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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with

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Speaker 1: How Stuff Works and I love all things tech and

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Speaker 1: it is time for another tech Stuff classic. We're not

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Speaker 1: doing how air horns Work. I tried to convince try

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Speaker 1: to let me do that one, but she said it

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Speaker 1: was far too loud and distracting. Instead, we are taking

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Speaker 1: a look at a life saving suite of technologies, the

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Speaker 1: technology of firefighting. This episode originally published on July two

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Speaker 1: thousand eleven. I hope you guys enjoy Chris polettin myself

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Speaker 1: going through the entirety of all tech associated with firefighting.

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Speaker 1: As of enjoy, we wanted to talk about firefighting technology.

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Speaker 1: We actually had a request come over Facebook for this

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Speaker 1: and we wanted to. Uh. I thought that was a

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Speaker 1: good request, you know, it's an interesting concept. We also,

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Speaker 1: I think I got an email about it as well.

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Speaker 1: So we've had some some people enquire about the technology

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Speaker 1: used in firefighting and there's a wide range of tech

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Speaker 1: that we can talk about. Some of it is stuff

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Speaker 1: that is based off of technology that's been around for

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Speaker 1: more than a century and some of it is really

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Speaker 1: like space age type stuff. So, um, I thought I

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Speaker 1: thought i'd start with one of the most um iconic

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Speaker 1: images when you think about firefighting, which of course, is

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Speaker 1: the fire engine or fire truck. So, uh, I actually

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Speaker 1: live not too far from a fire station, and by

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Speaker 1: not too far, I mean adjacent, and uh so I

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Speaker 1: get to see fire trucks a lot. As it turns out,

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Speaker 1: they're pretty cool things. And of course, you know, the

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Speaker 1: main uh, I think the main feature on a fire

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Speaker 1: truck has to be the water tank that that it holds,

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Speaker 1: you know, and and the water tanks. Depending on the

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Speaker 1: size of the truck, the water tank can be a

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Speaker 1: different size as well. Like you know, it's not unusual

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Speaker 1: to find a fire truck that can hold a thousand

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Speaker 1: gallons of water on its own. And of course that's

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Speaker 1: important because there's no guarantee that wherever the fire is

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Speaker 1: is going to be close to either a pool of

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Speaker 1: water or a fire hydrant. Um So a fire truck

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Speaker 1: has to be able to carry its own portable water supply.

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Speaker 1: But having water on a truck is not enough. You

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Speaker 1: have to have a way of getting that water out right,

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Speaker 1: So you would need some kind of pump. Yes, and

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Speaker 1: UH and fire engines have pumps. They have an impeller

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Speaker 1: water pumps, and an impeller water pump is a diesel

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Speaker 1: powered pump. So it's got its own independent diesel engine

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Speaker 1: and it has a rotor like device that's got some

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Speaker 1: curved blades on it that spin in the water tank. Now,

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Speaker 1: this actually slings the water around starts to move it

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Speaker 1: in a circular fashion. It builds water pressure, and you

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Speaker 1: relieve that water pressure by allowing the water to escape

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Speaker 1: through water lines also known as hoses. So they have

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Speaker 1: to go through a valve and then it goes through

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Speaker 1: the hose and at the whatever is burning thing, whatever

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Speaker 1: is burning thing, Yeah, that's a technical term in the

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Speaker 1: fire fighting trade. So the whatever is burning thing gets

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Speaker 1: deluged with water. And there's actually some interesting controls on this.

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Speaker 1: There's a series of controls. There's a pump panel that

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Speaker 1: allows you to either manually control the pumps or some

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Speaker 1: of them are automated. They have like a Mastermind control

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Speaker 1: system that actually does this automatically. But a typical pump

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Speaker 1: panel will have levers on it that allow you to

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Speaker 1: direct where the water is going to go through like

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Speaker 1: which lines it's gonna go through, and of course that's

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Speaker 1: all going to depend upon which lines have been connected

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Speaker 1: to the truck. And there are lots of different kinds

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Speaker 1: of water lines also. And again when I say water

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Speaker 1: lines there, those are essentially the fire hose is right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: These are a lot different from your garden variety hoses, Yes,

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Speaker 1: because they can handle a whole lot more pressure and

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Speaker 1: deliver a whole lot more water. As Jonathan was saying

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Speaker 1: just a moment ago, you can't be certain that you're

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Speaker 1: going to be right next to a fire hydrant where

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Speaker 1: the fire is and the fire truck is going to

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Speaker 1: park on the street. Now, if the building, let's say

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Speaker 1: it's the building is burning and it's away from the street,

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Speaker 1: you've got to have enough water pressure to get to

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Speaker 1: the fire itself. So the hoses are long, they're there, Uh,

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Speaker 1: they've got some diameter on them, so you can really

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Speaker 1: carry the a good amount of water and they've got

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Speaker 1: to be able to withstand a lot of pressure. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and they're also they tend to be treated for a

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Speaker 1: mildew resistance as well, because one of the big problems

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Speaker 1: with fire hoses before the mildew resistant um film was

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Speaker 1: developed was that you had to dry them out after

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Speaker 1: you use them, because otherwise you would have mildew develop.

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Speaker 1: It would start to rot the hoses, and then the

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Speaker 1: hoses would not be stable. You could have a hose

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Speaker 1: rupture while you're trying to fight a fire because it's

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Speaker 1: been weakened by mildew. So uh, yeah, there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of elements that go into creating these these hoses, and

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Speaker 1: I've got a few different types I can talk about. Um,

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Speaker 1: there's usually there's a booster line, which is only about

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Speaker 1: an inch diameter, and it's usually used for small fires

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Speaker 1: like uh, a minor fire inside a building or something

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Speaker 1: like that, or a minor brush fire even. Um, then

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Speaker 1: you've got the cross lay hoses. These are the main hoses.

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Speaker 1: These are like the workhorses of a fire engine. They're

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Speaker 1: located below the pump panel and they can pump up

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Speaker 1: to gallons of water per minute. Uh. They tend to

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Speaker 1: be about two feet long and they've got a diameter

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Speaker 1: of an inch and a half. So then you've got

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Speaker 1: the preconnect lines. So, like I said, you know, you've

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Speaker 1: got all these valves that are attached to the fire

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Speaker 1: engine and they're on all the different sides of the

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Speaker 1: fire engine, because you never know where you're gonna be

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Speaker 1: able to orient the engine in station to the fire. Normally,

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Speaker 1: there is UH there are at least three lines that

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Speaker 1: are pre connected when an engine rolls out of the station,

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Speaker 1: so that way the fire fighters have a chance to

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Speaker 1: immediately jump out of the truck and start fighting the

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Speaker 1: fire without having to fuss with unloading hose, connecting it

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Speaker 1: to the right valve, and then engaging the valve and

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Speaker 1: fighting the fire that way. So preconnect lines tend to

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Speaker 1: be between an inch and a half to two inches

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Speaker 1: in diameter, and they tend to be able to pump

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Speaker 1: out around two fifty gallons of water per minute. UH.

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Speaker 1: You've got hoses that are designed specifically to hook up

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Speaker 1: to hydrants fire hydrants. Those are five inches in diameter,

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Speaker 1: and a fire engine may carry up to a thousand

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Speaker 1: feet of this hose, but it's in one foot segments.

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Speaker 1: But there are also other shorter segments called curb jumper hoses.

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Speaker 1: So let's say that the building that you need to

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Speaker 1: get about a hundred and fifty feet of hose UH

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Speaker 1: to get to the fire at whatever location you're at,

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Speaker 1: and you're hooking it up to a hydrant. You might

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Speaker 1: not want to grab two lengths of the hydrant hose

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Speaker 1: that's two feet and you know you don't only need

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Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty um that that means you're gonna

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Speaker 1: have an extra fifty feet of hose that you're gonna

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Speaker 1: have to maneuver around. Well, these curb jumper hose segments

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Speaker 1: are typically in links between twenty ft lengths and fifty

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Speaker 1: foot lengths, so that way it's easier just to grab

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Speaker 1: a smaller section so that you have enough length of

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Speaker 1: hose to get to where you're going without having excess.

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Speaker 1: Then you've got your hose pack, which is a lighter hose,

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Speaker 1: usually a smaller diameter, and this is what is used

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Speaker 1: by firefighters if they have to go into a building

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Speaker 1: and climb up levels. That has to be more portable.

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Speaker 1: You've got the ladder line. You know, most of these

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Speaker 1: fire engines have a really long ladder that's on the

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Speaker 1: back of them. Well, there's a there's a line that

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Speaker 1: is part of that ladder. It's actually it's it's uh

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Speaker 1: a direct connection to the ladder. It's actually built in. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's built in, and there is a nozzle at the

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Speaker 1: top of the ladder that can shoot out well, it's

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Speaker 1: it's usually around three hundred gallons per minute, so it's

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Speaker 1: a pretty powerful hose. And then you've got your deluge

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Speaker 1: gun or deck gun. That's what's mounted on the top

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Speaker 1: of the pump panel. That's the one that you know

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Speaker 1: that if you ever look at the fire engine, you

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Speaker 1: see something that looks like a turret that's on the

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Speaker 1: fire engine. That's the thing I'm talking about. All right,

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Speaker 1: So we've been talking about hoses that can shoot out

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Speaker 1: between gallons and three gallons of water. The day lug

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Speaker 1: gun is no joke. We're talking a thousand gallons a minute. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And you may say, well, if you've got a thousand

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Speaker 1: gallons at the tank, does that mean that after a

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Speaker 1: minute you've completely exhausted your water supply? And the answers, well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's what you're if you were just using the water

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Speaker 1: in the tank. But you can also hook up a

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Speaker 1: a line to a a pool or acre pond and

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Speaker 1: use that water to pump into the the various lines

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Speaker 1: that you're using now. For that, they use a uh,

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Speaker 1: a strainer. It's a it's called a barrel strainer and

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Speaker 1: that's what is used to filter out debris in ponds

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Speaker 1: and pools and that kind of thing in order to

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Speaker 1: be able to use that water to fight fires. Because

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Speaker 1: of course, if you get debris caught in the line,

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Speaker 1: then you've fouled the line. You are you know, in

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Speaker 1: danger of losing the fight against the fire. But plus

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Speaker 1: I imagine it would do quite a bit of costly

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Speaker 1: damage to the equipment as well. Sure, yes, all of

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Speaker 1: that is is uh, you know, an important thing to

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Speaker 1: remember when you are trying to to fight fires. And

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Speaker 1: then there's also they tend to trucks tend to also

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Speaker 1: carry foam, and there's different kinds of foam UH that

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Speaker 1: are that's used for different types of fires. Usually a

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Speaker 1: fire engine may only carry one type of film, especially

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Speaker 1: if it's if it's in an area where UH fires

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Speaker 1: are typically one type versus another. For example, a Class

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Speaker 1: A foam is a kind of foam that's used to

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Speaker 1: soak down an area after you've put out a fire

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Speaker 1: to prevent reignition. It's kind of a flame retardant. And

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Speaker 1: then you've got like Class B foam that's the stuff

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Speaker 1: that you use to fight flammable liquid fires. So like

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Speaker 1: a car fire, you might want to use that because

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Speaker 1: of the gasoline problem. So uh. And then the other

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Speaker 1: part about fire engines, they are like mobile tool kits.

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Speaker 1: So that's where all the fire fighting tools are are

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Speaker 1: mounted in that and you may have some pretty low

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Speaker 1: tech stuff in there. I mean things like hooks and

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Speaker 1: pikes that are used to tear down walls so that

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Speaker 1: you can get at the places where the fire is

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Speaker 1: to put the fire out. There's not a lot of

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Speaker 1: tech there. But then you may have something like a chainsaw,

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Speaker 1: you know chainsaws have that there's this there's some tech

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Speaker 1: there that's just pretty simple tech. It's usually you know,

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Speaker 1: a diesel engine that turns turns the chaine that you

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Speaker 1: can cut through stuff. But then there's also the uh

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Speaker 1: a pretty famous tool I would say that you typically

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Speaker 1: will find on a fire engine. Yeah, and I think

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Speaker 1: I know where you're going with this since you just

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Speaker 1: mentioned it a moment ago, but I think, uh, it's

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Speaker 1: important to remember before while you're trying to guess what

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Speaker 1: this famous tool is that firefighters, um these days often

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Speaker 1: do a lot more than fighting fires. They're also responsible for,

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Speaker 1: uh doing some paramedic work. Um, you know, their first responders.

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Speaker 1: So if someone is injured, they often call the the

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Speaker 1: firefighters out um on the possibility that in addition to

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Speaker 1: medical care, there might be um a fire related to it,

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Speaker 1: and they might need to do both things. Like for example,

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Speaker 1: as Jonathan was just pointing out, if you had a

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Speaker 1: car wreck and uh, there's a possibility that gasoline might

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Speaker 1: spill and catch fire. So you have someone trapped in

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Speaker 1: a car, Um, there's a possibility that there might be

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Speaker 1: a fire. So who better to send than of fire

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Speaker 1: writers who are trained in medical care. But the trick

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Speaker 1: is getting them out of the car before something bad happened. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and that's where that's where this uh, this tool comes in.

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Speaker 1: It's called the Jaws of Life. And really the Jaws

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Speaker 1: of Life is actually a series of tools, is not

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Speaker 1: a single tool. Um. There's a company that makes uh

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Speaker 1: these tools, and the company is known as the Jaws

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Speaker 1: of Life. Company actually has a full name. But it

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Speaker 1: escapes my mind out tope of my head. But let's say,

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Speaker 1: not that kind. You still haven't seen that movie, have you?

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Speaker 1: I have not, we had someone asked us earlier. Um,

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Speaker 1: no he has not seen Jaws. So Jaws of life,

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Speaker 1: Jaws of Life. It's a hydraulic lee powered tool and

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Speaker 1: by that we mean it uses a fluid to create

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Speaker 1: uh pressure and move heavy duty tool elements. And uh,

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Speaker 1: let's I guess a little digression on hydraulic fluid would

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Speaker 1: be a good idea here. So, hydraulic fluid is a

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Speaker 1: fluid that is typically it's it's not compressible. It's incompressible,

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Speaker 1: and by that, I mean you cannot squish it right right,

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Speaker 1: Like most things that we think about, there's a little

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Speaker 1: squish factor. But hydraulic fluid is supposed to be incompressible

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Speaker 1: and that means that the fluids that maximum density, you

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Speaker 1: cannot cram them the the molecules of that fluid any

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Speaker 1: tighter than it already is. So if the foot pressure

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Speaker 1: on it, it's going to push. Yeah. Like if you

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Speaker 1: have a a cylinder filled with hydraulic fluid and uh,

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Speaker 1: you're you're trying to push a press, a piston into

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Speaker 1: the cylinder. At the point where everything is connected. You

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Speaker 1: have a you know, the solid cylinder at one end,

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Speaker 1: and then there the piston starts to push on it.

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Speaker 1: There's a point at which the piston is not going

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Speaker 1: to be able to push anymore because it is it

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Speaker 1: is compressed as far as it can go and it

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Speaker 1: will not compress any further. And you can use that

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Speaker 1: to do work. Ye, and there are plenty of tools

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Speaker 1: that do use this and the jaws of life to

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Speaker 1: use a phosphate esther fluid. A lot of hydraulic fluid

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Speaker 1: systems will use an oil based fluid. As you can imagine,

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Speaker 1: oil based fluids are not necessarily the best thing to

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Speaker 1: have in firefighting equipment. Yeah, So phosphate esther is non

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Speaker 1: flammable and non conductive. So the these hydraulic tools, the

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Speaker 1: jaws of life, there are actually, like I said, a

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Speaker 1: line of them, and the ones that are typically used

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Speaker 1: in firefighting are cutters, which do what they sound like

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Speaker 1: they do. They are designed to cut through stuff, so,

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Speaker 1: for example, the body of a car, because the hydraulic

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Speaker 1: pressure is such that it will cause the the pinch,

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Speaker 1: the the cutting edges of this device to close. It's

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Speaker 1: such a force that metal just crumbles. And then you've

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Speaker 1: got spreaders. Spreaders are kind of like, you know, imagine

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Speaker 1: a pair of pliers and you open them. That's kind

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Speaker 1: of what spreaders are are doing. They fires in reverse. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you shove shove it into a gap, and then you

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Speaker 1: start the hydraulic motor and or actually start the diesel motor,

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Speaker 1: and that starts the hydraulic fluid. Uh. It pushes hydrug

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Speaker 1: fluid through and makes it do work, and that's what

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Speaker 1: causes the pincers to open and then you pop open

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Speaker 1: whatever it is you were trying to open, or it

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Speaker 1: tears apart one one or the other. And then hydraulic rams.

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Speaker 1: So those are the three that are used the most

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Speaker 1: frequently in firefighting UH scenarios. So uh yeah, it's kind

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Speaker 1: of We actually have an article on how the jaws

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Speaker 1: of Life work and it goes into detail on each

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Speaker 1: of those tools. So if you want to learn more

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Speaker 1: about it, I do recommend that it's a very useful resource.

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Speaker 1: And then also I guess I should mention what we're

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Speaker 1: talking about hydraulics. The ladder on the fire trucks, those

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Speaker 1: are operated through hydraulics as well. There's a piston that

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Speaker 1: is uh has got especially two different hoses connected to it,

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Speaker 1: and the hydraulic fluid will either cause the letter to

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Speaker 1: extend upward or to come back down. So those are

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Speaker 1: that's your basic fire engine from from front to back.

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Speaker 1: I mean there's There's a lot more we can talk about,

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Speaker 1: but there's so much more firefighting technology. I didn't want

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Speaker 1: to just have this all be about fire engines. I

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Speaker 1: hope you guys are enjoying this classic episode of tech

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Speaker 1: stuff so far. We're going to take a quick break

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Speaker 1: and thank our sponsor. So what do you want to

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Speaker 1: talk about next? Well, most of what I got is

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Speaker 1: sort of high tech, cutting edge type stuff. UM. One

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Speaker 1: thing that that we should talk about, probably UM to

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Speaker 1: some extent, or maybe we could cover it later if

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Speaker 1: you want to go with all the high tech stuff

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Speaker 1: now is the stuff that the firefight is actually wear

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Speaker 1: on their person themselves. Sure, yeah, let's talk about that.

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Speaker 1: Because we just thought about fire engines, we should talk

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Speaker 1: about the fire gear that the the firefighters are wearing. UM.

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Speaker 1: This is they wear a lot, Yes, they do. UM.

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Speaker 1: Of course they have to try to stay protected from um,

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Speaker 1: the heat that's you know, it depends on what's burning,

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Speaker 1: of course. Uh. Some some different types of materials will

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Speaker 1: burn hotter than other materials. UM. And you certainly don't

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Speaker 1: want to have a firefighter go inside to rescue a

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Speaker 1: person or to get at the source of a fire

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Speaker 1: and have them uh pass out. From the heat or

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Speaker 1: to to be overcome by heat and smoke inhalation. UM.

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Speaker 1: So you have to you know, protect them externally and

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Speaker 1: and make sure that they uh they can breathe, make

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Speaker 1: sure that they could see and and you know, keep

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Speaker 1: them as cool as possible. UM. One one jacket that

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Speaker 1: I read about that was really cool. It's actually called

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Speaker 1: turnout gear UM, which is a basically the the heavy

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Speaker 1: duty jacket that you might see them where. It's actually

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Speaker 1: from a company called Viking UM. But it's got thermal

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Speaker 1: sensors built into the jacket itself. Now not now that

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Speaker 1: this is sort of again sort of cutting edge, but this, uh,

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Speaker 1: this different thing has sensors on the outside which change

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Speaker 1: depending on There's an LED display UM on the jacket,

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Speaker 1: and it will tell you at you know, at what

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Speaker 1: point it is going to be a serious issue that

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Speaker 1: he is going to be a serious he is going

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Speaker 1: to be too hot for the suit's integrity. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: and the firefighter will be a danger. Yeah. Well. The

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Speaker 1: thing is that it monitors what's going on outside and inside.

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Speaker 1: So by looking at the firefighter, you know, another firefighter

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Speaker 1: could say, look, you know, he's in danger right now,

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Speaker 1: being where he is and needs to get out of

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Speaker 1: there because he may not be able to tell uh

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Speaker 1: what's going on. He may be so focused on fighting

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Speaker 1: the fire he may be ignoring a potentially dangerous situation

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Speaker 1: for himself in the heat of the moment. Yes, Apparently,

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Speaker 1: when the outer temperature of where the fire is gets

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Speaker 1: to about four two degrees fahrenheit um, the display, the

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Speaker 1: LED display starts to flash, and it's six d sixty

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Speaker 1: two degrees fahrenheit um, it will start flashing very fast.

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Speaker 1: I can't imagine being in anything that hot. It's interesting

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Speaker 1: because well, first of all, I got to know, you know,

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Speaker 1: paper burns at farehne. Yes, but I was gonna I

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Speaker 1: was gonna say, you know, it's kind of interesting because

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Speaker 1: if you look at the history of the heat resistant

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Speaker 1: materials that firefighters have worn, the go to material for

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Speaker 1: quite some time was called nomex, Yeah, which is a

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Speaker 1: fire resistant material. It's similar to nylon. It's kind of

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Speaker 1: the same sort of a feel of nylon, but it

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Speaker 1: can withstand really intense heat as a type of meta

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Speaker 1: aramid fiber, which really you just need to know that's

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Speaker 1: a heat resistance anthetic fiber that was developed in the

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Speaker 1: lab and um it's actually kind of, uh, sort of

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Speaker 1: a distant relative to kevlar um, which is a much

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Speaker 1: more resilient, not necessarily heat resistant, but physically resilient material.

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Speaker 1: So no mix was the standard for a really long time.

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Speaker 1: Back in the Houston Fire Department partnered with NASA to

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Speaker 1: develop a Originally it was just to develop a new

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Speaker 1: helmet for firefighters, but then eventually, through this partnership, NASA

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Speaker 1: suggested that perhaps they could completely redesign the fire fighter suit,

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Speaker 1: and they started to create suits that would circulate liquids

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Speaker 1: within the suits lining in order to remove heat so

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Speaker 1: that it would protect the firefighter longer in intense heat conditions.

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Speaker 1: Because before that point, the Houston firefighters were really only

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Speaker 1: rated to go into areas that were three degrees fahrenheit

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Speaker 1: or cooler. Afterward, they could go into areas that were

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Speaker 1: five hundred degrees fahrenheight or cooler. And now you're talking

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Speaker 1: about a system where you know, it warns you at

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Speaker 1: four two, which is right around that you know, that

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Speaker 1: five hundred degree range that was just talking about, but

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Speaker 1: it goes all the way up to six, suggesting that

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Speaker 1: this material is even more resilient than the stuff that

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Speaker 1: was made back in NASA. One of the other cool

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Speaker 1: things that they added in that that same project where

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Speaker 1: they were redesigning the helmet, they created an improved two

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Speaker 1: way radio link ups in the helmets themselves, and they

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Speaker 1: also created a infrared camera system so that you can

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Speaker 1: so that the firefighter could switch to a thermal view

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Speaker 1: and see hot spots in the house and also help

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Speaker 1: firefighters identify if any victims were UH in the area,

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Speaker 1: so that they you know, they could see the heat

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Speaker 1: from a person, then they would know that they needed

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Speaker 1: to UH to. You know, you might not be able

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Speaker 1: to see because the smoke might be so thick. And actually,

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Speaker 1: infrared cameras play a really big role in firefighting technology

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Speaker 1: across the board, not just in personal firefighter gear, but

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Speaker 1: for example, a helicopter flying over a wildfire might be equipped.

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Speaker 1: In fact, most of them are equipped with infrared cameras

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Speaker 1: and infrared lenses so that they can so the pilot

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Speaker 1: or the watch's not really the pilot, but a firefighter

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Speaker 1: aboard the helicopter can look through and see the hot

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Speaker 1: spots and see the flames even if the smoke is

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Speaker 1: so thick that you couldn't see anything, you know, just

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Speaker 1: through a regular view to the ground. I'm sorry that

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Speaker 1: was a big digression, but you were going back to

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Speaker 1: the cutting edge gear. Yeah. Actually, uh we we can

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Speaker 1: keep going with that because I was reading an article

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Speaker 1: on Popular Mechanics about some of the different cutting edge

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Speaker 1: firefighting tools UM some firefighters for for things like, uh,

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Speaker 1: scenarios like that, you're talking about a fire in the

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Speaker 1: in the wilderness, UM are using unmanned aircraft. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: a monitor areas and using UM infrared technology to identify

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Speaker 1: places where uh, you know, you can really concentrate on

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Speaker 1: on fighting the fire. The thing is, UM, we have

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Speaker 1: really talked about yet. It's on our list of things

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Speaker 1: to do. But these unmanned aerial vehicles can stay in

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Speaker 1: the air far longer than UH piloted human piloted aircraft.

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Speaker 1: They can stay in the air for well. The ones

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Speaker 1: that they use in them the military can use stay

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Speaker 1: in the air for almost a day I think maybe

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Speaker 1: even longer. And they can fly through thick smoke that

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Speaker 1: a pilot, depending on the type of aircraft, may not

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Speaker 1: be able to fly through because you know, smaller aircraft,

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Speaker 1: which is often what's being used to fight fires, uses

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Speaker 1: a lot of line of sight UH navigational UH techniques

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Speaker 1: rather than flying by instruments. So if you're gonna fly

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Speaker 1: into an area that's that's got to really low visibility,

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Speaker 1: that's very dangerous for the pilot. So it's much more

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Speaker 1: safe to use a pilotless drone. I mean you've got

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Speaker 1: the person who's controlling it is controlling it from a

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Speaker 1: a workstation as opposed to in a cockpit. Um. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: did you come across the the I'm probably gonna butcher

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Speaker 1: this name because my Native American languages are non existent

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Speaker 1: uh Icona, Yes, I did? I k h A in A. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's a it's a predator be drone that NASA has

429
00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:22,880
Speaker 1: UM that is specifically designed to to fly through areas

430
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,399
Speaker 1: that are either threatened by wildfires, are actually currently in

431
00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:28,760
Speaker 1: experiencing wildfire, And it's got a lot of sensors on

432
00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:32,280
Speaker 1: it that allow it to UH to detect exactly the

433
00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:37,840
Speaker 1: intensity and location of a fire to help firefighting strategies. Yeah,

434
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:41,440
Speaker 1: you don't typically think of NASA as being a firefighting agency,

435
00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:44,040
Speaker 1: but they have been partnering with in the United States

436
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:48,840
Speaker 1: Forest Service in developing this technology and working on ways

437
00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:52,199
Speaker 1: to keep forest fires from getting out of control UM.

438
00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:58,640
Speaker 1: There's also moderate resolution imaging spector radiometer or modus UM,

439
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:03,120
Speaker 1: and basically that's a there are two satellites in orbit

440
00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:06,919
Speaker 1: around the Earth UM. They're using instrumentation that can detect

441
00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:12,119
Speaker 1: electromagnetic radiation UM. And so basically, over the course of

442
00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:16,000
Speaker 1: a day or two, UH motus is keeping an eye

443
00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:21,640
Speaker 1: on on the Earth to look for radiation that would

444
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:26,399
Speaker 1: indicate where where there's smoke and there's fire UM. And

445
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:30,000
Speaker 1: you can look at things like uh you can sort

446
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:35,639
Speaker 1: of overlay this with areas of population density, areas of vegetation,

447
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:40,120
Speaker 1: things that might UM indicate that there is a serious

448
00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:43,199
Speaker 1: imminent danger of say a fire spreading if it's going

449
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:47,640
Speaker 1: to get to a grassland or you know, coming close

450
00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:50,199
Speaker 1: enough to an area of population density where you need

451
00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:53,560
Speaker 1: to start evacuating people to keep them out of the way. UM.

452
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:59,520
Speaker 1: You know it's using satellite imaging is a very sophisticated

453
00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:02,479
Speaker 1: way of fighting fires because you can get uh uh

454
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:06,639
Speaker 1: feel pardon the well worn expression, and a big picture

455
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:08,800
Speaker 1: of view of what's really going on. And in a

456
00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:10,960
Speaker 1: fire of a size like that, of course, that's a

457
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:13,920
Speaker 1: much bigger fire than the ones we were starting out

458
00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:16,399
Speaker 1: the podcast talking about Yeah. Yeah, I mean NASA has

459
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:19,000
Speaker 1: done a lot of work with satellites and fire detection.

460
00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 1: I mean back at two thousand three, that's when they

461
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 1: started to to develop a software that would scan for

462
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:28,240
Speaker 1: for fires and then uh, if a fire was detected,

463
00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:31,760
Speaker 1: then NASA could direct a more powerful satellite to look

464
00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:36,120
Speaker 1: at that area specifically. There's also the lands at seven satellite,

465
00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:39,159
Speaker 1: which is designed to detect moisture levels and and forceded

466
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:43,240
Speaker 1: areas to determine likely spots where wildfires could form because

467
00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:45,119
Speaker 1: of course, the wildfire is more likely to form in

468
00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:50,440
Speaker 1: a very dry area. Those conditions are our prime for

469
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:53,600
Speaker 1: a wildfire because you've got a lot of dry fuel

470
00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:56,000
Speaker 1: and then if there's any wind then that's going to

471
00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:59,200
Speaker 1: spread that fire around very quickly in that area. So

472
00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:01,280
Speaker 1: that's that's or the purpose of lance at seven. It's

473
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:04,560
Speaker 1: just a kind of identify potential spots where a wildfire

474
00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:07,040
Speaker 1: could develop with the right conditions. I mean, obviously you're

475
00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:10,399
Speaker 1: gonna have to have something that's gonna spark the fire. Guys,

476
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:13,200
Speaker 1: I know this is a super hot topic right now.

477
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:17,960
Speaker 1: We're gonna take a quick break and thank our sponsor.

478
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:29,119
Speaker 1: Also write about in um in popular mechanics about some

479
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:32,560
Speaker 1: software developed by the Canadian inter Agency Forest Fire Center

480
00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:38,200
Speaker 1: UM called Prometheus. Yeah, the Bringer of Fire, Yes, exactly.

481
00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:42,399
Speaker 1: In this case, it's actually designed to identify the likelihood

482
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:47,199
Speaker 1: of fire before it actually starts to burn. Very very

483
00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,280
Speaker 1: cool idea basically using it's sort of like if you

484
00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:53,720
Speaker 1: think about it's sort of like a meteorological models. They're

485
00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:58,399
Speaker 1: taking environmental factors into account, um ecological factors and and

486
00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 1: looking at those to get an idea of the likelihood

487
00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 1: of a forest fire starting and spreading, so they can

488
00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:09,080
Speaker 1: kind of keep an eye on on that before it

489
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:16,800
Speaker 1: even really at conflagration starts. Uh. Speaking of meteorological equipment,

490
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:19,639
Speaker 1: actually a lot of well fire stations tend to have

491
00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:23,679
Speaker 1: a lot of meteorological equipment actually on the station, mounted

492
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:27,040
Speaker 1: on the station because you know, firefighters need to know

493
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:29,800
Speaker 1: this information. If if humidity is high, then they know

494
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:32,840
Speaker 1: that the fire is going to spread more slowly than

495
00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:36,000
Speaker 1: if it were a dry day. Um. They need to

496
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:38,720
Speaker 1: know what the wind speed and direction is because that's

497
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:41,800
Speaker 1: going to affect how they attack a fire. It also

498
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:45,640
Speaker 1: will affect how a fire might spread. So a lot

499
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,280
Speaker 1: of weather equipment is uh, you know you'll find a

500
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:51,080
Speaker 1: lot of weather equipment attached to your typical fire station,

501
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:53,560
Speaker 1: and you know that way they have the most up

502
00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:56,840
Speaker 1: to date information available before they go out to uh

503
00:28:56,960 --> 00:29:00,680
Speaker 1: to fight a fire. Um, you want to hear about

504
00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:03,520
Speaker 1: a couple other cutting edge tools. I ran into. The

505
00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:05,160
Speaker 1: two I've got that I wanted to talk about are

506
00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:09,080
Speaker 1: kind of future potential applications. Yes, did you run across

507
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:13,160
Speaker 1: the controlled impact rescue impact rescue tool? Uh? This is

508
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:16,000
Speaker 1: something if you've heard of the company at raytheon, you

509
00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:21,440
Speaker 1: probably associate them with defense technology and microwave offense. UM,

510
00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:24,960
Speaker 1: but among other things, many many other things. Uh, but

511
00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 1: the this is sort of high end weapons grade firefighting technology. UM.

512
00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:36,160
Speaker 1: If you're looking at a concrete wall and you need

513
00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 1: to get inside because there's a fire on the other side,

514
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:40,880
Speaker 1: and you've you've absolutely got to do this getting through,

515
00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 1: that's going to take you a long time using conventional tools. So, UM,

516
00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:47,640
Speaker 1: this is a prototypical tool, or at least it was

517
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:50,440
Speaker 1: in at the time. This the article I'm used as

518
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:55,400
Speaker 1: as sources written. Um, it uses blank ammunition cartridges and

519
00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:58,920
Speaker 1: fires those into the wall to make the wall crumble

520
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:02,040
Speaker 1: just from the shock waves of firing the blanks. Into

521
00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:05,600
Speaker 1: the wall. UM. The equipment waste about a hundred pounds,

522
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:08,040
Speaker 1: which means that you've got to have to firefighters carrying

523
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:11,560
Speaker 1: the equipment up there. But it doesn't require any electricity.

524
00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:16,000
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's essentially a gun, um. But you

525
00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:20,560
Speaker 1: can use the device to basically pound your way through

526
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:23,080
Speaker 1: a thick concrete wall a lot faster than you could

527
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 1: if you were trying to use a jackhammer or electric saw.

528
00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:30,880
Speaker 1: I can easily see a fictionalized version of that weapon

529
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:34,720
Speaker 1: being used in video games from here on out. UM.

530
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:38,760
Speaker 1: And then, uh, did you read anything about using electricity

531
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:41,600
Speaker 1: to fight fires? Yes? Yes, Uh, that is one of

532
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:43,560
Speaker 1: the ones that I wanted to talk about. Over in

533
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 1: Harvard University, some researchers discovered something interesting. They found that

534
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:51,960
Speaker 1: you know, it's been known that that flames will react

535
00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:55,880
Speaker 1: to an electric field for quite some time. But what

536
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:59,000
Speaker 1: the the researchers at Harvard University found was that by

537
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 1: using a variable electric field, which means they were using

538
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:06,680
Speaker 1: alternating current uh to go to travel across a wire, UM,

539
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:10,200
Speaker 1: they would create this variable electric field, they would direct

540
00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:13,920
Speaker 1: it toward a flame, and they discovered that it would

541
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:18,640
Speaker 1: snuff a flame out and the the What was at

542
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:22,760
Speaker 1: work here was that the the variable electric field was

543
00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:26,480
Speaker 1: actually exerting force un charged particles within the flame itself,

544
00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 1: probably probably carbon particles from what I read. Yeah, and

545
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:34,040
Speaker 1: it and it's pushing those particles away from the fuel source.

546
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:38,640
Speaker 1: So it's literally pushing the flame off the fuel, so

547
00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:40,880
Speaker 1: it snuffs it out, you know, in the fuel. The

548
00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:45,120
Speaker 1: rest of the fuel remains unburned. But this is, um,

549
00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:50,120
Speaker 1: this is just a small kind of laboratory setting, uh

550
00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:52,680
Speaker 1: that you know, it's not a it's not a like

551
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:56,600
Speaker 1: a field test. And moreover, this sort of application is

552
00:31:56,680 --> 00:32:00,640
Speaker 1: really going to be useful for small, confined in spaces.

553
00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:04,000
Speaker 1: So any place where a fire might break out in

554
00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:09,280
Speaker 1: a tiny area like let's say it's a compartment in

555
00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:12,720
Speaker 1: a ship like a navy vessel. It's down below decks

556
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:15,520
Speaker 1: and you have a fire breakout, well, this could be

557
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 1: a good way to contain that fire, to snuff out

558
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:21,880
Speaker 1: that fire quickly. Um. And you you know that you've

559
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:24,640
Speaker 1: got to again a pretty confined space in that when

560
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:26,240
Speaker 1: you're working with that, if you're talking about something like

561
00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:30,640
Speaker 1: a house fire or a wildfire, this approach is not

562
00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:34,000
Speaker 1: necessarily going to be very effective. So it's not like,

563
00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:38,440
Speaker 1: we can just make a massive electric wand pointed at

564
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:41,760
Speaker 1: California and say you're done, no more fires for you.

565
00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:44,400
Speaker 1: It's not gonna happen that way. Plus a lot of

566
00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:46,280
Speaker 1: people are gonna be mad that their tiki torches just

567
00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:52,560
Speaker 1: went out. Nice, thank you. But yeah, you could use

568
00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 1: it to uh um to escape a fire if you

569
00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:58,560
Speaker 1: were in a situation that that's a good point. Yeah,

570
00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:02,240
Speaker 1: you can make a lane um. Yeah. The article i

571
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:04,960
Speaker 1: read on it basically said if you were a firefire

572
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 1: inside of building, and there were a wall of fire

573
00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:10,160
Speaker 1: in front of you, you could you know, create an

574
00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 1: escape route for yourself by using this on a on

575
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:16,360
Speaker 1: a small area enough to to get through and to

576
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 1: the other side. Sercially, yeah, you wouldn't be able to

577
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:21,000
Speaker 1: necessarily put out the fire, but you could at least

578
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:24,560
Speaker 1: create an avenue to get out of that situation. Or

579
00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: it could be used as a sort of augment a

580
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:31,040
Speaker 1: sprinkler system um mounted on the ceiling, so that you could,

581
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:34,160
Speaker 1: you know, use that on a small area within a building,

582
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 1: which would be kind of interesting. I don't know. It

583
00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:38,360
Speaker 1: would sort of depend on the type of equipment the

584
00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:41,680
Speaker 1: that you were working with, and if you had something

585
00:33:41,760 --> 00:33:45,360
Speaker 1: like electronic equipment. Yeah, and we go that you're generating

586
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:49,120
Speaker 1: electronic electric field. You're not shooting lightning out the end

587
00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:51,960
Speaker 1: of something. So that's something to remember. It's not like

588
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:54,320
Speaker 1: you're blasting stuff of lightning and then the fire goes out.

589
00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:58,600
Speaker 1: That's that's that'd be cool, but it's not what's happening.

590
00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:02,280
Speaker 1: Did you read about using acoustic waves to put out flames? No?

591
00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:05,400
Speaker 1: I didn't. All right, So this is another one of

592
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 1: those things where it's an idea that could have potential

593
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:12,320
Speaker 1: but uh, but it's going to take some more tests

594
00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:17,080
Speaker 1: and some more uh experimentation to really find out if

595
00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:20,719
Speaker 1: it's if it's a worthwhile pursuit. The idea is that

596
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:25,680
Speaker 1: you use acoustic waves, so sound to snuff out flames.

597
00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:28,800
Speaker 1: And there were some early experiments done mostly by students,

598
00:34:28,840 --> 00:34:31,920
Speaker 1: really like science students in college level and even lower

599
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:36,279
Speaker 1: where they would use a really sort of a low

600
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:38,760
Speaker 1: frequency sound like we're talking about in the forty hurts

601
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 1: frequency range and boost it up really powerfully and you

602
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:45,279
Speaker 1: and when brought close to a flame, the flame would

603
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:48,520
Speaker 1: go out. And the idea is that we might be

604
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:52,799
Speaker 1: able to use this kind of technology in areas where

605
00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:57,120
Speaker 1: there's UH zero gravity, for example, a space station. So

606
00:34:57,200 --> 00:34:59,000
Speaker 1: if a fire broke out in a space station that

607
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:03,279
Speaker 1: would be at astrophic. It's also really unusual because you know,

608
00:35:03,440 --> 00:35:06,640
Speaker 1: flames behave in our in a really odd way in

609
00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:09,400
Speaker 1: outer space, and it's because of the lack of gravity.

610
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 1: So instead of a you know, a tear dropped shaped

611
00:35:12,719 --> 00:35:15,000
Speaker 1: flame that you might see one on a candle here

612
00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:18,640
Speaker 1: on Earth, in space, it's round because there's no up

613
00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:21,080
Speaker 1: and there's no down. There's no you know, the heat

614
00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:23,400
Speaker 1: doesn't go up. The heat just stays where it is

615
00:35:23,520 --> 00:35:25,880
Speaker 1: and it gets hotter and hotter and hotter, and it

616
00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:28,840
Speaker 1: doesn't But yeah, heat doesn't travel, it doesn't go outward.

617
00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,040
Speaker 1: There's no it's which is kind of hard to get

618
00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:36,440
Speaker 1: your head around. But uh, it's also in the outer space.

619
00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:40,200
Speaker 1: In in a place like the space station, using water

620
00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:44,040
Speaker 1: is not terribly effective either. Um, it doesn't behave the

621
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:46,080
Speaker 1: same way in a zero G environment. Using foam is

622
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:50,120
Speaker 1: really messy and dangerous potentially dangerous as well. So that's

623
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:56,279
Speaker 1: why they're looking at various alternatives to using a physical substance. Um,

624
00:35:57,040 --> 00:36:00,319
Speaker 1: what really the basis of of fighting fire is up

625
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:03,200
Speaker 1: to this point has been chemical. You're you're you're aiming

626
00:36:03,239 --> 00:36:05,000
Speaker 1: at the fuel and you're trying to put out the

627
00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:08,240
Speaker 1: flame that way. Um, this is more of a physical

628
00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:11,160
Speaker 1: way of fighting fire. You're physically finding a way to

629
00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:13,960
Speaker 1: remove the flame from the fuel and thus snuff it out,

630
00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:17,880
Speaker 1: And both the electric field and the acoustic wave methods

631
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,280
Speaker 1: fall into that category. Well, that wraps up another classic

632
00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:24,480
Speaker 1: episode of tech Stuff. I hope you guys enjoyed listening

633
00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:27,880
Speaker 1: to that one. If you have any suggestions for future

634
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,640
Speaker 1: episodes of tech stuff, brand new topics that I haven't

635
00:36:30,719 --> 00:36:33,919
Speaker 1: covered before, send me an email. The address is tech

636
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:37,040
Speaker 1: stuff at how stuff works dot com, or draw me

637
00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:39,600
Speaker 1: a line on Facebook or Twitter. The handle at both

638
00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,920
Speaker 1: of those is text stuff H s W. Don't forget.

639
00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:46,560
Speaker 1: You can find hot, hot hot merchandise over at t

640
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:50,440
Speaker 1: public dot com slash tech Stuff. That's t E E

641
00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:54,320
Speaker 1: Public dot com slash tech stuff. Every purchase helps support

642
00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:57,120
Speaker 1: the show. Plus we've got some really cool designs and

643
00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:59,320
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