Why Fognails?
Smoke from fires is poisonous for people without breathing protection. Therefore, the removal of smoke through ventilation is one of the highest priorities for the fire service. However, providing ventilation to a fire that is ventilation controlled may potentially worsen fire conditions and increase the risks associated with extreme fire behavior.
Ventilation is vital for rescues
An interior attack to cool the fire could be a slow and potentially dangerous operation. The question becomes: how can we rapidly reduce the risk without providing oxygen to a ventilation controlled fire?
Interior firefighting is sometimes more effective from the outside. Testing has shown that Fognails may provide the ability to rapidly cool the fire from the exterior, thereby enabling a faster rescue and interior fire attack.
COOLING WITHOUT ADDING OXYGEN
The Fognail makes cooling of smoke and hot surfaces possible without adding oxygen to the fire. With limited oxygen, less water is needed for cooling and the cooling effect lasts longer. The many small water droplets from the Fognail cools smoke effectively.
In addition, some droplets are also large enough to penetrate the hot smoke and cool hot surfaces on the other side if used for a longer period of time. This suppression of the fire may allow other priorities to be achieved, or provide additional time for more resources to arrive.
Combining the exterior fognail attack with properly timed and performed ventilation, may also allow for a subsequent quicker and safer interior attack.
MORE IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER
The Fognail water flow of 70 liters per minute (18 gpm) is optimized for room and content fires in residential houses. It also works well for smaller attics, basements and fires inside the structural components. For larger volumes, or if the room is well ventilated, more then one fognail should be used for fire suppression.
The low flow and smaller droplets from the Fognail offer several benefits:
- If desired, by not over cooling the surfaces, the Fognail is capable of producing large quantities of steam. This steam effect is greater compared to high flow piercing nozzles.
- The steam will travel with the flow currents of the fire and prevent smoke from igniting remotely from the placement of the Fognail.
The Fognails are cost efficient tools to achieve effective, efficient and safe firefighting.