An investigation by German TV Das Erste (PlusMinus 2/9/2015) shows that in 40% of cities of over 100 000 population in Germany, fire services are not achieving the official intervention time objective which is to reach the fire within 8 minutes of the alarm in 90% of cases.
This is estimated to give a total of 17 minutes to extract occupants, assuming 5 minutes from the fire starting to the alarm and 4 minutes on site for fire fighters to reach occupants. The film underlines that this time is critical, given the rapid spread and development of fires in modern homes, showing deaths and injuries in fires in Bremen (a fire starting in a home caused by a defective electric heater), Dortmund and Berlin. This confirms the importance of slowing fire development to increase escape time and fire brigade intervention time, for which PIN FRs can play a critical role (see “Do flame retardants work” in pinfa Newsletter n° 54).
Die Erste, 2 September 2015, PlusMinus (in German) http://www.daserste.de/information/wirtschaftboerse/plusminus/sendung/plusminus-02-09-schutzziele-feuerwehr-100.htmlThis article is part of the newsletter N° 55 – September 2015 …