Incipient Fire Fighting - Basic (8 hours)

Course Outline

Prerequisites: This course shall have no formal pre-requisite.

Course Length: 8 hours – Course length shall vary depending on the number of students. Total course time does not include breaks.

Class Size: 8 hours – The maximum number of students that may be trained and tested per instructor shall be ten (10) in the classroom session and ten (10) in the practical session.

Course Objective:

• Teach the science of fires
• Teach the classifications of fires
• Teach the classifications of extinguishers
• Teach basic methods of fire extinguishment
• Incipient fire fighting hazards

Course Design:

• PowerPoint © / Lecture / Audio & Video / Visual Aids
• Demonstrations
• Practical simulations

Successful Course Completion:

• Requires a minimum score of 70% or better, unless otherwise specified by the student's employer
• Students will have no more than thirty (30) minutes to complete the exam
• Grades shall be calculated by dividing the number of questions answered correctly by the total number of exam questions (32)
• Successful completion of practical sessions is also mandatory

Breaks – 5 to 15 minutes (approximately every hour)

Lunch – 1 hour

Course Content Summary

Classroom Content:

• Fire chemistry
• Four stages of fire
• Heat transfer
• Fire Terminology
• Fire Classifications
• Fire equipment standards
• Extinguishing agents
• Ways to extinguish fire
• Fire streams
• PPE
• Practicals

Fire Chemistry:

• Discuss combustion
• Controlled burns and uncontrolled burns
• Basic tools for understanding principles of fire

Four Stages of Fire:

1. Heat
2. Oxygen
3. Fuel
4. Chemical Reaction

Heat Transfer:

1. Conduction
2. Convection
3. Radiation

Fire Terminology:

• Flash point
• Ignition temperature
• Fire point
• Flame spread
• Explosion
• Explosive mixture
• BLEVE
• Boil over
• LEL, UEL

Fire Classifications:

1. Class A
2. Class B
3. Class C
4. Class D
5. Class K

Extinguishing Agents:

• Fire fighting agents
• Water
• Foam
• Extinguishers

Four Different Ways To Extinguish Fires:

1. Starving
2. Inhibiting
3. Smothering
4. Quenching

Fire Equipment Standards:

• Bunker gear
• Pumps
• Hoses
• Nozzles
• Monitors

Fire Streams:

• Definition of fire streams
• Four elements of a fire stream
• Types of stream patterns
• Nozzle types
• Nozzle maintenance
• Firefighting techniques handling hose lines

Platform Equipment Requirements:

• States requirements for fire hoses, nozzles, shut off valve, fire pumps, fire detection and fire alarm systems

PPE:

• Essential components of a firefighter's safety system
• Provide full body coverage and protection for a variety of hazards

Practical Session:

• Properly don appropriate PPE
• Inspect and identify damaged extinguishers
• Set up firefighting equipment
• Select appropriate extinguisher and fire fighting equipment
• Effectively communicate with others in the area using proper alerting techniques
• Demonstrate use of fire fighting equipment
• Demonstrate fire fighting techniques as discussed in classroom
• Demonstrate how to extinguish a fire
• Properly remove used extinguishers from service

Each student is required to pass a written exam (70%) as well as demonstrate practical skills. The practical skills, outlined above, are taught in classroom session and demonstrated during Practical Training.

Training Center Provided Material:

• PPE
• Fire extinguisher

Student Requirements:

• None

Reference Material/Documents:

• National Fire Protection Association Codes and Standards
• OSHA
• 33 CFR 149.414
• 33 CFR 149.415
• 33 CFR 149.416
• 33 CFR 149.418