New technology fire suppression???

[di82131]

I recently saw a program on PBS television that intrigued me. It was a
program on new fire fighting technology. The part I am most interested in
dealt with a new fire extinguisher for home use, as well as professional and volunteer firefighters. If
my memory serves me correct the company is based in Europe, but has
affiliates in the United States. This new apparatus uses compressed air to
shoot a water vapor. In this process, the water is shot out at a high rate of speed, going through a series of rubber like fingers atomizing the water. The fireman actually had a tank of compressed air or carbon dioxide
on their back, as well as a small tank of water. There was a hose connecting this mixture to a hand held gun-like apparatus. They went up to what was on fire and shot it, just as if they had a shotgun.  Has anyone seen this device? Can you offer any information on this
product?
Thanks,
Doug
Dunbar Vol. Fire

[Mr. P]

IFEX is one particular unit. Some good and bad feedback.  Not new tech though.

[John Webb]

The principle is that of making very fine drops of water compared to the usual spray produced by a hose-reel branch. So for a given quantity of water you have a considerable increase in the surface area presented to the fire. This makes extinguishing more efficient by more rapid extraction of heat, formation of steam etc.
As Mr P says, not new technology, just a means of making it portable by providing the energy from compressed air rather than a high-pressure pump.

[mark]

this might be the sort of thing your looking for

http://www.omniqual.com/Products-Details.html

[Kaiser]

I used to serve in the German fire service and we had a trial with the Ifex 3000 back packs and trolley's.  From a personal point of view, I thought the technology is excellent but it is limited in its uses.  We tried it in a house fire and I was always aware of the short time period between each impulse shot when the system recharged, it may have only been a second or two but it felt like minutes.

I've seen it attached to arial appliances, even helicoptors but I really do think it is an inflexible tool and therefore not a viable solution as a portable extinguishing media

[Gekko]

I agree with Kaiser, when I used it on small jobs it was great.  We extinguished a fully developed car fire with 6Ltr's of water.  I didn't like the idea of using the charging cylinders as a BA set though.