Underwriters Laboratories’ (UL) Fire Safety Research Institute (FRSI) is offering an online training course to teach fire fighters new techniques for addressing fires in multi-family dwellings with a focus on coordination of fire suppression and ventilation.
The course examines findings from a series of multi-family dwelling experiments on coordinated ventilation and suppression conducted at garden apartment buildings in Cobb County, Georgia. Through the course, fire fighters can improve their understanding of fire dynamics during multi-family dwelling fires.
“Due to vertically stacked apartments surrounding a common egress pathway, multi-family dwellings present unique exposure challenges from the spread of both fire and smoke for potentially trapped occupants and their property,” says FSRI Research Engineer Keith Stakes.
While no two fires are identical, this course is designed to provide data-driven findings from full-scale experiments in acquired structures for fire departments to consider as they evaluate their tactics and standard operating guidelines.
After taking the new 90-minute course, fire fighters will be able to describe the principles of fire dynamics and the factors influencing fire spread and fire behavior in multi-family buildings. Fire fighters also will understand the impact of coordinated ventilation and suppression tactics on fires, fire fighter safety and occupant survival.
The Facebook video, Coordinated Fire Attack, provides detail on the multi-family residential structures study. Learn more about the course.
