Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette
Speaker 1: and I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Sitting across from me as usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: I'm an ordinary guy burning down the house. Of course,
Speaker 1: you know, the quotes are usually longer. So I took
Speaker 1: a drink of water. You were done by the time
Speaker 1: I was ready to spit. Um. So we wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about firefighting technology. We actually had a request come
Speaker 1: over Facebook for this and we wanted to. Uh. I
Speaker 1: thought that was a good request, you know, it's an
Speaker 1: interesting concept. We also, I think I got an email
Speaker 1: about it as well. So we've had some some people
Speaker 1: inquire about the technology used in firefighting, and there's a
Speaker 1: wide range of tech that we can talk about. Some
Speaker 1: of it is stuff that is based off of technology
Speaker 1: that's been around for more than a century, and some
Speaker 1: of it is really like space age type stuff. So um,
Speaker 1: I thought I thought I'd start with one of the
Speaker 1: most iconic images when you think about firefighting, which of
Speaker 1: course is the fire engine or fire truck. So, uh,
Speaker 1: I actually live not too far from a fire station,
Speaker 1: and by not too far, I mean adjacent, and uh
Speaker 1: so I get to see fire trucks a lot. As
Speaker 1: it turns out, they're pretty cool things. And of course,
Speaker 1: you know, the main uh, I think the main feature
Speaker 1: on a fire truck has to be the water tank
Speaker 1: that that it holds, you know, and and the water tanks.
Speaker 1: Depending on the size of the truck, the water tank
Speaker 1: can be a different size as well. Like you know,
Speaker 1: it's not unusual to find a fire truck that can
Speaker 1: hold a thousand gallon lens of water on its own.
Speaker 1: And of course that's important because there's no guarantee that
Speaker 1: wherever the fire is is going to be close to
Speaker 1: either a pool of water or a fire hydrant. Um,
Speaker 1: So a fire truck has to be able to carry
Speaker 1: its own portable water supply. But having water on a
Speaker 1: truck is not enough. You have to have a way
Speaker 1: of getting that water out right, so you would need
Speaker 1: some kind of pump. Yes, and uh and fire engines
Speaker 1: have pumps. They have an impeller water pumps and an
Speaker 1: impeller water pump is a diesel powered pump, so it's
Speaker 1: got its own independent diesel engine and it has a
Speaker 1: rotor like device that's got some curved blades on it
Speaker 1: that spin in the water tank. Now, this actually slings
Speaker 1: the water around starts to move it in a circular fashion.
Speaker 1: It builds water pressure, and you relieve that water pressure
Speaker 1: by allowing the water to escape through water lines also
Speaker 1: known as hoses. So they have to go through a
Speaker 1: valve and then it goes through the hose and at
Speaker 1: the whatever is burning thing, whatever is burning thing, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a technical term in the fire fighting trade. So
Speaker 1: the whatever is burning thing gets deluged with water. And
Speaker 1: there's actually some interesting controls on this. There's a series
Speaker 1: of controls. There's a pump panel that allows you to
Speaker 1: either manually control the pumps or some of them are automated.
Speaker 1: They have like a Mastermind control system that actually does
Speaker 1: this automatically. But a typical pump panel will have levers
Speaker 1: on it that allow you to direct where the water
Speaker 1: is going to go through, like which lines it's going
Speaker 1: to go through, and of course that's all going to
Speaker 1: depend upon which lines have been connected to the truck.
Speaker 1: And there are lots of different kinds of water lines also,
Speaker 1: and again when I say water lines there, those are
Speaker 1: essentially the fire hoses, right. Yeah. These are a lot
Speaker 1: different from your garden variety hoses, yes, because they can
Speaker 1: handle a whole lot more pressure and deliver a whole
Speaker 1: lot more water. As Jonathan was saying just a moment ago,
Speaker 1: you can't be certain that you're going to be next
Speaker 1: to a fire hydrant where the fire is and the
Speaker 1: fire truck is going to park on the street. Now,
Speaker 1: if the building, let's say it's the building is burning
Speaker 1: and it's away from the street, you've got to have
Speaker 1: enough water pressure to get to the fire itself. So
Speaker 1: the hoses are long, they're there. Uh, they've got some
Speaker 1: diameter on them, so you can really carry the a
Speaker 1: good amount of water and they've got to be able
Speaker 1: to withstand a lot of pressure. Yeah, and they're also
Speaker 1: they tend to be treated for a mildew resistance as well,
Speaker 1: because one of the big problems with fire hoses before
Speaker 1: the mildew resistant um film was developed was that you
Speaker 1: had to dry them out after you use them, because
Speaker 1: otherwise you would have mildew develop it would start to
Speaker 1: rot the hoses and then the hoses would not be stable.
Speaker 1: You could have a hose rupture while you're trying to
Speaker 1: fight a fire because it's been weakened by mildew. So uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of elements that go into creating these
Speaker 1: these hoses, and I've got a few different types I
Speaker 1: can talk about. Um, the there's usually there's a booster
Speaker 1: line which is only about an inch diameter, and it's
Speaker 1: usually used for small fires like, uh, a minor fire
Speaker 1: inside a building or something like that, or a minor
Speaker 1: brush fire even. Um, then you've got the cross lay hoses.
Speaker 1: These are the main hoses. These are like the workhorses
Speaker 1: of a fire engine. They're located below the pump panel
Speaker 1: and they can pump up to gallons of water per minute. Uh.
Speaker 1: They tend to be about two feet long and they've
Speaker 1: got a diameter of an inch and a half. So
Speaker 1: then you've got the preconnect lines. So like I said,
Speaker 1: you know, you've got all these valves that are attached
Speaker 1: to the fire engine, and they're on all the different
Speaker 1: sides of the fire engine because you never know where
Speaker 1: you're gonna be able to orient the engine in relation
Speaker 1: to the fire. Normally, there is Uh, there are at
Speaker 1: least three lines that are pre connected when an engine
Speaker 1: rolls out of the station, so that way the fire
Speaker 1: fighters have a chance to immediately jump out of the
Speaker 1: truck and start fighting the fire without having to fuss
Speaker 1: with unloading hose, connecting it to the right valve, and
Speaker 1: then engaging the valve and fighting the fire that way.
Speaker 1: So preconnect lines tend to be between an inch and
Speaker 1: a half to two inches in diameter, and they tend
Speaker 1: to be able to pump out around two fifty gallons
Speaker 1: of water per minute. Uh. You've got hoses that are
Speaker 1: designed specifically to hook up to hydrants fire hydrants. Those
Speaker 1: are five inches in diameter, and a fire engine may
Speaker 1: carry up to a thousand feet of this hose, but
Speaker 1: it's in one hundred foot segments. But there are also
Speaker 1: other shorter segments called curb jumper hoses. So let's say
Speaker 1: that the building that you need to get about a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty feet of hose to get to the
Speaker 1: fire at whatever location you're at, and you're hooking it
Speaker 1: up to a hydrant, you might not want to grab
Speaker 1: two lengths of the hydrant hose that's two feet and
Speaker 1: you know you don't only need a hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: um that that means you're going to have an extra
Speaker 1: fifty feet of hose that you're gonna have to maneuver around. Well,
Speaker 1: these curb jumper hose segments are typically in links between
Speaker 1: twenty ft lengths and fifty ft lengths, so that way
Speaker 1: it's easier just to grab a smaller section so that
Speaker 1: you have enough length of hose to get to where
Speaker 1: you're going without having excess. Then you've got your hose pack,
Speaker 1: which is a lighter hose. It's usually a smaller diameter,
Speaker 1: and this is what is used by firefighters if they
Speaker 1: have to go into a building and climb up levels.
Speaker 1: That has to be more portable. You've got the ladder line.
Speaker 1: You know, most of these fire engines have a really
Speaker 1: long ladder that's on the back of them. Well, there's
Speaker 1: a there's a line that is part of that ladder.
Speaker 1: It's actually it's it's uh a direct connection to the ladder.
Speaker 1: It's actually built in. Yeah, it's built in, and there
Speaker 1: is a nozzle at the top of the ladder that
Speaker 1: can shoot out. Well, it's it's usually around three gallons
Speaker 1: per minutes, so it's a pretty powerful hose. And then
Speaker 1: you've got your deluge gun or deck gun. That's what's
Speaker 1: mounted on the top of the pump panel. That's the
Speaker 1: one that you know that if you ever look at
Speaker 1: a fire engine, you see something that looks like a
Speaker 1: turret that's on the fire engine. That's the thing I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. Alright, So we've been talking about hoses that
Speaker 1: can shoot out between gallons and gallons of water the
Speaker 1: day lug gun is no joke. We're talking a thousand
Speaker 1: gallons a minute. Yeah. And you may say, well, if
Speaker 1: you've got a thousand gallons at the tank, does that
Speaker 1: mean that after a minute you've completely exhausted your water supply,
Speaker 1: and the answers, well, yeah, that's what you're if you
Speaker 1: were just using the water in the tank. But you
Speaker 1: can also hook up a line to a m a
Speaker 1: pool or lake or pond and use that water to
Speaker 1: pump into the various lines that you're using now. For that,
Speaker 1: they use a uh a strainer. It's a it's called
Speaker 1: a barrel strainer, and that's what is used to filter
Speaker 1: out debris in ponds and pools and that kind of
Speaker 1: thing in order to be able to use that water
Speaker 1: to fight fires because of course if you get debris
Speaker 1: caught in the line, then you've fouled the line. You
Speaker 1: are you know, in danger of losing the fight against
Speaker 1: the fire. But plus I imagine it would do quite
Speaker 1: a bit of costly damage to the equipment as well. Sure, yes,
Speaker 1: all of that is is uh, you know, an important
Speaker 1: thing to remember when you are trying to to fight fires.
Speaker 1: And then there's also they tend to trucks tend to
Speaker 1: also carry foam, and there's different kinds of foam UH
Speaker 1: that are that's used for different types of fires. Usually
Speaker 1: fire engine may only carry one type of foam, especially
Speaker 1: if it's if it's in an area where UH fires
Speaker 1: are typically one type versus another. For example, a Class
Speaker 1: A foam is a kind of foam that's used to
Speaker 1: soak down an area after you've put out a fire
Speaker 1: to prevent reignition. It's kind of a flame retardant. And
Speaker 1: then you've got UH like class B foam that's the
Speaker 1: stuff that you use to fight flammable liquid fires. So
Speaker 1: like a car fire, you might want to use that
Speaker 1: because of the gasoline problem. So UH, and then the
Speaker 1: the other part about fire engines, they are like mobile
Speaker 1: tool kits. So that's where all the fire fighting tools
Speaker 1: are are mounted in that and you may have some
Speaker 1: pretty low tech stuff in there. I mean things like
Speaker 1: hooks and pikes that are used to tear down walls
Speaker 1: so that you can get at the places where the
Speaker 1: fire is to put the fire out. There's not a
Speaker 1: lot of tech there. But then you may have something
Speaker 1: like a chainsaw. You know chainsaws have that there's this,
Speaker 1: there's some tech there, it's just pretty simple tech. It's
Speaker 1: usually you know, a diesel engine that turns turns the
Speaker 1: chains that you can cut through stuff. But then there's
Speaker 1: also the pretty famous tool I would say that you
Speaker 1: typically will find on a fire engine. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: think I know where you're going with this since you
Speaker 1: just mentioned it a moment ago, but I think, uh,
Speaker 1: it's important to remember before while you're trying to guess
Speaker 1: what this famous tool is that firefighters UM these days
Speaker 1: often do a lot more than fighting fires. They're also
Speaker 1: responsible for, uh doing some paramedic work. UM you know,
Speaker 1: their first responders. So if someone is injured, they often
Speaker 1: call the firefighters out UM on the possibility that in
Speaker 1: addition to medical care, there might be UM a fire
Speaker 1: related to it. And they might need to do both things.
Speaker 1: Like for example, as Jonathan was just pointing out, if
Speaker 1: you had a car wreck and uh, there's a possibility
Speaker 1: that gasoline might spill and catch fire. So you have
Speaker 1: someone trapped in a car, Um, there's a possibility that
Speaker 1: there might be a fire. So who better to send
Speaker 1: than of firefighters who are trained in medical care. But
Speaker 1: the trick is getting them out of the car before
Speaker 1: something bad happens. And that's where that's where this uh,
Speaker 1: this tool comes in. It's called the Jaws of Life.
Speaker 1: And really the Jaws of Life is actually a series
Speaker 1: of tools, is not a single tool. Um, there's a
Speaker 1: company that makes uh these tools, and a company is
Speaker 1: known as the Jaws of Life. Company actually has a
Speaker 1: full name, but it escapes my mind off off the
Speaker 1: top of my head. But let's say not that kind.
Speaker 1: You still haven't seen that movie? Have you have not?
Speaker 1: We had someone asked us earlier. Um, no, he has
Speaker 1: not seen Jaws. So Jaws of Life is Jaws of life.
Speaker 1: It's a hydraulic lee powered tool and by that we
Speaker 1: mean it uses a fluid to create uh pressure and
Speaker 1: move heavy duty tool elements. And uh, let's I guess
Speaker 1: that a little digression on hydraulic fluid would be a
Speaker 1: good idea here. So, hydraulic fluid is a fluid that
Speaker 1: is typically it's it's not compressible. It's incompressible, and by that,
Speaker 1: I mean you cannot squish it, right Like most things
Speaker 1: that we think about, there's a little squish factor. But
Speaker 1: hydraulic fluid is a has to be incompressible and that
Speaker 1: means that the fluids that maximum density, you cannot cram
Speaker 1: them the the molecules of that fluid any tighter than
Speaker 1: it already is. So if you flot pressure on it,
Speaker 1: it's going to push. Yeah. Like if you have a
Speaker 1: a cylinder filled with hydraulic fluid and uh, you're you're
Speaker 1: trying to push a press, a piston into the cylinder
Speaker 1: at the point where everything is connected. You have a
Speaker 1: you know, the solid cylinder at one end, and then
Speaker 1: the piston starts to push on it. There's a point
Speaker 1: at which the piston is not going to be able
Speaker 1: to push anymore because it is it is compressed as
Speaker 1: far as it can go and it will not compress
Speaker 1: any further. And you can use that to do work.
Speaker 1: And there are plenty of tools that do use this
Speaker 1: and uh, the jaws of life to use a phosphate
Speaker 1: ester fluid. A lot of hydraulic fluid systems will use
Speaker 1: an oil based fluid. As you can imagine, oil based
Speaker 1: fluids are not necessarily the best thing to have in
Speaker 1: firefighting equipment. Yeah, So phosphate esther is non flammable and
Speaker 1: non conductive. So the these hydraulic tools, the jaws of
Speaker 1: light there are actually, like I said, a line of them,
Speaker 1: and the ones that are typically used in firefighting are cutters,
Speaker 1: which do what they sound like they do. They are
Speaker 1: designed to cut through stuff. So for example, the body
Speaker 1: of a car, because the hydraulic pressure is such that
Speaker 1: it will cause the the pinch, the the cutting edges
Speaker 1: of this device to close. It's such a force that
Speaker 1: metal just crumbles. And then you've got spreaders. Spreaders are
Speaker 1: kind of like you know, imagine a pair of pliers
Speaker 1: and you open them. That's kind of what spreaders are doing.
Speaker 1: They in reverse. Yeah, you shove shove it into a
Speaker 1: gap and then you start the hydraulic motor and or
Speaker 1: actually start the diesel motor and that starts the hydraulic fluid. Uh,
Speaker 1: it pushes hydrug fluid through and makes it do work,
Speaker 1: and that's what causes the pincers to open and then
Speaker 1: you pop open whatever it is you were trying to open,
Speaker 1: or it tears apart one one or the other. And
Speaker 1: then hydraulic rams. So those are the three that are
Speaker 1: used the most frequently in firefighting UH scenarios. So uh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of We actually have an article on how
Speaker 1: the jaws of life work and it goes into detail
Speaker 1: on each of those tools. So if you want to
Speaker 1: learn more about it, I do recommend that it's a
Speaker 1: very useful resource. And then also I guess I should
Speaker 1: mention what we're talking about hydraulics. The ladder on the
Speaker 1: fire trucks, those are operated through hydraulics as well. There's
Speaker 1: a piston that is uh has got especially two different
Speaker 1: hoses connected to it, and the hydraulic fluid will either
Speaker 1: it cause the ladder to extend upward or to come
Speaker 1: back down. So those are that's your basic fire engine
Speaker 1: from from too back. I mean, there's there's a lot
Speaker 1: more we could talk about, but there's so much more
Speaker 1: firefighting technology. I didn't want to just have this all
Speaker 1: be about fire engines. So what do you want to
Speaker 1: talk about next, Well, most of what I got is
Speaker 1: sort of high tech, cutting edge type stuff. UM. One
Speaker 1: thing that that we should talk about, probably UM to
Speaker 1: some extent, or maybe we could cover it later if
Speaker 1: you want to go with all the high tech stuff
Speaker 1: now is the stuff that the firefighters actually wear on
Speaker 1: their person themselves. Sure, yeah, let's talk about that. Because
Speaker 1: we just talked about fire engines, we should talk about
Speaker 1: the fire gear that the the firefighters are wearing. UM.
Speaker 1: This is they wear a lot, Yes, they do. UM.
Speaker 1: Of course they have to try to stay protected from um,
Speaker 1: the heat that's you know, it depends on what's burning,
Speaker 1: of course. Uh. Some some different types of materials will
Speaker 1: burn hotter than other materials. UM. And certainly don't want
Speaker 1: to have a firefighter go inside to rescue a person
Speaker 1: or to get at the source of a fire and
Speaker 1: have them uh pass out from the heat or to
Speaker 1: to be overcome by heat and smoke inhalation. UM. So
Speaker 1: you have to you know, protect them externally and and
Speaker 1: make sure that they uh they can breathe, make sure
Speaker 1: that they could see, and and you know, keep them
Speaker 1: as cool as possible. UM. One one jacket that I
Speaker 1: read about that was really cool. It's actually called turnout
Speaker 1: gear UM, which is a basically the the heavy duty
Speaker 1: jacket that you might see them where. It's actually from
Speaker 1: a company called Viking UM. But it's got thermal sensors
Speaker 1: built into the jacket itself. Now, not not that this
Speaker 1: is sort of again sort of cutting edge, but this, uh,
Speaker 1: this different thing has sensors on the outside which change
Speaker 1: depending on There's an LED display UM on the jacket
Speaker 1: and it will tell you at you know, at what
Speaker 1: point it is going to be a serious issue that
Speaker 1: he is going to be a serious heat is going
Speaker 1: to be too hot for the suit's integrity. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: and the firefighter will be a danger. Yeah. Well, the
Speaker 1: thing is that it monitors what's going on outside and inside.
Speaker 1: So by looking at the firefighter, you know, another firefighter
Speaker 1: could say, look, you know, he's in danger right now
Speaker 1: being where he is, and needs to get out of
Speaker 1: there because he may not be able to tell uh
Speaker 1: what's going on. He may be so focused on fighting
Speaker 1: the fire that he may be ignoring a potentially dangerous
Speaker 1: situation for himself in the heat of the moment. Yes, apparently,
Speaker 1: when the outer temperature of where the fire is gets
Speaker 1: too about four two degrees fahrenheit UM. The display, the
Speaker 1: LED display starts to flash and it's six d sixty
Speaker 1: two degrees fahrenheit UM. It will start flashing very fast.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine being in anything that hot. It's interesting because, well,
Speaker 1: first of all, I got to know paper burns a
Speaker 1: fare knight. But I was gonna I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of interesting because if you look
Speaker 1: at the history of the heat resistant materials that firefighters
Speaker 1: have worn, the go to material for quite some time
Speaker 1: was called nomex, which as a fire resistant material, it's
Speaker 1: similar to nylon. It's kind of the same sort of
Speaker 1: a feel of nylon, but it can withstand really intense heat.
Speaker 1: As the type of meta aramid fiber, which really you
Speaker 1: just need to know, that's a heat resistant synthetic fiber
Speaker 1: that was developed in the lab and um it's actually
Speaker 1: kind of a sort of a distant relative to kevlar um,
Speaker 1: which is a much more resilient, not necessarily heat resistant,
Speaker 1: but physically resilient material. So no mix was the standard
Speaker 1: for a really long time. Back in the Houston Fire
Speaker 1: Department partnered with NASA to develop a Originally it was
Speaker 1: just to develop a new helmet for firefighters. But then eventually,
Speaker 1: through the partnership NASA suggested that perhaps they could completely
Speaker 1: redesign the fire fighter suit, and they started to create
Speaker 1: suits that would circulate liquids within the suits lining in
Speaker 1: order to remove heat so that it would protect the
Speaker 1: firefighter longer in in intense heat conditions, because before that point,
Speaker 1: the Houston firefighters were really only rated to go into
Speaker 1: areas that were three hundred degrees fahrenheit or cooler. Afterward
Speaker 1: they could go into areas that were five hundred degrees
Speaker 1: fahrenheit or cooler. And now you're talking about a system
Speaker 1: where you know, it warns you at four two, which
Speaker 1: is right around that you know, that five hundred degree
Speaker 1: range that was just talking about, but it goes all
Speaker 1: the way up to six, suggesting that this material is
Speaker 1: even more resilient than the stuff that was made back
Speaker 1: in NASA. One of the other cool things that they
Speaker 1: added in that that same project where they were redesigning
Speaker 1: the helmet, they created an improved two way radio link
Speaker 1: ups in the helmets themselves, and they also created a
Speaker 1: infrared camera system so that you can so that the
Speaker 1: firefighter could switch to a thermal view and see hot
Speaker 1: spots in the house and will also help firefighters identify
Speaker 1: if any victims were UH in the area, so that
Speaker 1: they you know, they could see the heat from a person,
Speaker 1: then they would know that they needed to UH to
Speaker 1: you know, you might not be able to see because
Speaker 1: the smoke might be so thick. And Actually, infrared cameras
Speaker 1: play a really big role in firefighting technology across the board,
Speaker 1: not just in personal firefighter gear, but for example, a
Speaker 1: helicopter flying over a wildfire might be equipped. In fact,
Speaker 1: most of them are equipped with infrared cameras and infrared
Speaker 1: lenses so that they can so the pilot or the
Speaker 1: watch's not really the pilot, but a firefighter aboard the
Speaker 1: helicopter can look through and see the hot spots and
Speaker 1: see the flames even if the smoke is so thick
Speaker 1: that you couldn't see anything, you know, just through a
Speaker 1: regular view to the ground. I'm sorry that was a
Speaker 1: big digression, but you were going back to the cutting
Speaker 1: edge gear. Yeah, actually, uh we we can keep going
Speaker 1: with that because I was reading an article on Popular
Speaker 1: Mechanics about some of the different cutting edge firefighting tools
Speaker 1: UM some firefighters for for things like uh scenarios like that,
Speaker 1: you're talking about a fire in the in the wilderness,
Speaker 1: UM are using unmanned aircraft yeah, to monitor areas and
Speaker 1: using UM infrared technology to identify places where uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you can really concentrate on on fighting the fire. The
Speaker 1: thing is, UM, we haven't really talked about it yet.
Speaker 1: It's on our list of things to do. But these
Speaker 1: unmanned aerial vehicles can stay in the air far longer
Speaker 1: than UH piloted human piloted aircraft. They can stay in
Speaker 1: the air for h well, the ones that they use
Speaker 1: in them the military can you stay in the air
Speaker 1: for almost a day I think maybe even longer. And
Speaker 1: they can fly through thick smoke that a a pilot,
Speaker 1: depending on the type of aircraft, may not be able
Speaker 1: to fly through because you know, smaller aircraft, which is
Speaker 1: often what's being used to fight fires, uses a lot
Speaker 1: of line of sight UH navigational UH techniques rather than
Speaker 1: flying by instruments. So if you're gonna fly into an
Speaker 1: area that's that's got a really low visibility, that's very
Speaker 1: dangerous for the pilot. So it's much more safe to
Speaker 1: use a pilotless drone. I mean, you've got the person
Speaker 1: who's controlling it is controlling it from a a workstation
Speaker 1: as opposed to in a cockpit. UM that Yeah, did
Speaker 1: you come across the the And I'm probably gonna butcher
Speaker 1: this name because my Native American languages are non existent
Speaker 1: uh icona, I, k h A in A. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a It's a predator b drone that NASA has UM
Speaker 1: that is specifically designed to to fly through areas that
Speaker 1: are either threatened by wildfires are actually currently in experiencing wildfire.
Speaker 1: It's got a lot of sensors on it allow it
Speaker 1: to UH to detect exactly the intensity and location of
Speaker 1: a fire to help firefighting strategies. Yeah, you don't typically
Speaker 1: think of NASA as being a firefighting agency, but they
Speaker 1: have been partnering with in the United States Forest Service
Speaker 1: and developing this technology and working on ways to keep
Speaker 1: forest fires from getting out of control. UM. There's also
Speaker 1: moderate resolution Imaging Spectra Radiometer or modus UM, and basically
Speaker 1: that's a there are two satellites in orbit around the Earth. UM.
Speaker 1: They're using instrumentation that can detect electromagnetic radiation UM and
Speaker 1: so basically, over the course of a day or two UH,
Speaker 1: modus is keeping an eye on on the earth to
Speaker 1: look for radiation that would indicate where where there's smoke
Speaker 1: and there's fire, um, and you can look at things
Speaker 1: like uh, you can sort of overlay this with areas
Speaker 1: of population density, areas of vegetation, things that might um
Speaker 1: indicate that there is a serious imminent danger of say
Speaker 1: a fire spreading if it's going to get to a
Speaker 1: grassland or you know, coming close enough to an area
Speaker 1: of population density where you need to start evacuating people
Speaker 1: to keep them out of the way. UM. You know
Speaker 1: it's using satellite imaging is uh a very sophisticated way
Speaker 1: of fighting fires because you can get a uh I
Speaker 1: feel pardon the well worn expression, and the big picture
Speaker 1: view of what's really going on. And in a fire
Speaker 1: of a size like that, of course, that's a much
Speaker 1: bigger fire than the ones we were starting out the
Speaker 1: podcast talking about. Yeah, yeah, I mean, NASA has done
Speaker 1: a lot of work with satellites and fire detection. I
Speaker 1: mean back in two thousand three, that's when they started
Speaker 1: to to develop a software that would scan for for
Speaker 1: fires and then uh, if a fire was detected, then
Speaker 1: NASA direct a more powerful satellite to look at that
Speaker 1: area specifically, there's also the landsat seven satellite, which is
Speaker 1: designed to detect moisture levels and and forested areas to
Speaker 1: determine likely spots where wildfires could form, because of course,
Speaker 1: the wildfire is more likely to form in a very
Speaker 1: dry area. Those conditions are our prime for a wildfire
Speaker 1: because you've got a lot of dry fuel, and then
Speaker 1: if there's any wind, then that's going to spread that
Speaker 1: fire around very quickly in that area. So that's that's
Speaker 1: sort of the purpose of lands at seven. It's just
Speaker 1: a kind of identify potential spots where a wildfire could
Speaker 1: develop with the right conditions. I mean, obviously you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to have something that's gonna spark the fire. I
Speaker 1: also write about in UM in Popular Mechanics about some
Speaker 1: software developed by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center UM
Speaker 1: called Prometheus Unice the Bringer of Fire, Yes, exactly. In
Speaker 1: this case, it's actually designed to identify the likelihood of
Speaker 1: fire before it actually starts to burn. Very very cool idea.
Speaker 1: Basically using it's sort of like if you think about
Speaker 1: it's sort of like a meteorological models. They're taking environmental
Speaker 1: factors into account. Um ecological factors and and looking at
Speaker 1: those two to get an idea of the likelihood of
Speaker 1: a forest fire starting and spreading, so they can kind
Speaker 1: of keep an eye on on that before it even
Speaker 1: really a conflagration starts. Uh, thank you. Speaking of meteorological equipment, actually,
Speaker 1: a lot of fire stations tend to have a lot
Speaker 1: of meteorological equipment actually on the station, mounted on the
Speaker 1: station because you know, firefighters need to know this information.
Speaker 1: If if humidity is high, then they know that the
Speaker 1: fire is going to spread more slowly than if it
Speaker 1: were a dry day. Um. They need to know what
Speaker 1: the wind speed and direction is because that's going to
Speaker 1: affect how they attack a fire. It also will affect
Speaker 1: how a fire might spread it. So a lot of
Speaker 1: weather equipment is uh. You know, you'll find a lot
Speaker 1: of weather equipment attached to your typical fire station, and
Speaker 1: you know that way they have the most up to
Speaker 1: date information available before they go out to uh to
Speaker 1: fight a fire. Um. You want to hear about a
Speaker 1: couple other cutting edge tools. I ran into the two
Speaker 1: I've got that I wanted to talk about are kind
Speaker 1: of future potential applications. Yes, did you run across the
Speaker 1: controlled impact rescue impact rescue tool. Uh. This is something
Speaker 1: if you've heard of the company at raytheon, you probably
Speaker 1: associate them with defense technology and microwave offons. Um, but
Speaker 1: among other things, many many other things. Uh. But the
Speaker 1: this is sort of high end weapons grade firefighting technology. UM.
Speaker 1: If you're looking at a concrete wall and you need
Speaker 1: to get inside because there's a fire on the other side,
Speaker 1: and you've you've absolutely got to do this getting through,
Speaker 1: that's going to take you a long time using conventional tools. So, UM,
Speaker 1: this is a prototypical tool, or at least it was
Speaker 1: in at the time. This the article I'm used as
Speaker 1: sources written. Um. It uses blank ammunition cartridges and fires
Speaker 1: those into the wall to make the wall crumble just
Speaker 1: from the shock waves of firing the blanks into the wall. UM.
Speaker 1: The equipment waste about a hundred pounds, which means that
Speaker 1: you've got to have to firefighters carrying the equipment up there.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't require any electricity. You know, it's it's
Speaker 1: essentially a gun. UM. But you can use the the
Speaker 1: device to basically pound your way through a thick concrete
Speaker 1: wall a lot faster than you could if you were
Speaker 1: trying to use a jackhammer or electric saw. I can
Speaker 1: easily see a fictionalized version of that weapon being used
Speaker 1: in video games from here on out. UM. And then, uh,
Speaker 1: did you read anything about using electricity to fight fires? Yes? Uh,
Speaker 1: that is one of the ones that I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about. Over in Harve University, some researchers discovered something interesting.
Speaker 1: They found that you know, it's been known that that
Speaker 1: flames will react to an electric field for quite some time.
Speaker 1: But what the the researches that, however, University found was
Speaker 1: that by using a variable electric field, which means they
Speaker 1: were using alternating current uh to go to travel across
Speaker 1: a wire, um, they would create this variable electric field,
Speaker 1: they would direct it toward a flame, and they discovered
Speaker 1: that it would snuff a flame out. And the the
Speaker 1: what was at work here was that the the variable
Speaker 1: electric field was actually exerting force on charged particles within
Speaker 1: the flame itself, probably probably carbon particles from what I read. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it and it's pushing those particles away from the
Speaker 1: fuel source. So it's literally pushing the flame off the fuel,
Speaker 1: so it snuffs it out, you know, in the fuel
Speaker 1: the rest of the fuel remains unburned. But this is
Speaker 1: UM this is just a small kind of laboratory setting,
Speaker 1: uh that. You know, it's not a it's not a
Speaker 1: like a field test. And moreover, this sort of application
Speaker 1: is really going to be useful for small, confined spaces.
Speaker 1: So any place where a fire might break out in
Speaker 1: a tiny area, like let's say it's a compartment in
Speaker 1: a ship like a navy vessel. It's down below decks
Speaker 1: and you have a fire breakout, while this could be
Speaker 1: a good way to contain that fire, to snuff out
Speaker 1: that fire quickly, um, and you you know that you've
Speaker 1: got a again, a pretty confined space in that when
Speaker 1: you're working with that. If you're talking about something like
Speaker 1: a house fire or a wildfire, this approach is not
Speaker 1: necessarily going to be very effective. So it's not like
Speaker 1: we can just make a massive electric wand pointed at
Speaker 1: California and say you're done, no more fires for you.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna happen that way. Plus a lot of
Speaker 1: people are going to be mad that their tiki torches
Speaker 1: just went out. Nice, thank you. But yeah, you could
Speaker 1: use it to uh um to escape a fire if
Speaker 1: you were in a situation they that's a good point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can make a lane. Yeah. Um, yeah. The article
Speaker 1: I read on it basically said if you were a
Speaker 1: firefire inside of building and there were a wall of
Speaker 1: fire in front of you, you could you know, create
Speaker 1: an escape route for yourself by using this on a
Speaker 1: on a small area enough to to get through and
Speaker 1: to the other side. Satially, yeah, you wouldn't be able
Speaker 1: to necessarily put out the fire, but you could at
Speaker 1: least create an avenue to get out of that situation.
Speaker 1: Or it could be used as a sort of augment
Speaker 1: a sprinkler system um mounted on the ceiling, so that
Speaker 1: you could you know, use that on a small area
Speaker 1: within and building, which would be kind of interesting. I
Speaker 1: don't know. It would sort of depend on the type
Speaker 1: of equipment the that you were working with, and if
Speaker 1: you had something like electronic equipment. Yeah, when you get
Speaker 1: a robber that you're generating an electronic electric field. You're
Speaker 1: not shooting lightning out the end of something, So that's
Speaker 1: something to remember. It's not like you're blasting stuff of
Speaker 1: lightning and then the fire goes out. That's that's that'd
Speaker 1: be cool, but it's not what's happening. Did you read
Speaker 1: about using acoustic waves to put out flames? All right,
Speaker 1: So this is another one of those things where it's
Speaker 1: an idea that could have potential, but but it's going
Speaker 1: to take some more tests and some more uh experimentation
Speaker 1: to really find out if it's if it's a worthwhile pursuit.
Speaker 1: The idea is that you use acoustic waves, so sound
Speaker 1: to snuff out flames. And there were some early experiments
Speaker 1: done mostly by students, really like science students in college
Speaker 1: level and even lower where they would use a really
Speaker 1: sort of a low frequency sound like we're talking about
Speaker 1: in the forty hurts frequency range and boost it up
Speaker 1: really powerfully and you and when brought close to a flame,
Speaker 1: the flame would go out. And the idea is that
Speaker 1: we might be able to use this kind of technology
Speaker 1: in areas where there's uh zero gravity, for example a
Speaker 1: space station, So if a fire broke out in a
Speaker 1: space station that would be catastrophic. It's also really unusual
Speaker 1: because you know, flames behave in a in a really
Speaker 1: odd way in outer space, and it's because of the
Speaker 1: lack of gravity. So instead of a you know, a
Speaker 1: tear dropped shaped flame that you might see one on
Speaker 1: a candle here on Earth, in space, it's round because
Speaker 1: there's no up and there's no down. There's no you know,
Speaker 1: the heat doesn't go up. The heat just stays where
Speaker 1: it is and it gets hotter and hotter and hotter,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't But yeah, heat doesn't travel, it doesn't
Speaker 1: go outward. There's no one. It's which it's kind of
Speaker 1: hard to get your head around. But uh, it's also
Speaker 1: in an outer space. In in a place like the
Speaker 1: space station, using water is not terribly effective either. Um,
Speaker 1: it doesn't be the same way in a zero G environment.
Speaker 1: Using foam is really messy and dangerous, potentially dangerous as well.
Speaker 1: So that's why they're looking at various alternatives to using
Speaker 1: a physical substance. Um. What really the basis of of
Speaker 1: fighting fires up to this point has been chemical. You're
Speaker 1: you're you're aiming at the fuel and you're trying to
Speaker 1: put out the flame that way. Um, this is more
Speaker 1: of a physical way of fighting fire. You're physically finding
Speaker 1: a way to remove the flame from the fuel and
Speaker 1: thus snuff it out. And both the electric field and
Speaker 1: the acoustic wave methods fall into that category. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm tapped out. Do you have anything else you want
Speaker 1: to add before we sign off? No? But I think
Speaker 1: you know, and over the course of talking about these things,
Speaker 1: there there are other firefighting technologies we didn't talk about
Speaker 1: we might back and revisit. I'm interested in maybe revisiting
Speaker 1: it in the future. I do also want to point
Speaker 1: out that, um uh, you know, all these technologies are
Speaker 1: very important to people who are very important to us
Speaker 1: because they help protect us. And um I just want
Speaker 1: to send our thanks. You know, they speak for you,
Speaker 1: the firefighters of the world, for for looking out for
Speaker 1: all of us, because you have a very difficult job. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The the the training regiment alone to become a firefighter
Speaker 1: is one of the most difficult things I've read about.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's up there with you know, the
Speaker 1: elite military training in a way. I mean, and they
Speaker 1: have to go through some pretty intense situations just to
Speaker 1: get to the point where they're putting their lives at
Speaker 1: risk to help you. So, yeah, my hat is off
Speaker 1: to the firefighters out there. Thank you, men and women
Speaker 1: of the various firefighting agencies. Um So that wraps it
Speaker 1: up for this discussion. If you guys have any specific
Speaker 1: fields of technology would like us to tackle, let us know.
Speaker 1: You can let us know on Twitter. And Facebook are handled.
Speaker 1: There is tech Stuff hs W, or you can send
Speaker 1: us an email. That address is tech Stuff at How
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