# clean agent



## cda (Aug 23, 2011)

Does anyone have anyone's departments have  operations guidelines for working in a building with clean agent systems???

or is it just common sense on what should and should not be done??


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## Coug Dad (Aug 23, 2011)

not sure what the question is.


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## cda (Aug 23, 2011)

any guidelines for the firefighters going into a building with clean agent extinguishing systems.   what to do or not do


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## FM William Burns (Aug 23, 2011)

Ours is PPE regardless until the AQ monitors support non-PPE atmosphere ops.


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## RJJ (Aug 23, 2011)

PPE/AQM/nonPPE for ZZZZZZZZZZ!:cheers


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## cda (Aug 23, 2011)

also, the question came up clean agent has dumped do you go in and see what is going on???

do you wait to do anything till the hold time, unless the place is roaring with fire.


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## Msradell (Aug 23, 2011)

cda said:
			
		

> also, the question came up clean agent has dumped do you go in and see what is going on???  do you wait to do anything till the hold time, unless the place is roaring with fire.


Depends on the facility but in most cases if there's any possibility of someone still being in the area our SOP's have always been to make entry and perform a search (obviously wearing PPE as discussed above).


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## beach (Aug 23, 2011)

Same as FMWB...... PPE for you and me!


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## FM William Burns (Aug 23, 2011)

Same as Msradell but if the system was designed in accordance with NFPA 2001 and inspected properly, maintained with no alterations since acceptance or addressed and re-accepted, there should be *no *roaring fire due to the interruption of the chain reaction allowing for a roaring fire to break out of the protected area


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## cda (Aug 23, 2011)

Thanks all question came during a walk through of a new facility and since I fight fires with a code book was not sure of a good answer

Just reaching out to the vast knowledge here


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## Oldfieldguy (Aug 24, 2011)

One other consideration since your asking for guidance and that is the products of combustion. If you look at the chemical formulations of the current clean agents in the market place you'll see two classes of materials:

-hydrochloroflurocarbons (HCFCs)

-Inert gases

HCFCs are very reliable and environmentally friendly. But my concern is heating these agents. When you start subjecting HCFCs to moderately high temperatures, one can generate hydrofluoric (HF) and hydrochloric acids. HF is a pretty nasty (but useful) compound. In my old brain I seem to recall that PBI and Kevlar both have somewhat poor resistance to HF.

A useful and well prepared paper on clean agents is at:

http://www.fike.com/documents/firesupp/firessys/ecaro/white_papers/Role%20of%20Hydrofluorocarbons.pdf

I don't work for them and I'm not marketing their products.


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## FM William Burns (Aug 24, 2011)

> since I fight fires with a code book


Excellent Cda! _*"fire suppression is a failure in prevention"*_ and I like OFG.....he reminds me fondly of an old member here


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