Establishing a Rural Fire Protection Program:

The primary mission of all rural volunteer fire departments should be to ensure that the community is provided with an optimal level of fire protection which is safe, cost effective, efficient and sustainable.

The traditional approach to deliver fire suppression services with full-size triple combination pumpers may not necessarily be the most appropriate way to deliver this component of rural community fire safety. This is a particularly common problem in small communities with limited funding and the declining availability of trained volunteer firefighting personnel.

Rural fire services must qualify for insurance grading recognition in order to receive reduced fire insurance premiums. To meet the fire insurance requirements a fire service needs to be organized and resourced at a level that is consistent with industry standards. The ability to meet "recognized fire department" status required by the insurance industry is generally unachievable for many rural communities.

Rural Fire Service Response Times

There is a direct relationship between Fire Development (Flame Spread), Temperature, and Time. Rapid intervention is the strategy, whether it is through the use of automatic fire systems, new fire interruption technology or firefighter suppression.

The Challenge:
All fire service administrations face the challenge of providing adequate response times when delivering fire suppression services throughout the whole service area. Typically, a traditional engine company responds from a central fire station to service the outlying areas. The majority of these response times generally exceed recognized industry standards, resulting in the total loss of the structure. This inability to initiate an adequate fire suppression response in the time required to limit fire spread in the growth stage of the fire is the major challenge.

The Solution:
After 3 years of research and development Remote Fire Fighting Solutions designed a fire suppression model which challenges the way traditional fire service managers approach the problem of providing adequate response times in rural areas.

A viable alternative for rural fire services is to develop an initial response strategy which incorporates "Best Practices" and new fire suppression tactics. The approach is to respond with localized highly mobile rapid attack fire units which require minimal manpower and feature new fire suppression technology.

It is critical to develop a fire attack strategy that gives the community fire service the opportunity to initiate fire suppression tactics in a typical residential (room and contents fire) before it breaches the "Room of origin".

Our fire protection service models incorporate rapid attack fire units as part of a layered response protocol. The fire protection models are flexible, based on capacity and dependant upon the "level of service" the client is capable of providing. These rapid attack units can be introduced into any proposed or existing fire service plan.

The Initial Rapid Attack fire suppression systems are built to military specifications and over 4000 units are in service worldwide. These systems can be portable or designed as skid units which easily fit into the cargo area of an ATV, pick-up truck or flatbed vehicle.

The fire suppression systems are combined with Rural Fire Fighter Training Programs designed to provide rural fire fighters with a safe and effective fire suppression option.