INTRODUCTION :

What is the purpose of firefighting system ?..

For lives and properties protection, the government forces the
owners of companies, factories and facilities to install firefighting
system in the buildings to get the building license.
 All engineers who works in firefighting field should know
codes very well cause it is the main reference for everyone.
-What is the FIRE CODE (NFPA) ?..
NFPA: NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION ASSOCIATION.
-Why code is called fire protection but the course is called
firefighting?
Cause fire protection includes (Firefighting system, Fire alarm
system, Fire safety & Smoke management).
 FIREFIGHTING SYSTEM belongs to Mechanical engineers,
 FIRE ALARM SYSTEM belongs to Electrical engineers,
 FIRE SAFETY belongs to Architects where in building design
taken in consideration escape corridors, escape doors,
Escape stairs or Fire ladder also walls which prevent smoke
or fire transmission which called (FIRE RATED WALL)
according to NFPA code.
 SMOKE MANAGEMENT its control system in smoke at fire
time and it belongs to Mechanical engineers.
-Where smoke is one of fire results which causing suffocation for
persons during escaping from fire.
There are two ways to control the smoke:
1. Pressurization (Positive Pressure);
Stair pressurization System where we install smoke fan on escape
stairs in each floor, it works only at time of fire, the fan pressure is
higher than smoke pressure to make the escape stairs at positive
pressure, Where the smoke stay in the floor which on fire and
consider that the pressure of smoke fan doesn’t exceed specific
value to allow normal persons opening the door at time of fire.
2. Evacuation (Negative Pressure);
Simply, smoke discharge system by installing smoke fan in each
floor of the building which works only at the time of fire, the
smoke fan discharges smoke from the fired floor out of building.

-In firefighting system you can work in (design, site, tender).

 Design Engineer should be professional at autocade and
design programs & should have the basics of design from
codes, design engineer could work in Consulting office or
technical office in Contracting Company.
 Site Engineer should be good at autocade cause he makes
Shop drawings and As built drawings, he should know the
principles of the Site Administration and principles of
projects management PMP, he should have the basics of
implementation from codes and he should know how deal
with labors and suppliers.
  Tender Engineer he is a very important engineer cause he
prepares Assay and BOQs, he makes pricing, counts the
materials and prepares the technical and financial offers.
-Technical Offer contains Terms of the project, catalogs and the
used materials in the project according to Standard Specifications.
-Financial Offer contains the price of project terms.
FIREFIGHTING CODES
1- American Codes is the (NFPA) and it is divided to;
 NFPA 1: uniform fire code, it like introduction for all code.
 NFPA 10: portable fire extinguishers.
 NFPA 11: low, medium and high expansion foam.
 NFPA 12: carbon dioxide extinguishing system.
 NFPA 13: installation of sprinkler systems.
 NFPA 14: installation of standpipe and hose systems.
 NFPA 20: installation of stationary pumps.
 NFPA 22: water tanks for private fire protection.
 NFPA 25: inspection, testing and maintenance.
 NFPA 92A: Smoke control systems.
 NFPA 99: health care facilities.
 NFPA 101: life safety codes.
 NFPA 750: water mist systems.
 NFPA 2001: clean agent fire systems.
 NFPA 5000: building construction and safety code.
2- British code.
3- Local code.
(ANSI): American national standard institute.
(ASME): American society of mechanical engineer.
(ASTM): American society of Testing and materials.
(UL): Underwriters laboratories Inc.
(FM): Factory Mutual.
(IFC): International Fire Code.
(LPCB): The loss prevention certification board.

What is the fire?

It is an Oxidation process where the combustible material reacts

with oxygen in Existence of source of heat.
The combustible materials like wood, Cloth, paper, plastic,
Petroleum materials, ………
The source of heat could be chemical reaction, Short circuit,
smoking, Cutting and welding works, Friction, The material
reaches the degree of self ignition or to the flash point, ……..
In order for a fire to happen,3 reasons must be available
(Fire Triangle);
 Combustible material
 Oxygen
 Required Temperature for happening fire and the
combustible material reaches the degree of self
ignition.
For example; Wood+ Oxygen+ Matchstick = Fire.
NEWLY, Has been added fourth item which is chemical chain
reaction, SO the Fire Triangle converted to Fire Tetrahedron.
The purpose of firefighting system is to prevent fire by prevent or
break one of the ribs of the fire triangle.
To break the heat of source rib we cool the material by water to
prevent it reaching the degree of self ignition.
Water is cheap, high cooling rate, available, could be pressurize by
pumps and could have high flow but water doesn’t work every
where it can’t be used to cool materials like money or important
documents, it can’t be used to extinction the fire of petroleum
materials, it shouldn’t be used in places contain Precision
Equipment like X-ray rooms and Operations rooms and it
shouldn’t be used with Electrical fires, So we need to break
another rib.
To break the oxygen rib, oxygen available in air with percent 21%,
Scientific studies proved that fire could be extinguish by reducing
the percent of oxygen in the air less than 16% from the place
volume by using another gas (Firefighting gases).
Firefighting gases should be: (Gas doesn’t help to ignite& Its
density is higher than air density).
Firefighting gases like (CO2, FM200, NOVEC, ARESOL, ARGON).
We can use firefighting gases at situations we can’t use water in it
like Electrical fires but if the place of fire is open we can’t use
firefighting gases because we can’t reduce the percentage of
oxygen in open area.
For example; Oil tanks which exist in open area (desert) we can’t
use firefighting gases but we can use Foam.
Foam is a chemical material added by 3% to 6% to water to make
mixture, the density of this mixture is less than oils density.
Foam makes layer over the oils as an insulator so oxygen can’t
reach to the fire so breaking the oxygen rib and because foam
mixture contains lots of water it works on cooling the material so
breaking the source of heat rib.

To break the material rib we starve the fire by reducing the

percentage of material presence in the place of fire.
For example; closing the gas valves in the petroleum lines to
prevent petrol reaching the place of fire.
Based on that firefighting systems are;
 Water systems
 Gases systems
 Foam systems
 Powder system
Water systems

-90% of firefighting systems which is in use is water system.

Water systems divided to

1-Automatic system (Sprinkler system):
 wet system
 Dry system
 Deluge system
 Precreation system
 Antifreeze system
 2-Manual system
 Fire hose cabinet (FHC)
 Fire hydrant (FH)

Water system components:

 Fire water tanks
 Fire pumps
 Control valve
 Discharge devices (Sprinklers, FHC, …)
 Pipes, fittings and valves

Sprinkler System
Fire sprinkler system type:
 Wet pipe systems
 Dry pipe systems
 Deluge system
 Precreation system
 Anti-freeze system
 Circulating closed loop system
All those systems are in NFPA 13.
-Fire extinguishers are the first defense line in case of limited fire
action.
-The responsible code for Fire extinguishers is NFPA-10.
-Portable Fire extinguishers shall basically exist even in presence
of any other firefighting system.

Benefits for using portable Fire extinguishers:

-Easy to use and relocate.
-Simple maintenance.
-Low cost.
Classification of Fire:
Fires can be classified according to type of source and as per NFPA
to five classes as following:
1-Class (A) fire:
 Fires occur in solid materials like wood, papers, cloths,
rubber, and some types of plastic.
 Best extinguishing materials for this type of fire are water &
dry chemical powder.

2-Class (B) fire:

 Fires occur in flammable liquids and gases like Oil, Kerosene,
Petroleum products and alcohols.
 Best extinguishing materials for this type of fire are Foam,
CO2, Chemical powders & Clean gases.
 It’s forbidden to use water in this case because it helps fire
to spread.

3-Class (C) fire:

 Fires occur in electrical equipment and products.
 Best extinguishing materials for this type of fire are CO2, dry
Chemical powders & Halon.
  It’s forbidden to use water or any material contains water
like foam in this case because it helps fire to spread.


4-Class (D) fire:

 Fires occur in minerals and chemicals like Sodium,
Magnesium, lithium & Titanium.
 Best extinguishing materials for this type of fire are special
types of dry chemical powder.

5-Class (K) fire:

 Some codes add this type to class (D).
 It’s a new type added recently to fire classes.
 (K) letter refers to kitchen.
 Fires occur from cooking oil & grease.
 Best extinguishing materials for this type of fire are wet
Chemical powders.
Types of Fire extinguishers:
It can be classified according to extinguishing material to:
1- Water Fire extinguishers.
2- Foam Fire extinguishers.
3- Dry powder Fire extinguishers.
4- Wet powder Fire extinguishers.
5- Halon Fire extinguishers.
6- CO2 Fire extinguishers.

Fire extinguishers components:

1- Handling arm.
2- Safety pin.
3- Pressure gauge.
4- Fire hose.
5- Fire extinguisher body.

 The only type who doesn’t contain pressure gauge is CO2

type.
 It’s shown on each fire extinguisher the fire type can be used
in.
 Signs on each fire extinguisher lead to some information
(Maintenance instructions - How to use - expiry date -
production date - type of unit).
 Dry chemical powder fire extinguisher

 It can be used in fire class (A), (B) & (C).

 It’s not recommended to use it in case of electrical
equipment like computers because it may cause damage in
computer components.
 The theory of work is to cover the fire material with a layer
of powder to separate the oxygen from fire, and it’s
interfering with the chemical reaction to stop it and stop the
fire accordingly.
 Powder material is considered as one of the fastest
extinguishing materials.
 There are two types of dry powder fire extinguishers:
1- Pressurized by air.
2- Pressurized by CO2.
 It’s filled with powder which may be sodium bicarbonate or
potassium bicarbonate as per it’s capacity and then it’s
pressurized by air or CO2 until the indicator gets the green
color.
 How to use?
 In case of fire the safety spin shall be removed then by
pushing on the hand, the pressurized air allowed to stream
out of extinguisher forcing the powder to stream with it for
distance up to 6M.
 Data tape for this type colored by blue.

Carbon dioxide fire extinguisher

 It can be used in fire class (B) & (C).

 It’s not recommended to use it in class (A).
 Extinguisher is filled with CO2 under pressure up to 80
IB/square inch.
 Working pressure may reach 54 Bar and testing pressure
may reach 200 Bar.
 The theory of work is to reduce oxygen quantity from fire.
 How to use?
 In case of fire the safety spin shall be removed then by
pushing on the hand, the pressurized CO2 allowed to stream
out of extinguisher.
 Data tape for this type colored by black.
 CO2 is an exotic gas so the extinguisher shall be attached
with mask in case of use.

Halon fire extinguisher

 It can be used in fire class (A), (B) & (C).

 It’s filled with Halon (BCF) which has high ability to
extinguish fire
 It can be pressurized by Nitrogen until the indicator gets the
green color.
 The theory of work is to interfere with the chemical reaction
and stop fire.
 How to use?
 In case of fire the safety spin shall be removed then by
pushing on the hand, the pressurized Nitrogen allowed to
stream out of extinguisher forcing the Halon to stream with
it for distance up to 6M or more.
 Data tape for this type colored by green.
 Using Halon type had been stopped as it’s harmful for ozone
layer.

Foam fire extinguisher

 It can be used in fire class (B) & (A).

 It’s not recommended to use it in class (C).
 There are two types of foam FE:
1- Mechanical foam FE which produce the foam
mechanically by mixing foam generating liquid with water
and air.
Pushing out with pressurized CO2.
 2- Chemical foam FE which produce the foam by chemical
reaction.
Pushing out with pressurized air resulted from this
reaction.
The foam material (AFFF or FFFP) works on strangling the
fire and on cooling the area.
 Data tape for this type colored by brown.

Water fire extinguisher

 It can be used in fire class (A).

 It’s not recommended to use it in classes (B) & (C).
 The theory of work is to reduce the heat from fire.
 There are two types of dry powder fire extinguishers:
3- Pressurized by air or Nitrogen.
4- Pressurized by CO2.
 How to use?
 In case of fire the safety spin shall be removed then by
pushing on the hand, the pressurized air allowed to stream
out of extinguisher forcing the water to stream from the
hose.
 Data tape for this type colored by red.

Wet chemical powder fire extinguisher

 It can be used in fire class (K) for kitchens.

 It’s not recommended to use it in class (C).
 The theory of work is to cover the fire material with a layer
of powder to separate the oxygen from fire, and it’s
interfering with the chemical reaction to stop it and stop the
fire accordingly.
 How to use?
 In case of fire the safety spin shall be removed then by
pushing on the hand, the pressurized air allowed to stream
 out of extinguisher forcing the powder to stream with it for
distance up to 6M.
 Data tape for this type colored by yellow.
 General roles in firefighting

1- Firefighting shall be in wind direction.

2- Fighter shall be away from fire by 3-5 M.
3- Fighter shall not start from middle of fire, but from front to
behind.
4- Fighter shall shake the FE from left to right while using.
5- Fighter shall start from lower to higher level of fire.
6- Fighter shall not leave the area till the fire been extinguished
completely.
 How to use fire extinguishers?

We can use pass system as following:

 Fire extinguishers distribution

 It’s preferred to put the FE inside box for protection.

 FE may be hanged on wall safely by suitable support.
 FE location shall be selected carefully by following:
1- Not near from hazard area.
2- Near from space exit.
3- At corridors.
4- At clear locations not hidden.
5- Distance between one to other doesn’t exceed 30M.

 FE shall be supported on suitable supports according to its

weight.
 As per NFPA-10 it shall be hanged as following:
1- At weight less than 40 IB (18.14 KG) highest point not
more than 5 FT (1.53 M).
2- At weight more than 40 IB (18.14 KG) highest point not
more than 3.5 FT (1.07 M).
3- Anyway its bottom height shall not be less than 102 CM
from ground.
 Hazard classification
As per NFPA there are 3 classifications for space hazard:
1- Light hazard: the places which contain hard flammable
materials with little quantities (offices – classrooms –
religion worship …)
2- Ordinary hazard: the places which contain hard flammable
materials with quantities higher than light hazard (food
courts – car agencies – garages …)
3- Extra hazard: the places which contain hard flammable
materials with high quantities for storing (car workshop –
painting workshop – stores …)

Distance between fire extinguishers

It can be determined according to hazard classification and

as per NFPA as following: