SLICE-RS IN THE NEWS IN NEW MEXICO

WATCH NEWS VIDEO HERE: http://krqe.com/2015/08/24/new-firefighting-technique-helps-save-womans-home/

Some firefighters in New Mexico are taking a new approach to fighting structure fires. The method comes after years of scientific research. That research revealed there could be a faster, safer way to battle structure fires, specifically residential ones.

Sandoval County Fire officials tell News 13 this technique was developed in response to faster burning fires.

Leaders recently had the entire department trained in using the new method and, already, they say it’s paid off, saving one woman’s home from severe damage.

“Look at this,” said Ophelia Rinaldi, pointing at her ceiling. “Look at that.”

Longtime Bernaillo resident Rinaldi, 82, surveys the damage.

“It was, it was frightening,” she said.

Several weeks back, a fire broke out in Rinaldi’s custom-designed home.

“You could see the smoke coming out from there,” Rinaldi said as she showed KRQE News 13 her roof.

Firefighters from Sandoval County and the town of Bernalillo were on scene in minutes.

“They went over and directly above where the fire started,” said Sandoval County Fire Chief James Maxon. “It started in the parapit walls right above us here and then it dropped down and it started burning across the ceiling.”

It was the first time they would put a new firefighting technique to the test.

“They went ahead and applied water on the fire right away and knocked down the main body of the fire and then went back around. We put a roof team on top of the roof and they were also able to stop the extension of the fire up on the roof,” explained Maxon.

“It seems a lot more simple,” said Sandoval County Firefighter Jonathan Fails. Fails responded to the fire in Rinaldi’s home.

The new method is described in an acronym- SLICE-RS. The biggest difference is the letter “C”, that’s cooling from a safe location.

“We want to hit the body of the fire from the outside, if possible, cool it down and then come inside and extinguish the rest of the fire. What that does is it makes it more tenable for firefighters in here. But if there’s anybody in here that we can rescue, it also makes it more tenable for them, as well, to be able to survive the fire,” Maxon explained.

Maxon says the new technique is one of the biggest advancements he’s seen in his 23 year career. He says it’s a response to faster spreading fires due to synthetic materials in furniture, building materials and lightweight construction.

“Houses are collapsing. We have firefighters on the fire ground that get injured because roofs collapse and you know, roofs can collapse within 10 minutes,” Maxon said.

Rinaldi’s packed her bags and found another place to stay, for the time being.

“Now, I’m homeless,” she said.

Yet, Maxon says, had they been using the old method, it could’ve been a lot worse.

“The fire could’ve dropped from the ceiling down onto the furniture and we would’ve had severe damage. As it is right now, the furniture that was in the room is all salvageable,” Maxon said.

“I’m glad the fire department was here and they had the special technique that they used,” said Rinaldi. “I still have my home. I’m safe.”

Firefighters estimate Rinaldi will be out of her home for about a month.

Maxon says the reason why they didn’t adopt this method earlier is the fact firefighting is steeped in tradition. He says, for years, firefighters operated under the belief that if you attack the fire from the burning side of the structure, you could push it into the unburned, but he says numerous scientific studies have shown that’s just not the case. Maxon says that’s because conditions in the unburned side aren’t ideal to support fire since certain conditions must be present for combustion.

Bernalillo County Fire, along with a number of other departments across the state will attend a workshop Tuesday about the new method. The Los Alamos Fire Department will host the workshop and the International Society of Fire Service Instructors will lead it. The Albuquerque Fire Department adopted the new technique earlier this summer.

To see the full training video the ISFSI posted online, click here.

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David Maeker different take on fire growth in relation to oxygen. Great stuff.

So have there been any studies to see the measured amount of O2 a fire consumes in a given time? For instance in the video you show the “study” house closed up and basically have nothing showing. The time measured O2 consumption of a structure?

Great explanation of fire growth to the new guys. Ventilation and fire attack go hand in hand. You manage both the fire will go out.

Now you are putting out extremely useful information. But there is more that needs to be done showing how surfactants and bubbles work to change the way water behaves when applied to the fuel rich and oxygen limited fire. Absorb the fuel into the bubbles of surface active agents and cool the heat.

When I was a fireman, I was amazed by how fast high-pressure fog will knock down a fire while shielding the user from extreme heat.

Brian Valles

Lucas Beh

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Next year please look at how a good CAFS can be used clear the air of heat AND carcinogens in the smoke without ventilation feeding the fire oxygen. It is so much more important than studying how to squirt water at a fire.

It is important that the firefighters understand how a tiny bubble works to extinguish fires. Consider how much heat a gallon of water can absorb before boiling into steam. The gallon of water must absorb enough heat to reach 212 degrees farenhieght. Have you ever tried to boil a gallon of water. It would take a very long time if you placed the gallon into a hot oven such as a house fire. Now consider if the gallon of water was stretched into a million tiny bubbles that exposed a much larger surface area to the heat, that would take much lest time to absorb enough heat to reach the boiling temperature. Then the gallon of water expands into 1,700 times its original volume in the form of steam that displaces oxygen and dilutes fire gases. Now then when the heat has been absorbed and the fire gases have been diluted the fire goes out and the steam begins to cool and condense back into liquid form and the heat and fire gases contract back to original volume. Now here is when the surfactants come into play, the bubbles stay where you put them and don't run off like water does. The surfactant causes the bubbles to share the water with the surfaces they are on and anything that is wet can not get hotter than 212.f and that is not hot enough to cause any more fire or smoke. So I believe that when fire fighters understand how CAFS foam works to put more fire out faster and requires much less water it will make their job much less difficult and much safer for them and for the citizens they are working to save lives and property.