The Use of Enhanced Water/Foam in Firefighting

For as long as there have been people, fire and those willing to quench unexpected issues from fire, the basic tenet was “put the wet stuff on the red stuff!” Of course, there were no “classes” given to what was burning until many years later. And to be honest, that premise worked. However, in the last fifty years or so, one of the key issues that has changed is WHAT is burning and what is the safest and most expedient way to snuff these more modern flames.

On this podcast, my guest Chief (ret) Shawn Oke of the Albemarle NC Fire Dept. and a co-founder of the educational effort, “Kill the Flashover.” With nearly thirty years in the fire service, one of Chief Oke’s passion is the use of foam, or for a more accurate description, using “enhanced water streams” for Class A fires, some of which can be utilized when fighting either Class A or Class B fires.*

Tune in as Chief Oke explains the background and development of this relatively modern way of fighting the types of fires we see most of the time and why, your department’s investment in this practice will yield swifter dousing of the flames, less damage to the property and most importantly, the firefighters having exposure time to the dangerous carcinogenic and other toxic particles created in these fires and their heat.

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*Class A fires deal with house fires, paper, wood, etc. Class B fires deal with hydrocarbon-based products such as flammable liquids, i.e., gas, oil, kerosene, etc.