Firefighting and Fire Prevention - a PDH Online Course for Engineers, Architects and Surveyors

Firefighting and Fire Prevention

Course Outline

Workers involved in operation and maintenance of industrial utilities, power plants, pumping plants or other reclamation establishments are exposed to potential fire hazards. According to the National Safety Council, fire is the third leading cause of accidental deaths in the United States, yet most people ignore it. Knowing the basic principles of fire can help lower this number.

Most fire fighting consists of applying water to the burning material, cooling it to the point at which combustion is no longer self-sustaining. Fires involving flammable liquids, certain chemicals, and combustible metals often require special extinguishing agents and techniques. With some fuels the use of water may actually be dangerous.

The purpose of this course is to provide some fundamental facts that will prove valuable in fire emergency. This course discusses basic information on fire chemistry, the nature of fire, fire extinguishing methods, types of fire prevention equipment, fire agents and their proper use.

In this 3-hour course, you need to review the guidelines recommended by United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation titled “Firefighting and Fire Prevention”.

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

This course is intended to provide you with the following specific knowledge and skills:

Chemistry of fire – mechanism of combustion;
Classification of fires – definition and types;
Different types of fire extinguishers;
Selection of appropriate fire extinguishers specific to fire class;
Application of fire fighting equipment – both portable and fixed;
Emergency action plan, cause and prevention of fire;
Care and inspection of fire fighting equipment;
Fire Brigades; and
Instructions for making a generator carbon-dioxide concentration test.

Intended Audience

This course is applicable to mechanical engineers, loss prevention engineers, process engineers, electrical engineers, architects, building designers, contractors, H &S professionals, environmentalists, O & M personal, safety engineers, and facility managers who are interested in gaining a better understanding of fire prevention.

Benefit to Attendees

Attendee of this course will get the technical oversight of the common safety practices in connection with fire prevention and general safety. You will understand how to use, care, and testing of firefighting equipment.

Course Introduction

This course is based entirely on the guidelines recommended by United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation titled “Firefighting and Fire Prevention”, which is is in the following PDF document:

Firefighting and Fire Prevention

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.

Course Summary

For fire to exist, the following four elements must be present at the same time:

Enough oxygen to sustain combustion,
Enough heat to raise the material to its ignition temperature,
Some sort of fuel or combustible material, and
The chemical reaction that is fire.

Portable fire extinguishers apply an extinguishing agent that will cool burning fuel, displace or remove oxygen, or stop the chemical reaction so a fire cannot continue to burn. Fire extinguishers are classified by the type of fire they will extinguish. The types of fires are

TYPE A: Fires in ordinary combustible materials, such as wood, cloth, paper, rubber, and many plastics.
TYPE B: Fires in flammable liquids, combustible liquids, petroleum greases , tars, oils, oil-based paints, solvents, lacquers, alcohols, and flammable gases.
TYPE C: Fires that involve energized electrical equipment where the electrical non-conductivity of the extinguishing media is of importance.

Fire protection systems focuses on the operational characteristics and abilities of different types of systems and equipment to control a particular type of fire, provide information concerning the location of a fire, and more.

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.