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THE SOCIETY OF FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEERS Joseph E. Johnson, President

Robert A. Pedersen, First Vice President Edward F. Tabisz, Second Vice President

Richard E. Stevens, Secretary-Treasurer

A G L A N C E AT T H E F U T U R E OF F I R E P R O T E C T I O N

Recently, Dan W. Jacobsen - - a fire protect ion engineer for the Ballistics Systems Division of the United States Air Force Systems Command and a member of the S F P E - - set down on paper some of his thoughts regarding fire protect ion engineering and the future. They are presented here in the hope tha t they will provide food for thought for other members of the fire protection engineering profession.

"Today is a par t of yes te rday ' s future. Are we planning ahead?

"We know as fact t ha t more than half of the scientific achievements made during man 's habi ta t ion of this ear th have taken place during the past 50 years. In this respect, the field of fire protection engineering is certainly no exception. We have seen the horse- drawn s teamer give way to the modern engine-driven pumper; we have seen revolut ionary improvements in auto- matic sprinkler and fire detect ion sys- tems; and we have seen many other splendid developments too numerous to mention. Yes, much has been ac- complished, yet so very much still re- mains to be done.

" W h a t does the future hold for fire protect ion technology? Only research and bold, imaginative thinking will

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produce the answers to this question. Painfully, we must face the rea l i ty tha t our current research backlog should have been more actively pursued sev- eral decades ago, merely to bring us abreast of today ' s needs. Dramat ic as our achievements have been, it seems incongruous tha t developments in other technical fields have almost invar iably preceded, by several years, their re- lated consti tuents in fire protection.

"Despi te the advent of such innova- tions as the spray sprinkler, the aerial platform, the super pumper , and im- proved foam and dry chemical ex- tinguishants, most of our advance- ments lag 10 to 20 years behind the space age. For example: in the present state-of-the-art , we have no practical, effective means for extinguishing fires in accidental combinations of hyper- golic (self-igniting) propellants; nor do we have the appara tus and techniques properly developed to rescue astro- nauts from a ' t i red ' booster launching. Actually, we don ' t even have crash or rescue appara tus capable of suppress- ing advanced fire involvement of large, modern je t aircraft .

" In recent years, there have been many excellent fire research reports published, principally by scientists

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working in gove rnmen t l abora to r i es or unde r g o v e r n m e n t con t rac t . W i t h no except ion , however , these d i s se r t a t ions have been of a h ighly theore t i ca l na- ture , l eav ing only l imi ted possibi l i t ies for p rac t i ca l appl ica t ion . T h e t ime, therefore , is r ipe for each worker in the field of fire p ro tec t ion to p u t for th more s incere effort t oward the improve- m e n t of his profession. W e need more new ideas. W e despe ra t e ly need scien- tific p lanning . W e need real is t ic a d a p t a t i o n of t heo ry to pract ice . We also need to d rop some of our out- moded , o ld- fashioned ideas arid to raise our s ights toward ob jec t ives t h a t we p rev ious ly considered impossible . W e m u s t no t to le ra te indolence in any echelon of our ranks .

" F o r centur ies , man has been asking himself, ' W h a t is this th ing called fire?' F e w have become in te res ted enough to seek a p laus ib le answer, and of those who did, none has rea l ly de- vised a s a t i s f ac to ry one. M o s t have been con t en t to t ake the phenomeno n for g ran ted , id ly accep t ing the ele- m e n t a r y def ini t ion of ' r ap id oxida t ion a c c o m p a n i e d b y the evo lu t ion of hea t and l igh t . ' A few, more e rud i t e indi- viduals , unwil l ing to . a c c e p t such an unsoph i s t i ca t ed explana t ion , have ad- vanced fu r the r to theor ize t h a t a flame f ron t embod ies m y r i a d s of free ions or, poss ibly , ion chains. Now they are seeking b e t t e r answers to these re la ted ques t ions - - W h a t is ox ida t ion? W h a t energy t rans fe rs or t r an s fo rma t ions cause the evolu t ion of l ight and hea t? T h e answers are far f rom complete , and i t is obvious t h a t we m u s t gen- e ra te more expl ic i t i n fo rmat ion before we can expec t to accompl i sh ma jo r b r e a k - t h r o u g h s in the a r t of fire sup- pression.

"Cons ide r ing the h igh ly essent ia l and ve ry poss ible d e v e l o p m e n t s needed in the fu ture , I would l ike to make a few forecasts . In the nex t 10 years , we

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will see more useful scientif ic and in- dus t r i a l progress t h a n we have exper i - enced since W o r l d W a r I I ; and if we in fire p ro tec t ion are to keep pace wi th such acce le ra ted progress, these are a few of the goals t o w a r d which we m u s t work. Call t h e m incredible , fan tas t ic , unbel ievable , or imposs ib le ; I p red ic t t h a t we will see these and m a n y s imi lar d r e a m s become r ea l i t y wi th in the T w e n t i e t h C e n t u r y :

�9 " T h e d e v e l o p m e n t of a c o m p l e t e l y new concept of fire t h a t p roves a d i rec t re la t ionsh ip be tween fire p r o p a g a t i o n and nuclear a c t i v i t y ,

�9 "Complex chemica l a d d i t i v e s t h a t will render w a t e r so lu t ions more t h a n 300 t imes as effect ive as wa te r a lone in the ex t ingu i shmen t of Class A and Class B fires,

�9 "F i r e hose and coupl ings so l igh t t h a t one man can eas i ly c a r r y 200 f t of line, and so s t rong t h a t t h e y will no t b u r s t or wear out ,

�9 " U n d e r g r o u n d , mul t imi l l ion-ga l lon wa te r s torage faci l i t ies p e r m a n e n t l y pressur ized, r ende r ing g r a v i t y s to rage and s t a t i ona ry fire p u m p s obsolete .

�9 " P o r t a b l e ion genera tors , sound wave generators , and low-order explo- sion or pressure wave genera to r s used as s t a n d a r d fire f ight ing appl iances ,

�9 "A universa l a u t o m a t i c sp r ink le r va lve t h a t will serve all five s y s t e m s - - wet pipe, d ry pipe, p re-ac t ion , deluge, and p re -p r imed deluge (a l r eady unde r deve lopmen t ) ,

�9 "Uni t i zed fire de tec t ion and au to- m a t i c a l a rm devices t h a t will warn bu i ld ing occupan t s of any ma l func t ion t h a t might give rise to fire long before fire ac tua l ly develops ,

�9 " A u t o m a t i c sys t ems for comple t e ly iner t ing unoccupied bui ldings, so t h a t fire canno t deve lop dur ing idle periods,

�9 "F i r e and explosion suppress ion sys t ems capab le of de tec t ion , ac tu- a t ion, and ex t ingu i shmen t - - al l in less t h a n 25 mil l iseconds,

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�9 " In f r a - r ed and smoke-sensi t ive visual devices t h a t will scan the horizon and detect fire anywhere wi th in a range of 50 miles or more,

�9 "Noncombus t i b l e clothing, deco- ra t ing, uphols ter ing, and carpet ing mater ials ,

�9 "Be t t e r and cheaper the rmal in- su la t ing agents t h a t will make hea t conduc t ion and radia t ion clearances unnecessary ,

�9 "Eng ine fuels t h a t will essent ial ly be noncombus t ib l e except in an engine u t i l iza t ion env i ronmen t , and

�9 "Last , bu t no t least, fire preven- t ion educat ion so far-reaching and effective t h a t our a n n u a l na t iona l fire loss will even tua l ly d iminish instead of showing a s teady increase with prop- e r ty growth.

" I t has no t been the purpose here to establ ish one 's self as an oracle or clair- v o y a n t prophet, b u t to s t imula te lucid thought, , to encourage research, and to mot iva te those among us who possess inven t ive genius and imagina t ion to come forward with new, pract ical ideas. To a considerable extent , we - - the so-called 'experts ' - - as well as our forebears in this field are no t above re- proach for our l imited advancemen t , as we are somewhat satisfied to accept the s t a tus quo.

F i r e T e c h n o l o g y

"Let us therefore awaken , m y col- leagues. Science will no t br ing these a d v a n c e m e n t s to us au tomat ica l ly . We mus t make our need known, and each of us mus t con t r ibu te toward the ac- compl i shment of our objectives. Science responds to the needs of man, b u t no t un t i l m a n makes those needs known. Members of the fire protec t ion f ra te rn i ty in general, and fire protec- t ion engineers in par t icular , are no- tor iously poor salesmen. Sincere as we m a y be in our unde r t ak ings , we are most cer ta in ly no t pa r t i c ipa t ing in a popula r i ty contest . We have a tre- mendous job to do, p robab ly the most i m p o r t a n t work t h a t we will perform in this cen tury .

" I n these days of as ton ish ing scien- tific revelat ions, it is no t on ly danger- ous b u t also senseless to assume t h a t a n y t h i n g is impossible! We m u s t keep our minds open to new ideas. We m u s t welcome the suggest ions of the coming generat ion. We m u s t believe this: If ma n has the capaci ty to harness nu- clear energy - - the origin of all fire - - there is sound reason to believe t ha t he will even tua l ly mas te r fire, itself.

" T o d a y is a li t t le par t of yes t e rday ' s future. We m u s t plan ahead, for here

comes tomorrow !"