Can You Answer All of These Questions a Firefighter Should Know?

Two-in two-out is essentially just a buddy system that firefighters are required to adhere to. Two firefighters should enter a dangerous situation together so that no one is ever alone while two more stay out in case the first two need help.

Pike poles have been in use for many years in firefighting. Essentially just a long pole with a spiked hook on the end, they were once useful for tearing walls down to prevent the spread of fire, and are still helpful in pulling items out from intense heat or ventilating an area.

A fire chief or similar high-ranking officer will be wearing the white helmet at the scene of a fire while most firefighters will wear yellow or black helmets. The reason a high-ranking officer is in a different-colored helmet is to make them easier to spot in a crowd.

Fire engines are sometimes called pumpers, and they are the trucks that will carry tools and hoses and specifically are there to pump water. Engines will have an on-board tank and also the ability to pump water from an outside source. they may have ladders, but they will be smaller.

Because there are so many kinds of trucks, engines and other vehicles, firefighters will refer to them all collectively as apparatus so there's no confusion. In layman's terms, people will often call any vehicle a fire truck or a fire engine, but those terms are not interchangeable.

Firefighters have the option to take on a fire internally or externally. If the work will solely be done outside, the "surround and drown" technique is another name for simply attacking the fire from all sides and potentially from above with water.

The PASS device, or personal alert safety system, is designed to be an emergency distress device. A firefighter in trouble can set off the alarm manually, or if they stop moving for more than 30 seconds the device will sound to alert others.

You don't have to be tested on your ability to sprint as a firefighter, but there are many other physical requirements including raising ladders, forcing your way into a locked building, carrying and dragging hoses and more.

Before pumps and trucks existed, the most effective way to fight a fire was by throwing a bucket of water on it. Bucket brigades were chains of people connecting a water source to a fire, passing buckets at a rapid pace along the chain for a constant flow of water.

Class A fires are what you might call "normal" fires. They're fueled by combustible materials such as wood, paper or trash and include things like house fires. Common suppression techniques are usually effective in fighting these fires.

The National Fire Protection Association is the body that sets national standards for what firefighters are supposed to be doing and how they are doing it. All firefighting equipment, for instance, must meet NFPA regulations.

40% of fire deaths occur in homes that have no smoke alarm while another 17% occur in homes that have smoke alarms that simply aren't working. The death rates in homes with no working smoke alarms are more than twice as high as those with working smoke alarms.

Backdraft can be extremely dangerous and is something firefighters need to be aware of at all times. When a fire is still burning but has used up all the oxygen in a room, reintroducing oxygen by opening a door or window can cause all the fuel in a room to reignite and explode.

An attack hose is the kind of hose you'll want to use to take on a fire. They can come in a range of sizes, but an attack hose for fighting a standard house fire will likely be about 1.5" in diameter.

A quint is another name for a vehicle that combines the functions of both a fire truck and a fire engine. The name refers to the fact it has 5 functions - aerial device, ground ladders, pump, fire hose and water tank.

For a fire to happen, it needs all three elements of the fire triangles - heat, fuel and an oxidizing agent. The agent is usually oxygen and the fuel could be anything from gasoline to paper to a can or garbage. Once heat is added, the conditions are primed for a fire to start.

Class D fires are flammable metal fires and require special methods for fighting. Water should not be used to handle a Class D fire, as it's possible the addition of water could react with metals and make the situation even worse.

There are 5 different classifications for buildings based on what the building is made of and how well it resists fire. This information can be immensely helpful for a firefighter to know since obviously, a building made entirely of wood is more likely to burn than brick

According to NFPA stats, a call is responded to every 24 seconds somewhere in America. Of the 1.3 million fires responded to in 2017, 72% of them were house fires. Those resulted in about 3,400 deaths.

An airport crash tender is a specific fire apparatus meant to deal with the unique challenges of airport fires. They're fast, they have a large water capacity and they can handle rougher terrain if they need to leave the runway.

Smokejumpers do the incredibly dangerous job of parachuting into remote wilderness areas where typical firefighting equipment can't reach to fight a fire. This can obviously be a very dangerous job, and it requires extensive training.

FM-200 is a halocarbon chemical fire suppressant. It's also known by the incredibly unwieldy name "1,1,1,2,3,3,3-Heptafluoropropane" and is useful for fighting fires that can't be exposed to water for safety reasons

27% of all firefighters are between 30 and 39 making them the majority in America. 24% are between 40 and 49 while 21% fall between the ages of 20 and 29. 3% of firefighters are aged 16 to 19 and 8% are over the age of 60.

If a firefighter needed to access a window from an alley where a truck couldn't reach, a hook ladder could be hooked onto a windowsill and climbed up. In fact, firefighters could scale an entire building this way dragging the ladder up to each new floor behind them.

A K-tool is a very simple looking piece of equipment meant to pop a cylinder lock out of a door. A piece of metal with a K-shaped wedge is forced down over the lock, then the firefighter can use a prying tool to yank the entire lock right out of the door.

Only 7.3% of firefighters working in America as of 2017 were women. That works out to about 84,700 women across the country working as firefighters. In a city like New York with just over 11,000 firefighters, that would make around 800 women.

Class K fires are fires caused by cooking oils and fats. There is a classification for fires caused by flammable liquids, but because cooking oil fires were so common and presented unique differences and challenges, they were given their own separate classification.

The Bronto Skylift is a pretty rare fire apparatus and would only see use in larger cities. The massive hydraulic ladder rig can reach the top of a skyscraper to evacuate people in an emergency.

According to the NFPA, the cost of fires in the US was $328.5 billion in 2014 if you take into account both expenditures in dealing with the fire and the loss due to the destruction the fires caused. That's 1.9% of America's gross domestic product!

America's first official fire department was founded January 27, 1678, in Boston. This was six years after the governor took the time to ban people from having wooden chimneys and thatched roofs which were incredible fire hazards.

The deluge gun is known as a deck gun, a fire monitor and even a master stream. Firefighting boats can also have these impressive cannons mounted on them and they can fire upward of 1,000 to 2,000 gallons of water per minute.

NFPA standards describe seven types of fire apparatus which include Pumper Fire Apparatus, Initial Attack Apparatus, Mobile Water Supply Apparatus, Aerial Apparatus, Quint Fire Apparatus, Special Service fire apparatus and Mobile Foam fire apparatus.

According to the NFPA, 35,320,000 calls were placed to fire departments in 2016. 1.3 million were for fires while over 22 million required medical assistance. Compare that to 1980, when there were just over 10 million calls but 3 million fires.

There were 55, 835 injuries during the line of duty in 2017 for firefighters. while that number is high, it's down from 62, 085 in 2016 which is certainly some decent progress overall for a very dangerous line of work.