But most house fires are preventable — anyone can create a fire escape plan and make sure your smoke detectors are working properly. Here are the top fire safety tips to learn and practice in your home.

How to prevent house fires

US fire departments respond to a house fire every 24 seconds. That’s more than 3,000 fires each day. House fires can occur for a variety of reasons, but many are preventable. Unattended cooking is the leading cause of house fires, accounting for half of house fires in 2015, followed by heating equipment, electrical malfunction, intentional fires and smoking materials.

You can take necessary steps today to reduce your risk of house fires. Here’s how:

• Install and maintain smoke alarms on every floor of your home and within every bedroom. Roughly half of house fire deaths occur during the night, while people are sleeping.
• Never leave food cooking unattended, especially deep fryers and other frying equipment.
• Avoid using portable and fixed space heaters, as heating equipment is the second leading cause of house fire deaths.
• Create a fire plan that gets you out of your home in less than 2 minutes and practice it.
• Avoid smoking in the house.

Electrical safety and house fire prevention

Electrical malfunctions are one of the leading causes of house fires. The best way to prevent them is to hire a qualified electrician to make any changes in your home’s wiring. In addition, be sure to check electrical cords regularly, and make sure cords do not run across doorways or under carpets where they could be damaged. Remember to limit the number of plugs you have in an electrical outlet or power strip. Overloading an electrical outlet can not only trip a breaker, but it could also start a fire. Additionally, only use light bulbs that match the recommended wattage for each lamp. Your lamps and light fixtures should have a sticker that indicates the maximum wattage light bulb you may use.

Testing your smoke detector could save your life

Every smoke alarm should be tested monthly by pushing the “test” button, and batteries should be changed when needed. It is best to always have at least one spare battery. If your smoke alarm ever “chirps,” it is time to replace the battery immediately. Most smoke alarm failures occur because of a missing, disconnected or dead battery.

The National Fire Protection Association estimates that three out of every five house fire deaths resulted from fires where there were non-working smoke detectors or no smoke detectors at all. Having the proper fire safety equipment in your home can truly save your life. There are many brands and types of smoke alarms you can choose from. You can purchase a smoke detector with a full home security system and have it monitored through a provider’s monitoring center. When choosing the best smoke alarm, look for one that meets the Underwriters Laboratories Standard with the UL label on the packaging.

Where to install smoke detectors

The NFPA recommends installing a smoke alarm on every floor, including the basement, and inside every sleeping room. Because smoke rises during a fire, smoke alarms should be mounted high on a wall not more than a foot from the ceiling or on the ceiling.

• Kitchen: It is critical to mount smoke alarms in the kitchen at least 10 feet from any cooking appliance to minimize false alarms when cooking.
• Basement: Smoke alarms in the basement should be installed on the ceiling near the bottom step of the stairs up to the first floor.

How to use a fire extinguisher

Fire extinguishers are helpful for putting out small fires. You can contact your local fire department for fire extinguisher training. Or, follow these simple recommendations from the US Fire Administration. To operate a fire extinguisher, remember the word “PASS:”

• Pull the pin. Hold the fire extinguisher with the nozzle pointing away from you and remove the pin to unlock it.
• Aim low. Point the nozzle at the base of the fire.
• Squeeze the lever slowly and evenly.
• Sweep the nozzle from side to side.

Fire extinguishers should be checked regularly and tested by a professional every few years.

Different types of fire extinguishers

It’s also useful to know that there are five different types of fire extinguishers for putting out different kinds of fires.

• Class A extinguishers: For use on materials like cloth, wood and paper.
• Class B extinguishers: For use on combustible and flammable liquids like oil, gasoline and grease.
• Class C extinguishers: Best for electrical equipment and appliances like stoves, televisions and computers.
• Class D extinguishers: For use with flammable metals.
• Class K extinguishers: Best for cooking oils commonly found in commercial kitchens, including vegetable oil.

Most dwellings have a multipurpose extinguisher that covers Classes A, B and C. You can purchase these types of fire extinguishers at any home improvement store.

Create an fire escape plan with your family

House fires can rapidly spread, and every second counts. Your fire escape plan should allow you and your family to get out of the house in under two minutes once the alarm sounds.

Here some tips for creating your fire escape plan:

• Draw a floor plan of your entire house that shows all the doors and windows.
• Show and discuss the plan with everyone in the house.
• Identify at least two ways out of every room, if possible. This could be through doors or windows.
• Once outside, everyone should meet at an agreed-upon meeting place a safe distance from the house. It could be the mailbox or the neighbor’s fence. Just make sure it is easy for young children to get there.

Everyone in your family should know how to dial 911 in the case of an emergency. In addition, teach your children what a smoke alarm sounds like and what to do if they hear one.

You can also download a kid-friendly fire escape planning worksheet and complete it with your family.

Basic fire safety tips for kids and families

Help your family stay safe in the event of a fire. Do not let children play with matches, lighters or candles. Keep these items up and away from young children. In addition, teach your kids these basic fire safety tips to help ensure they know what to do during a fire emergency.

• Teach children that if a doorknob is hot, you should NOT open the door.
• Teach children how to “Stop, drop and roll.”
• Teach your kids to crawl on their hands and knees if they see smoke.
• Take your child to the fire department to meet a firefighter. This way, they learn what a firefighter looks like in their fire gear.
• Teach your child to never hide under the bed or in the closet.

There’s no guarantee that a fire will never happen in your home. That’s why it’s important to be prepared and take steps to reduce the risk of a house fire. Follow the three P’s: prevent, plan and practice. Make sure your home has working smoke alarms, your family has a fire escape plan, and you have practiced it.

Because damage can be widespread and severe, responders need effective and rapid consequence modeling of the hazardous materials emanating from a fire.

Fire and explosion accidents are of major concern to the owners and operators of refineries and petrochemical, gas processing, terminal, and offshore facilities. Statistics have shown that the majority of monetary loss in these types of complexes is due to fire and explosion.

According to statistics, 77 percent of the monetary loss in refinery and petrochemical complexes is due to fire and explosion.1 The breakout of accidents due to fire and explosion is 65 percent vessel (container) and vapor cloud explosion and 35 percent fire. The causes of these accidents are mostly attributed to mechanical issues, process upset, and operator error.

Fire in an industrial setting can pose a number of hazards for the facility, its personnel, and the surrounding communities and can result in an assortment of damage. The release of a flammable material may result in several scenarios: a fireball, pool fire, flash fire, flare or jet fire, and an unconfined vapor cloud explosion.

Two of the main inherent hazards associated with fires are thermal radiation and smoke. Smoke is defined as the products of combustion, including toxic gases, water vapor, and carbon soot particles. The smoke created from fire poses two types of danger. Soot particles may obscure visibility, and hazardous chemicals may constitute a health hazard due to inhalation and eye irritation.

A fire also may present indirect hazards. One is its possible impingement on a vessel containing liquid, such as a large storage tank. In this circumstance, a condition called BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) may occur. Boilover is a second indirect hazard caused by the effects of a fire. Boilover is especially dangerous when water is used to put out oily hydrocarbon liquid fires from a vessel. In the following paragraphs, we describe each of the above items in more detail.

Types of Fire Hazards

Thermal radiation. One of the main dangers of fire is its thermal radiation and the effect of that radiation on people and property. Thermal radiation diminishes with the inverse square of distance. The American Petroleum Institute and TNO, a Dutch research group, have published books explaining how to estimate the thermal radiation impact and the radiation’s estimated damage potential based on distance from a fire. According to these guides, the thermal radiation necessary to generate second degree burns on exposed skin is 9500W/m2 (~370 C), given an exposure duration of more than 20 seconds.

Smoke. Fires generate smoke, which is a mixture of soot particles, toxic gases, and water vapor. Factors such as smoke yield, fire size, particle size, and ambient conditions dictate smoke’s transport into the environment. Studies show that soot particles can be generated in a range of 0 to 20 percent of fuel by weight during a pool fire. However, the air-to-fuel ratio and the amount of carbon in the molecular structure of chemicals play a major role in soot yield.

A higher soot rate is expected for a large pool fire with heavy hydrocarbon fuels. Soot particles in a range of 0.01 to 10 microns are respirable and can penetrate into the alveolar region of the lungs. A mean soot particle size for the majority of these fuels can be considered 5 microns. The generated soot particles may adsorb toxic gases from the products of combustion, which present public health concerns due to the inhalation potential of these toxic particles. Given this, the downwind dispersion and deposition of these particles and their effects on the environment and humans is of major concern.

For example, consider a pool fire of 4500 Kg crude oil in a diameter of 40 meters that generates a soot particle plume. The soot particles yield a maximum of 20 percent of crude oil mass. The weather conditions are assumed to be unstable with a wind speed of 5 m/s and ambient temperature of 70º F.

Soot particle concentrations are considered in the three isopleth levels of 1, 10, and 100 mg/m3. In this case, the soot particles are rising to high elevation due to high temperature and buoyancy. Thereafter, the soot particle plume starts to touch the ground about 1,200 meters distance from the fire source. In this example, calculations show soot particles can expose a region of 4,500 meters distance, after two hours of simulation, which would represent the area to be notified of possible evacuation or shelter-in-place.

Ground-level soot particle deposition occurs in a wide area with a distance of 8,000 meters. The isopleth concentrations on the ground are defined in the three levels of 1, 10, and 100 mg/m2. This mapped information helps hazmat and emergency responders to identify the high impact areas of soot particle deposition for immediate evacuation. However, it should be noted that wind speed and direction, pool fire size, soot yield, and soot particle size can change the impact of the soot plume on the environment and the population located near the fire.

Deliberate ignition

Fire can sometimes be a great tool for mitigating a hazardous chemical’s potential impact. The technique of igniting gases containing hazardous chemical substances has been successfully used for many years at oil and gas well sites. A prime example is the sour gas from wells; considerable amounts of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) are contained in the natural gas.

Hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs and is extremely toxic and irritating, even in a lower concentration such as 100 ppm. The dispersion of 40,000 ppm H2S in the sour gas can create a large hazard zone in the ambient. However, igniting the sour gas will produce CO2, CO, and a small amount of SO2, plus unburnt H2S, with no ground-level impact of the H2S. Therefore, fire can sometimes serve as an effective mitigation technique for hazard reduction.

BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion)

BLEVE is a phenomenon that is caused by an external fire impinging on a storage vessel, causing the heating of the liquid contents with a resulting pressure buildup. If the vessel’s relief valve is not designed to vent the vapor as fast as it is generated or the relief valve malfunctions, then the vessel may fail completely, resulting in an explosion with vessel fragments being projected over the surrounding area. These fragments have the real potential to puncture pipes or other vessels in the vicinity of the explosion, causing a domino effect. Fragment projectiles traveling distances of up to one mile have been reported in a BLEVE.

Boilover

When fighting semi-enclosed oil or petrochemical fueled fires using water, a secondary hazardous event called boilover may occur that is extremely dangerous. Some of the water will sink to the bottom of the tank or other vessel due to density differences, which will result in the formation of a water layer. The heat from the fuel will ultimately boil the water, creating steam. The rapidly expanding steam expels the fuel upward to boil over and out of the container, discharging the still-ignited fuel onto a large and uncontrolled area outside the container. The best way to prevent this phenomenon is to open the valve at the bottom of the tank to drain the water.

A common household example of this phenomenon can occur when water is used to put out a burning pan of cooking oil.

Vessel Venting/Flare

When dealing with a vessel that is about to explode, one option is to vent and burn the discharging material, basically turning the explosive event with its uncontrolled disaster potential into fire which has a lower hazard impact and is more controllable.

Conclusion

This article has exposed the many faces of fire hazards and fire damage possible in an industrial setting. The details presented highlight the need for effective and rapid consequence modeling of hazardous materials emanating from a fire. Such modeling can help firefighters, hazmat teams, and other emergency responders properly study and better understand the impact of the many hazards associated with fire, such as thermal radiation, toxic smoke, and particulates, thus enabling better situational analysis and more informed decision making during and after a fire event.

Such analysis and decision making permits faster life-saving measures to be undertaken regarding evacuation, shelter-in-place, and other essential response actions. In the end, these measures help to reduce the potential for injury, loss of life, and property and environmental damage.

Fire extinguishers can stop small accidents from turning into full-blown catastrophes. Whether it starts with a pan of oil left to smoke while you’re checking on the kids or a plugged-in curling iron left beside a curtain, small blazes aren’t all that uncommon in the modern household. But fire can spread quickly — and a singed curtain or blackened pan are nothing compared to a seriously damaged home.

Fortunately, fire extinguishers can help stop that escalation, if you have the right kind, at the right place, at the right time. Problem is, many of us don’t know much about when and how to use fire extinguishers — if we even have one.

That’s where we come in. Here are all your questions about fire extinguishers answered.

Are there different types of fire extinguishers?

You bet there are. When you shop for fire extinguishers, they come with classifications (A, B, C, D and K) corresponding to which fires the model puts out. Here’s a basic breakdown of each letter represents:

A: Fires from wood, cotton, and cloth

B: Flammable liquids (cooking sprays, gasoline, etc.)

C: Fires resulting from live electricity

D: Flammable metals

K: Cooking oils (restaurants must have these kinds)

Some extinguishers will put out a variety of fires. It is not uncommon for some to have A, B, and C capabilities. It indicates they can put out all common kinds of household fires.

Moreover, Underwriters Laboratories measures the effectiveness of each extinguisher relative to the type of fire they put out. When you read a label, it might say the unit has a 3-A rating. The higher the numeric rating, the more effective it is at putting out a type of fire.

Does weight matter?

Fire extinguishers do come in different sizes. Generally, the heavier it is, the more extinguishing power it provides. However, wielding a 10-pound model in the midst of an already chaotic moment might be a little more than you want to handle. Striking the right balance between size and functionality is important — and the right choice will largely depend on what you feel comfortable handling.

For specific areas, you may consider smaller units — such as 5-pound canisters for the kitchen. These are easier to grab and maneuver, making it easier to put out a small fire. Some even attach above the stove. If you go this route, buy one that has pressured cans that pop open from the heat of the flames, releasing baking soda.

You can also buy even smaller (2-pound models) for your vehicle. It is a wise option to have on hand in case your car engine catches on fire.

How many extinguishers should I have in my home?

You should have at least one near your kitchen, where most common house fires start. If you live in a multilevel home, consider having one for each level of your home. Along with placing one in the kitchen, have one near the exit of your house as well. It can ensure a safer getaway if flames are close to your house’s entry points.

How do I use them?

Use the PASS method to put out a fire. To start, you want to stand 6 to 8 feet away from the flame. Next, remove the pin to operate. Aim the extinguisher at the base of the fire, then squeeze the lever. As it discharges, use a sweeping motion (think side to side) to put out the flame.

After the fire goes out, watch it closely to ensure it does not start again. And if it does, follow the same steps.

If the fire gets out of control, the best course of action is to get to safety and allow emergency services to assist with fighting the flame.

How long do extinguishers last?

Some household fire extinguishers contain dry chemicals. Over time, these chemicals can lose their charge. Further, with compressed gas units, the seals loosen over time, resulting in leaks.

You can determine how long your unit lasts by examining the expiration date on the tag. Most models last anywhere from five to 15 years. And with some models, you can have them professionally recharged to extend their life.

To see if your extinguisher is in working condition, you need to inspect the pressure gauge (if applicable) located at the top of the extinguisher. If the needle is in the green area, then it should work. Moving forward, set up a time each month to inspect the pressure gauge. Doing so ensures your model will work when you need it the most.

Are extinguishers rechargeable?

There are multiple types of extinguishers available. Some are for one-time use. Once you discharge them, you will need to replace the unit, as they will not be fully operational as intended for emergencies.

Meanwhile, some models do have recharge capabilities. With these, you need to recharge them once you use them or during long periods of inactivity. To do so, a certified fire equipment dealer must do the recharge for you. You can use this directory to find a dealer near you.

Other considerations

Some extinguishers (cartridge-operated and carbon-dioxide) will not have gauges. For cartridge-operated units, check the indicator to ensure it is depressed. Meanwhile, in the case of carbon dioxide models, weigh the unit, then compare the weight to the information on the tag. If there is a substantial difference, then it indicates your extinguisher could be empty.

Another part of the monthly inspection involves checking the tamper seal. Inspect it to make sure it holds the pulling pin and does not have any damage.

You also want to check the hose for damages or any signs of leaks. If you notice some, and the model has recharge capabilities, take it to a certified specialist for repair.

You can also keep your home and your loved ones safe with these helpful guides:

ZIEGLER has delivered the first tanker, a TLF 4000, with the new ALPAS super structure and the new Z-Control.

The Gangelt fire department is the first customer to receive a tanker with ALPAS and Z-Control of the latest generations. ALPAS of the latest generation offers up to 30 % less weight compared to the previous super structure as well as up to 10 % more space volume due to protected arrangement of the shutters on the roof.

You can find more information about ALPAS of the latest generation here: https://www.ziegler.de/the-new-alpas. The new Z-Control also offers exciting innovations: The user guidance is intuitive and self-explanatory, which makes the pump control even easier and usable for everyone.

An assistance system for warnings and errors is also built in. More information about the new Z-Control can be found here: https://www.ziegler.de/the-new-z-control.

The vehicle also has a 6,000-liter water tank, a 500 + 200-liter foam tank, an Alco APF 3-C electric roof-turret with lift and operation via Z-Control as well as a ZIEGLER ZW 800 electric bumper turret, also operated via Z-Control and has a total weight of less than 18 tons.
Basic Information

• Type TLF 4000
• Customer Gemeinde Gangelt
• Chassis Type MAN TGM 18.320 4×4
• Wheelbase 4,200 mm
• Performance 235 kW / 320 PS
• Total weight 18,000 kg
• Water tank 6,000 l
• Foam Tank 500 l + 200 l
• Pump ZIEGLER FPN 10-3000-1H
• Cabin / Crew Original MAN C Compact cabin, 1+2

Additional Special Equipment

• ZIEGLER Foam System 96
• ZIEGLER Top-Integro Line marker light
• Side LED marker lights Z-Vision Side
• Tailgate with integrated shutters
• Eletrical roof turret Alco APF 3-C withlift and operation via Z-Control
• Electrical front turret ZIEGLERZW 800 with Z-Controloperation
• Self-protection system
• Pneumatic lightmast with4 LEDheadlights