Fire Attack: An Integrated Strategy

This book deals with three aspects of safety from fire: Protection by fire engineering design, Prevention by fire safety management and Control by firefighting attack. The author has pooled his knowledge from 30 years firefighting and fire attack planning in the UK fire service; ten years as an independent fire investigator and worldwide research undertaken for the award of a PhD to produce a link between fire safety engineering and fire attack. This has lead to two concepts backed by statistics, formulae and good practice worldwide: The “Weight of attendance” - The quantity of extinguishing media required to contain a fire of a known magnitude, the equipment necessary to deliver that extinguishing media in an appropriate form and sufficient personnel to apply that media in a reasonably safe manner. The “Speed of attendance” - The time within which it is economical to provide a predetermined weight of attendance taking account of the total cost of the provision of resources and the potential total losses within the area to be covered; or the time within which it is determined that there is a societal need for a predetermined attendance.

About the Author :
Mike joined the St Helens Fire Brigade on 4th August 1964. This is now part of Merseyside Fire Brigade but in those days it was a two-station County Borough Fire Brigade with a pump escape, two major pumps and a turntable ladder. During Mike’s early years in the job, the Auxiliary Fire Service was still in being and training of wholetime personnel included training for mobile columns, large scale water relays and rescue from collapsed buildings. He subsequently served in Staffordshire County and then Manchester City, progressing through the ranks of Leading Fireman, Sub Officer and Station Officer. With the formation of the Metropolitan Authorities in 1974, he became part of Greater Manchester Fire Service as an Assistant Divisional Officer. He served for 9 years as an operational Divisional Officer before being promoted to Senior Divisional Officer/Divisional Commander of C Division of GM Fire Service. In 1986 Mike transferred to West Yorkshire as Assistant Chief Fire Officer (Operations). It was at this time that the Government abolished Metropolitan Counties and the seven Metropolitan Fire Brigades in England became separate authorities under the political control of a Joint Board. As ACO (Operations) he was responsible for the risk categorisation and standards of fire cover, all operational matters on fire stations and mobilising control. He was also a member of the five person strong Brigade Management Team that was responsible for a significant revenue budget.