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So your department took the plunge and purchased a compressed air foam system (CAFS) for your new apparatus. You've heard the success stories; enhanced operations, better performance, ratings that extinguish water's effectiveness by two-, five- or even ten-times. Sounds almost too good to be true. So, the big question is — how much will my operations improve? The answer: a lot. How large an effect however, depends on your training.
We've all heard the phrase "practice makes perfect," with CAFS it's no different. Training should be the first thing on your mind as you write the specifications for your new apparatus, which is important as this varies widely throughout the industry. Some manufacturers provide no instruction. Others provide half a day at the factory. Still others, such as Waterous, provide up to three days instruction at your fire department.
Consider the advantages and disadvantages of each. For example, holding the class at your department rather than at the factory gives you the advantage of allowing most, if not all of your personnel to participate. You may also use the "train the trainer" concept and only allow key personnel to attend. In both cases you still get home field advantage.
First, you will save on travel time and expenses, scheduling and overtime — there's simply less hassle. Second, you are at home where you can cover all the variables that make your department unique. This can include call types and volumes, mutual aid companies, the foam concentrate your firehouse uses, water supply and quality in your area... even the local weather conditions.Another important point to consider is training instruction. The extent of your training ultimately depends on the qualifications of your trainer. When looking for a qualified CAFS instructor there are some important questions to ask, for example: Do they have firefighting experience? Do they have firefighting experience using CAFS? Are they a qualified fire service instructor?
Besides adding credibility to an instructor, these questions help make your classes more effective. We've all attended a class where the salesman or factory representative came to teach a class. They told you to turn this knob and pull that lever, but had no idea why it worked, how to troubleshoot it and, they simply couldn't answer the "what if" questions. With a qualified instructor you get just the opposite, you get communication on a user-to-user level. Even beyond basic operating instructions, qualified instructors can discuss how the system can be utilized in a variety of situations specific to your needs.
So when you receive your delivery instructions, take time to review the main points. You have to remember that this sets the foundation for effective CAFS operations. Being able to run the system and get foam out of the line is the easy part. We've all been operating fire pumps for years, in fact for us firefighters it's like riding a bike. Once you get it, you don't lose it. Industry professionals learn quickly and will easily master the steps needed to add foam and air to the water. They will even learn how to readily change the foam consistency. But training shouldn't stop here, just the opposite.
Your personnel must thoroughly understand what type of foam to use in various tactical situations. For example, should the CAFS foam be wet and sloppy or thick like shaving cream? The answer is both. They are both tools in the toolbox with each having their own proper tactical application. Speaking of tools, CAFS are just that — tools – and extremely vital ones at that. CAFS, once purchased, will become a tool that will be used frequently, which is why you and your staff need to understand when and where to use your foam proportioner with an aspirating nozzle to your tactical advantage.
Besides knowing what types of finished foam to use and when to use it, pump operators need to understand the variables. A frequent question I get is, "How long will the foam stay after the application?" The answer is that there is in fact no specific answer. There are many variables that go into the answer; time will vary according to how you made the foam, what you applied it on, the weather conditions, the foam concentrate used and the quality of water you are using. As you can see these are all important variables to consider and they depend a lot on the location you operate from.
Knowing what will happen in a situation takes practice. Besides simply understanding that there are in fact variables, you need to train in various conditions to become familiar with how the foam works. So whether you are fighting fire or protecting an exposure, you will be applying the right product at the right time.
Most importantly you must train with live fire. Filling the parking lot with bubbles or coating the side of the station has its place in learning basic operations, but it doesn't necessarily prepare you for real-life situations. To get a real handle on using foam only comes from hands-on, live fire experience. It helps you understand the differences in both application techniques and in how fire environment changes using CAFS. Discussions in a classroom can work, but most firefighters will tell you that experience is the true educator.
The best opportunity to experience CAFS is in an acquired structure where you are surrounded by class-A fuels. Knowing the logistical and safety issues that come from this type of training you may want to try a burn facility. If you elect to use a burn building it must be capable of using class-A fuel. Propane fired burn buildings will not give a real life experience with CAFS. Even a burn building using class-A fuels is still a concrete or metal box, so you won't get the full experience. Another point is that most burn rooms are fairly small and easily overwhelmed with water let alone CAFS, so it's harder to see the true effectiveness of the foam.
Bottom line, just like anything else we do in the fire industry — the more you train the more proficient you will become. Keep in mind that there is no one right way to use CAFS. You need to find out what works best for you and your department and that comes from proper training and experience.
Mr. Klassen has 31 years experience in the Fire Service as a volunteer and a career firefighter. He is currently a Captain for Summit Fire Dept in Flagstaff Arizona. He has 12 years experience using Compressed Air Foam Systems and 20 years experience as a secondary and post secondary vocational education teacher.
Mr. Klassen is also the CAFS Instruction Program Manager for Waterous and oversees all CAFS training for the company.
