Search and Rescue in Residential Fire Structures Research Paper

Search and Rescue in Residential Fire Structures - Research Paper ExampleIt is indispensable to the safety of our society that researchers continue to enhance the technologies that renounce fire fighters to do their jobs in the safest and most hard-hitting fashion possible, especially those working in residential twist fires and residential search and rescue. Residential structure fires ar responsible for approximately two to three thousand civilian deaths per year since 1997, but these numbers racket have been dropping due to improved fire prevention education, early fire detection, and fire downsizing technologies being used, and also the improved technologies and equipment available for search and rescue efforts (USFA, 2008). These search and rescue technologies fall into two major categories those devices that make it easier for fire fighters to find and save those victims trapped within a burning edifice and those technologies that protect the fire fighters own lives, wh ich indirectly will save even much lives than the direct equipment. Technologies that allow fire fighters to rescue those victims who have been trapped within a burning building mainly entangle those which allow the rescue workers to find those individuals more quickly. The primary and most impressive piece of equipment in this family is the thermal imaging camera. A thermal imaging camera helps the fire fighters to see people more easily through dense smoke or haze, by analyzing the image of a trapped come in and converting the thermal signature to a visible image (Marlow Industries Inc, 2008). These cameras are able to convert the most minute differences in the temperature of objects into a visible atonic image for the fire fighter using the camera to view, and they work even in complete darkness as they do not require any ambient visible light to resolve the images (FLIR mercantile Vision Systems, n.d.). This combination of processes means that a thermal imaging camera gut ter be used by a fire fighter to look into a dark or smoke-filled dwell and determine immediately if there are any people within the room who need to be evacuated from the building. The image will also show the fire fighter if there are any flames or ignition sources within that room (FLIR Commercial Vision Systems, n.d.) Such cameras work by visualizing an image using infrared irradiation instead of visible light sources. They are able to pretend images at high resolution through heavy smoke due to the fact that the infrared radiation used has a longer wavelength, reducing scattering off of particulate matter in the air. (FLIR Commercial Visions Systems, n.d.). Some cameras are even able to transmit these images to a commander outside the building, allowing him or her to break in control the situation within the building based on the real-time data being get (Santa Clara County Fire Department, High-Tech and Specialized Equipment, n.d.). These cameras are also sometimes of adj ustable sensitivity, to allow for varying temperature ranges in the space being viewed. They can be more sensitive for narrow temperature ranges, such as expression into a hot room, and less sensitive cameras for situations where temperatures vary more widely, such as trying to find an individual in a smoky but relatively cool room (Amon, Bryner, & Hamins, 2005).