Dr. Michael Reick sent us several examples of German firefighters employing smoke curtains during firefighting operations at various recent incidents.
RELATED: A Typical Example of Smoke Curtain Use
The first example is December 28, 2015, when firefighters responded to a fire in a four-story building in the town of Geislingen.
Firefighters saw smoke in the stairwell of the 3rd and 4th floors of the structure. Two adults and three children were alerted to the fire thanks to smoke detectors and fled. Using SCBA, firefighters entered the smoke-filled room and extinguished the burning inventory with a hoseline. To ensure that the smoke was not flowing further into the stairwell, a portable smoke blocking device was used, and crews were able to quickly extinguish the fire.
A firefighter making entry to the apartment through the smoke curtain.
The smoke curtain, with hoselines passing under it.
The exterior of the building.
A photo of the interior of the apartment.
The next series of photos comes from an apartment fire on December 19, 2015, in Geislingen/Steige.
Firefighters responded to this fire, which was in a seven-floor structure. Multiple people were in the building at the time of the fire, and firefighters found visible smoke in the stairwell coming form an apartment fire on the fourth floor. A total of 59 firefighters responded to this incident. The smoke curtain was again used, and occupants in the building could be kept safely in their apartments until the stairwell was totally smoke free again.
Damage visible on the apartment’s exterior.
A shot of the smoke-blocking device in use.
A view of the damage done by the fire.
For more information on the uses of this device, consider attending Dr. Reick’s class at this year’s FDIC International (fdic.com).
Dr. Michael Reick has served in the fire service for 26 years and works as a professional regional fire chief in Germany. He published multiple articles, trains firefighters, lectures at the state fire school and works as associate professor for fire safety at a University of Applied Sciences.
