Paid and volunteer firefighters play a crucial role in their communities as they are frequently the first responders in emergency situations. Firefighters encounter a wide range of tough situations including unplanned incidents like oil spills and the rising threat of terrorism, as well as unpredictable environmental conditions like floods and storms. To safeguard society against all of these threats, one must adopt a forward-thinking mindset and acquire new abilities as well as technology.
While coming to the function of firefighters, let us come back to the most basic of their functions, the original objective of protection against fire. At a fire, firefighters utilise a variety of tools. Long hoses and strong pumps are aboard pumper trucks, which are used to spray water on fires. To rescue people and put out fires in tall structures, equipment like ladder trucks and elevating platforms is available. Tanker trucks transport water to locations without access to adjacent water pipes. For victims of fires, many fire stations also offer ambulance assistance. But have you given a thought to how firefighters breathe through the thick smoke that they have to encounter during dousing a fire?
A suitable breathing apparatus is necessary because the smoke produced by the flames has always been a hindrance to their work. News18 talked to the district-in-charge fire officer from Andhra Pradesh’s Prakasam district, Srinivas Reddy, who shed light on the apparatus used by firefighters.
He said that it is dangerous for firefighters to breathe the toxic air near a burning site and hence they use a breathing operator set. A full face mask, an oxygen cylinder carried vertically on the back and a communication device are all included in the kit.
The air inhaled is from the kit and external air is not breathed. Srinivas Reddy added that when the oxygen percentage in this breathing operator set goes below 10, the machine alerts the personnel through a beep and warns them to finish the job as quickly as possible.
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