Different types of fires require different solutions. this solution is meant for fires that produce a lot of smoke and where time is critical because lives are in danger.
if any of my assumptions in this idea are wrong, please correct me.
scenario: a house on fire with people inside. nighttime and people are sleeping. smoke starts to get to every room and people start to cough and become disoriented. A fire engine arrives and, realizing that there are people inside and also that there is a lot of smoke, the fire crew start up a device with a large-diameter hose pointing into the front door (or another door if the front door is not a good exit at this time) A jet of super-saturated air blasts out and smoke starts to billow out. disoriented people, feeling the rush of cool air and seeing a dissapation in smoke, can see more, can breathe more, can move towards the direction of the cool air to a save exit point.
question: if the blast of air is very sudden and it blows out windows, would it be better for the windows to blow out for more ventilation or worse because human ears aren't supposed to take the pressure.
question: how effective would this "wet" air be at helping the fire not to grow?-- twitch, Nov 08 2006 (?) Tactical Ventilation http://www.firetact...icalventilation.htmModern compartment fire fighting processes [oneoffdave, Nov 08 2006] I noticed, in a recent demonstration, that one method to extinguish oil fires is by using an air/water mist. I think it takes the heat away. If the water is already vaporised, then this probably wouldn't work so well.-- Ling, Nov 08 2006 There is a device that uses a mix of compressed air and water to knock down and extinguish fires with much less water than normal. A back-pack based system will deal with a car fire. There is also a helicopter mounted version that can be fired through windows. As I can't remember what it's called I can't find the link for it.
As for breaking or leaving windows, if you read up on tactical ventilation that will answer most of your questions.-- oneoffdave, Nov 08 2006 i had never thought of searching "tactical ventilation" for this idea... i am still wondering what it means, although i can probably guess.-- twitch, Nov 08 2006 WHAT!! ok. after reading the article on tactical ventilation, it looks like i'm trying to open a can of burning worms. it says that Positive Pressure Ventilation cause cause all sorts of problems that could... well, let's just say that fire is not as behaved as i thought, and there are way more factors than i should have figured.
this idea could create more poblems if anything. for indoor stuff where air pressure plays a large role. outdoor, it might be ok.-- twitch, Nov 08 2006 random, halfbakery