“Why Is Foam More Effective Than Water When Fighting Fire?” As time passes, new technology and procedures come out to enhance safety and make things more effective to provide the greatest convenience for humans. Using foam to fight fire is one of many new and ingenious technologies to do so for the firefighter. There are many new things that are coming out to ensure that all first response personnel are ready for what they face. Foam is the next big leap to safer and efficient firefighting tactics. Class A foam and Compressed Air Foam Systems are much more effective than using water to fight fire. Safety is one of the most beneficial things that an occupant gets from using foam. Using foam has many plus sides instead of using water, and
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It works much better when putting out the fire it chokes it out more efficiently than water and that is very important. In Sherry Long 's article, it states that applying foam to the fire it works as a retardant and can knock down flames much sooner, therefore if the fire gets put out sooner than less property is burned which is the main point to firefighting. The more that can be saved is the main goal and when using foam firefighters can accomplish this goal much better than using water. In addition to foam putting the fire out faster to mitigate property damage, in some cases when a homeowner has a fire the biggest problem they face afterwards is clean up. When using water to fight fire it leaves an extensive amount of water damage to the structure etc. While using CAFS or Class A foam it leaves less of an impact on property damage and even puts the fire out more efficiently. When the foam is applied to an object it uses much less water and all foam bubbles of carbon given time would pop and leave slim to none damage compared to water. (Long) Many in this case would call using foam a “win,win” over using water and traditional practices. After the home owner has a fire they last thing they want to do is spend hundreds or more dollars to get the water damage fixed when that hundreds of dollars could be saved if the firefighters use …show more content…
When using foam over water it increased what the firefighter can do by 200-300% or 2-3 times then what they could do before. Is there a “to expensive” when it comes to safety of people, Foam concentrate itself costs more than when just using water running from about $12-15 per gallon of solution which when in the truck it is diluted down with water. What can really be stressed is the cost is not to much if it involves the opportunity to save lives or put the fire out faster (Klassen). So yes, there is a price tag that is not nominal to using foam over water but fire departments that are taking the advantages of using foam, they are not using foam at every fire only when it is needed. For all these reasons it makes the expense worth it to install foam and use it instead of water. So they will be able to make sure that they can do the best that they can do with the equipment they
It works much better when putting out the fire it chokes it out more efficiently than water and that is very important. In Sherry Long 's article, it states that applying foam to the fire it works as a retardant and can knock down flames much sooner, therefore if the fire gets put out sooner than less property is burned which is the main point to firefighting. The more that can be saved is the main goal and when using foam firefighters can accomplish this goal much better than using water. In addition to foam putting the fire out faster to mitigate property damage, in some cases when a homeowner has a fire the biggest problem they face afterwards is clean up. When using water to fight fire it leaves an extensive amount of water damage to the structure etc. While using CAFS or Class A foam it leaves less of an impact on property damage and even puts the fire out more efficiently. When the foam is applied to an object it uses much less water and all foam bubbles of carbon given time would pop and leave slim to none damage compared to water. (Long) Many in this case would call using foam a “win,win” over using water and traditional practices. After the home owner has a fire they last thing they want to do is spend hundreds or more dollars to get the water damage fixed when that hundreds of dollars could be saved if the firefighters use …show more content…
When using foam over water it increased what the firefighter can do by 200-300% or 2-3 times then what they could do before. Is there a “to expensive” when it comes to safety of people, Foam concentrate itself costs more than when just using water running from about $12-15 per gallon of solution which when in the truck it is diluted down with water. What can really be stressed is the cost is not to much if it involves the opportunity to save lives or put the fire out faster (Klassen). So yes, there is a price tag that is not nominal to using foam over water but fire departments that are taking the advantages of using foam, they are not using foam at every fire only when it is needed. For all these reasons it makes the expense worth it to install foam and use it instead of water. So they will be able to make sure that they can do the best that they can do with the equipment they