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Aurélien Delavaud
Published on
Dec 5 2024 at 9:33 p.m.
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They put their helmets back on, adjust their masks, pick up the hose from the ground and advance in column to the door, which lets out a trickle of a size. thick black smoke. One of them moves aside to open it to reveal a much larger plume and flames. It was then that the handful of men took action, at ground level, to let out the smoke and extinguish the blaze.
This could be an intervention like the Departmental fire and rescue service of Seine-Maritime meet every day, to extinguish house fires. In reality, this Tuesday, December 3, 2024, it is a trainingon the technical platform of Tourville-la-Rivière (Seine-Maritime).
It is here that usually the firefighters from all over the department come to attend training in conditions as close as possible to reality, in boxes which simulate different types of fires and homes with varied profiles.
But this time, the exercise is different: the fire soldiers are being trained in the use of a revolutionary new lance.
Full-scale tests in the field
“We're not used to doing that in the profession! Usually, we only use well-established and proven equipment, indicates Lieutenant-Colonel Éric Tirelle, innovation project manager at SDIS 76. There, we have already tested it in the workshop and we are entering the operational test phase, on the ground. We are still in the middle of R and D (research and development, Editor's note) with the company Leader, in Le Havre, which manufactures them. »
However, if firefighters start using this new equipment, called two-phase extinguishing systemthis is good because the gains are greater than the risks.
But why do the firefighters consider it a revolutionary breakthrough in their fight against firesas they had not experienced for 25 years and the arrival of operational ventilation?
In fact, we are reinforcing the potential of water. Air is injected which breaks the water into microdroplets.
The result? “She uses five times less water for the same efficiency”, i.e. a flow rate which drops from 500 liters per minute for a conventional lance to just over 100 liters for this two-phase system.
“The future” of the firefighting profession?
For firefighters, at a time when water resources are an issue for the future, this is a considerable gain. But theecology is not the only advantage of this new material.
“The pipe is less heavy to handle, because there is less water in it, and behind this sort of water mist the firefighter is better protected,” continues the project manager.
At the training site, simulating a fire in an apartment, the firefighters in training seem convinced. “There is more security, it is lighter and it creates a bubble of freshness,” testifies Lieutenant Yohann Sergent. For me, it's the future! »
Since the start of its deployment, only one concern has been identified for the moment: the noise generated by this nozzle, much higher than that of a conventional nozzle, and which could in certain situations hamper communication between firefighters.
Other opinions will perhaps come from the firefighters of four other territories testing it at the moment, in Paris, Marseille, the Rhône and Ille-et-Vilaine.
Many firefighters to train
For the moment, SDIS 76 has had three of its vehicles adapted with the two-phase system, to €60,000 each.
They are spread across emergency centers in Rouen, Le Havre and Dieppe and can already be mobilized to respond to disasters, as long as personnel trained to use them are available. For these three centers alone, this represents 320 people to train.
In the near future, the SDIS 76 would like to equip two other vehicles, still in Le Havre and Dieppe. “With five, we could increase the occurrence of use and have more feedback, but that is not yet done,” says Éric Tirelle.
Cost is an important issue to consider today, but if the system proves itself, it could become the standard for all firefighters in a few years.
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