Gizmodo Australia » firefighting

20,500-Gallon Firefighting Boeing 747 Supertanker In Action

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:00:00 +0000

The fire season has started in half of the world and I wish there were more of these 747 Firefighting Supertankers. They can drop 20,500 gallons of water in one go, as you can see in the video.

Rob Cockerham at PopSci got to see it in action, and took a few photographs of this mighty—and extremely useful—sploshing megalomaniac dream machine. [Popsci]

Firehose, Meet Fire Missile Launcher

Mark Wilson — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:20:00 +0000

We’re not firefighters, so this idea may be completely crazy. But if we fought fires for a living, we’d feel a lot more comfortable doing battle with this mean-looking gas-propelled missile launcher concept.

We’ve all see those clips on the news, a firehose suspended from a lift shoots water into a burning building. It looks futile, as most of the water arcs toward the ground or just bounces against the brick. Only a small proportion was the water ever makes it into the window.

With the Jet Spray, gas pressure fires a hose-connected rocket into an open window a la Batman. Turning on the hose pumps the water directly into the room, dousing the flames with 100% of available water.

But how one is supposed to keep that hose from flailing all over and popping back out of the building…well, therein lies the rub. [Yanko]

Firefighting Sprinkler Suit From 1931

Sean Fallon — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:40:00 +0000

Back in 1931 Modern Mechanix magazine ran an article about an invention used by German firefighters to protect themselves from being engulfed in flames. The simple device consisted of a helmet with a built-in sprinkler system that connects with a nozzle on the hose. Using a hand lever, the firefighter could control the amount of spray needed for a given situation. Clever—but it seems that fighting a fire in something that looks like an old-timey deep sea diving helmet might prove problematic. [Modern Mechanix via Boing Boing]