NFPA recently released its annual “U.S. Firefighter Fatalities in the United States” report, which…
Special Report
The Beirut explosion; an inconvenient truth for the industry and authorities
The devastating explosion in the Beirut harbour area was a dramatic wake-up call for the…
Providing aircraft rescue and firefighting services during a pandemic event
The global aviation business was among the first industries to be immediately affected by the…
Control the virus, stop the spread!
During these challenging times Firefighters, Police, Medics and other first responders remain in the front…
Flammable cladding in China: A site study 2020
Despite recent tragedies throughout the world, some countries, even in 2020, continue to use unsafe,…
The challenges of urbanization and other megatrends
Sooner or later, every company has to deal with the megatrends that concern our world.…
Wipe it off, don’t take it home – dealing with toxic soot on-scene
The fact cancer is now the leading cause of death amongst firefighters globally owes principally…
Large diameter hose systems for industrial fire services
The explosion of new technology has dramatically benefitted the fire service, in this article Daniel…
Cancer – The current epidemic in the fire service
More firefighters have been diagnosed with cancer in the last two years, then in the…
Dust explosion mitigation methods
A dust explosion is the rapid combustion of fine particles suspended in the air within…
Bristol in the Gulf
Paul Gibson, International Sales Manager at Bristol Uniforms, looks back on more than 40 years…
A strong foundation or building on sand?
You can’t build a great building on a weak foundation – a strong foundation is…
Safety Design in Buildings
Gulf Fire recently took the opportunity to speak with Andy Dean following his presentation to…
SAPPHIRE PLUS Launch
Following the SAPPHIRE PLUS launch earlier this year, Gulf Fire catches up with Alan Elder from Johnson Controls and Bart Goeman at 3M, to learn more about this new product and discuss the impact on the fire protection market and related industries.
What changes have you noticed in the fire industry over the period of your careers?
Alan: When I started in industry, the assets we were protecting were mainly industrial types, whereas over time we’ve transitioned to the protection of electronics and higher value assets – data centres, art galleries, etc. In the early years of my career, one of the more popular agents was CO2. Halon 1301 was introduced early in my career, a very good fire-fighting agent and at that time considered to be the first real clean agent. There were other chemical agents prior to that, but they had issues, mainly related to toxicity. As environmental issues became better understood, Halon was eventually phased out and replaced by the next generation of clean agent – HFCs and HCFCs. They then came under scrutiny themselves as the environmental landscape shifted towards climate change, not just ozone depletion. This is where Novec 1230 fluid from 3M came in, as a ‘third generation’ clean agent.
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