Firefigthting is what we usually associate with the fire service, in the meaning “putting out fire”.
But – and statistics is very clear about this – putting out fires is a small part of the work by the fire service. In Sweden, the number of killed in fires has been more or less constant for a number of years (appr. 120 per year). A large part of the turnouts are to traffic accidents, false alarms or a countless number of other more or less unthinkable situations that occurs. But still, fires causes large costs for society.
I believe that fire fighting (=putting out fires) is a craft that has to be done manually. From time to time we comes up with ingenious gadgets that are said to put out fires even better than before. But to actually put out a fire, someone has to get inside and do the job, eventually. In many cases, it is even better to use a shovel and a bucket of water than a nozzle. And no matter how you get the wet stuff on the red stuff, you need to know how large the flow rate should be, how high the pressure in a hose/nozzle, how long do I have to put water on the fire, and, of course, where do I put the water?
In addition, one needs to pay attention to a large number of other parameters. What are the conditions in the building? What does the building look like? What does the fire safety in the building look like?
After a fire, ask yourself if it was the fire service that put out the fire or did the fire go out of fuel?