CAFS or No CAFS

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Permalink Reply by Larry Lasich on August 14, 2009 at 5:27pm

CAFS is the shiz. Air filled attack lines are light and hand lines are easy to advance, even 2 1/2 inch. Fast knock down and overhaul. Foam buries off gassing furniture and carpets and stops the production of fire gases. Super effective in pre flashover situations. Sticks to the overhead and drops tempertures like a madman. Doesn't use a lot of water, so booster water goes a long way and restoration companies like it because you can just about vac up after.

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Permalink Reply by Todd McKee on August 15, 2009 at 8:51pm

Thanks Larry, I am curious how many times your system has broke down? What is the best way to train with this system? Do you have any sites that would allow training for CAFS? Thanks a bunch! Todd McKee

Larry Lasich said:

CAFS is the shiz. Air filled attack lines are light and hand lines are easy to advance, even 2 1/2 inch. Fast knock down and overhaul. Foam buries off gassing furniture and carpets and stops the production of fire gases. Super effective in pre flashover situations. Sticks to the overhead and drops tempertures like a madman. Doesn't use a lot of water, so booster water goes a long way and restoration companies like it because you can just about vac up after.

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Permalink Reply by Larry Lasich on August 16, 2009 at 1:33pm

We only have CAFS on our wild land engine. One of our Vollie structure engines has CAFS and the air system is robust. You have to know how much air you can push, it's not like you can run every line that you have full out. It's like your foam system. It will supply X amount of flow and no more. I don't think it's measured in GPMs. If you are specing an engine, you want to identify discharges for CAFS. The crosslays and one 2 1/2 inch (for either a commercial attack line or FLAG (Flammable Liquids And Gas)/ fuel spill with a smooth bore Blitz Fire) are about all that you need, but that could mean a lot of air volume ie. a big compressor.

Training is a big deal, both for your D/Os and attact crews. You also need an SOG on when you will use it. Any place that does Class A live fire would be a great place to train, or you can get Class A fuel and burn outside (cars, pallets, straw, etc). Almost all of the departments up here will go with CAFS on an initial attack, but I've heard of some that just use it for mop up/overhaul. That doesn't make sense to me, but that's the way they roll.

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