in firefighters’ understanding of the fire dynamics

created by modern, synthetic fuels on the fireground, and how their tactics

may influence these conditions. In particular, the rapid growth of these modern

fires, their response to ventilation, and their propensity to become underventilated

have changed when compared to their legacy counterparts. Among the reasons for

this gap in understanding is the way in which firefighters conduct live fire training.

Typical fuels used for firefighter training, such as pallets and straw, are more typical

of legacy fuels than modern, synthetic fuels, however. Recognizing this, many

instructors have begun to introduce synthetic materials into live fire training, in an

effort to make the training feel more realistic. While these fuels may exhibit fire

behavior more representative of a room and contents fire with modern furnishings,

they also create the potential for hazardous conditions for firefighters. A series of

eight experiments was conducted in a concrete fire training building. Two training

fuel packages were considered. The first consisted of wooden pallets and straw, a

common fire training fuel. The second introduced oriented strand board (OSB) to

the pallets and straw fuel package. Both of these training fuels were compared to a

room with furnishings similar to those that may be found in a residential home. The

results indicated that pallets and straw fail to replicate the high radiant heat flux,

underventilated conditions, and rapid response to additional ventilation that was

noted in the furnished room fire. Further, since the concrete training building had

several built-in ventilation points, and additional ventilation resulted in no increase

in thermal conditions, the pallets and straw training fires could be considered fuel

limited. In the OSB experiments, on the other hand, a limited growth secondary to

ventilation was observed. Thus, the OSB fires represent a more realistic simulation

of a furnished room fire than the pallets and straw. In addition to increased fidelity,

the OSB training fires exhibited more severe thermal conditions, which would pose a

greater hazard to students and instructors than in the pallets and straw evolutions.

Thus, if fire instructors should elect to include synthetic materials, such as OSB,

into live fire training evolutions, additional precautions must be taken to ensure that

participants are not exposed to excessive thermal conditions. Likewise, if instructors

choose pallets and straw as a training fuel because of the increased margin of

safety, special emphasis must be placed on the difference in fire behavior between

the training fuel and the modern, synthetic fuels that would be encountered on the

fireground.