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82-529: The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department is a combination career and volunteer organization that provides fire suppression services , emergency medical response services , technical rescue services , hazardous materials Response services , water rescue services, life safety education, fire prevention and arson investigation services to Fairfax County , Virginia . Emergency medical services include advanced life support response by ALS (Advanced Life Support) capable engines and transport units. As part of

164-418: A fire shelter " and should be "...at least four times the maximum continuous flame height." However this figure only takes into account the effects of radiant heat and does not consider topography nor wind. Safety Zones can be natural features such as rock screes, meadows, and river bars; or human-made features such a parking lots or areas that have been cleared of vegetation through mechanical means. One of

246-906: A 'V'. ● Accounts for the addition of the 8th Battalion in February 2021. ● Station 44 (Scotts Run) in McLean opened, and Rescue 401 became Rescue 444, both in August 2021. ● ALS Cars introduced January 2024 (3 units) placed among the County ● Accounts for the ALS to BLS conversion of certain career transport units at some fire stations (Annandale (8), Bailey's Crossroads (10), Great Falls (12), Chantilly (15), Clifton (16), Gunston (20), Reston (25), West Springfield (27), Fox Mill (31), Fairfax Center (40), Crosspointe (41), and Scott's Run (44)) in February 2022. Abbreviations : Firefighting Firefighting

328-580: A 10/14 shift, in which the day shift works ten hours and the night shift works 14 hours. Firefighting personnel are split up into alternating shifts. Usually, the 24-hour shifts are followed by two days off. The shift personnel arrive for roll call at a specified time, ready to complete a regular tour of duty. While on shift, the firefighter remains at the fire station unless relieved or assigned other duties. In fire fighting, there are also people designated as fire wardens, also known as chief officers. Their duties vary, some may ensure evacuation of that part of

410-413: A fire in a cellar or an underground car park with only a few centimeters of visibility may require long reconnaissance to identify the source of the fire. The "reading" of a fire is the analysis by firefighters of indications of thermal events such as flashover , backdraft or smoke explosion . It is performed during reconnaissance and fire suppression maneuvers. The main signs are: Spraying water on

492-430: A fire. Water extinguishes a fire by cooling, which removes heat because of water’s ability to absorb massive amounts of heat as it converts to water vapor . Without heat, the fuel cannot keep the oxidizer from reducing the fuel in order to sustain the fire. Water also extinguishes a fire by smothering it. When water is heated to its boiling point, it converts to water vapor. When this conversion takes place, it dilutes

574-402: A fraction of a second. Additional risks of fire are the obscuring of vision due to smoke, potentially causing a fall or disorientation ; becoming trapped in a fire; and structural collapse . "Three hours of fighting a fire stiffens arteries and impairs cardiac function in firefighters" according to a study by Bo Fernhall, a professor in the department of kinesiology and community health in

656-412: A low burning fire can be devastating as it will ignite all of the oxygen along the way. It can also be heard from miles away as it has a concussive blast that adds to the effect. Firefighters need to have extreme communication at all times on the fire ground as one broken window at the wrong time could seriously harm anyone operating on the building. Depending on the heat of the fire, burns can occur in

738-425: A minimum of two Fire Wardens per floor. In this example, their duties include investigating any fire alarms (see if there really is a fire and if so, its nature), ensuring the fire department is contacted, directing the evacuation of the facility, activating or delaying activation of fire suppression equipment such as halon and sprinklers (delayed in case of a false alarm), meeting the fire department and taking them to

820-495: A naturally occurring element. Occupational exposures to silica dust can cause silicosis , lung cancer, pulmonary tuberculosis, airway diseases, and some additional non-respiratory diseases. Inhalation of asbestos can result in various diseases including asbestosis , lung cancer, and mesothelioma . Sources of metals exposure include burnt or melted electronics, cars, refrigerators, stoves, etc. Fire debris cleanup workers may be exposed to these metals or their combustion products in

902-518: A particular piece of apparatus came from. The "M" at the end of the unit designation represents an ALS capable unit (paramedic on board), which all Fairfax County Engines, Trucks, Towers, and Rescues are at optimal staffing levels. The "M" is not verbalized. FCFRD consists of 42 fire stations spread out across the county's 407 square miles (1,050 km), serving a population of 1.15 million residents. With over 1,400 uniformed staff, 300 civilian employees, and 350 operational and administrative volunteers,

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984-480: A person's name, such as Migjeni —an abbreviation from his original name ( Millosh Gjergj Nikolla ) a famous Albanian poet and writer—or ASDRENI ( Aleksander Stavre Drenova ), another famous Albanian poet. Other such names which are used commonly in recent decades are GETOAR, composed from Gegeria + Tosks (representing the two main dialects of the Albanian language, Gegë and Toskë), and Arbanon —which

1066-422: A plan for the building that provides information about structures, firefighter hazards, and in some cases the most appropriate strategies and tactics for fighting a fire in that context. There are four elements needed to start and sustain a fire and/or flame: temperature, a fuel , an oxidizing agent (oxygen), and a chemical reaction. A fire can be extinguished by taking away any of the four components. The fuel

1148-555: A plural of an initialization without an apostrophe can also be used for a number, or a letter. Examples: For units of measure, the same form is used for both singular and plural. Examples: When an abbreviation contains more than one period, Hart's Rules recommends putting the s after the final one. Examples: However, the same plurals may be rendered less formally as: According to Hart's Rules , an apostrophe may be used in rare cases where clarity calls for it, for example when letters or symbols are referred to as objects. However,

1230-485: A popular fire engine that was essentially a rectangular box on wheels filled using a bucket brigade to provide a reservoir while hand-powered pumps supplied sufficient water pressure to douse fires at a distance. Ancient Rome did not have municipal firefighters. Instead, private individuals relied on their slaves or supporters to take action. They would not only form bucket brigades or attempt to smother smaller fires, but would also demolish or raze nearby buildings to slow

1312-427: A shortened form of a word with a trailing period. For example: etcetera is usually abbreviated etc. and abbreviation is sometimes abbreviated abbr. , abbrv. , or abbrev. . But sometimes the trailing period is not used for such shortened forms. A contraction is an abbreviation formed by replacing letters with an apostrophe. Examples include I'm for I am and li'l for little . An initialism or acronym

1394-557: A single letter and was originally spelled with lower case letters then there is no need for capitalization. However, when abbreviating a phrase where only the first letter of each word is taken, then all letters should be capitalized, as in YTD for year-to-date , PCB for printed circuit board and FYI for for your information . However, see the following section regarding abbreviations that have become common vocabulary: these are no longer written with capital letters. A period (a.k.a. full stop)

1476-517: A symbol such as "km" for " kilometre ". In the International System of Units (SI) manual the word "symbol" is used consistently to define the shorthand used to represent the various SI units of measure. The manual also defines the way in which units should be written , the principal rules being: A syllabic abbreviation is usually formed from the initial syllables of several words, such as Interpol = International + police . It

1558-427: A total of 103,946 incidents countywide for FY2018. Fairfax County Fire and Rescue also sponsors one of the nation's Urban Search and Rescue response teams. Named 'Virginia Task Force 1,' the team is composed of approximately 200 specially trained career and volunteer fire and rescue personnel, with expertise in the rescue of victims from collapsed structures, following a natural or man-made catastrophic event. The team

1640-534: Is a common misconception. In 1833 fire insurance companies in London merged to form The London Fire Company Establishment. Steam-powered apparatuses were first introduced in the 1850s, allowing a greater quantity of water to be directed onto a fire; in the early 1930s they were superseded by versions powered by an internal combustion engine. In World War II the Auxiliary Fire Service , and later

1722-504: Is a dangerous profession due to the toxic environment created by combustible materials , with major risks being smoke, oxygen deficiency , elevated temperatures, poisonous atmospheres, and violent air flows. To combat some of these risks, firefighters carry self-contained breathing apparatus . Additional hazards include falls – a constant peril while navigating unfamiliar layouts or confined spaces amid shifting debris under limited visibility – and structural collapse that can exacerbate

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1804-568: Is a syllabic abbreviation of Commonwealth and (Thomas) Edison . Sections of California are also often colloquially syllabically abbreviated, as in NorCal (Northern California), CenCal (Central California), and SoCal (Southern California). Additionally, in the context of Los Angeles, the syllabic abbreviation SoHo (Southern Hollywood) refers to the southern portion of the Hollywood neighborhood. Partially syllabic abbreviations are preferred by

1886-533: Is a variant of the acronym. Syllabic abbreviations are usually written using lower case , sometimes starting with a capital letter , and are always pronounced as words rather than letter by letter. Syllabic abbreviations should be distinguished from portmanteaus , which combine two words without necessarily taking whole syllables from each. Syllabic abbreviations are not widely used in English. Some UK government agencies such as Ofcom (Office of Communications) and

1968-534: Is an engineering control that can be used to avoid or minimize exposure to hazardous substances. When ventilation is insufficient or dust cannot be avoided, personal protective equipment such as N95 respirators can be used. The first step in a firefighting operation is reconnaissance to search for the origin of the fire (which may not be obvious for an indoor fire, especially if there are no witnesses), to identify any specific risks, and to detect possible casualties. An outdoor fire may not require reconnaissance, but

2050-526: Is an abbreviation consisting of the initial letter of a sequence of words without other punctuation. For example, FBI ( /ˌɛf.biːˈaɪ/ ), USA ( /ˌjuː.ɛsˈeɪ/ ), IBM ( /ˌaɪ.biːˈɛm/ ), BBC ( /ˌbiː.biːˈsiː/ ). When initialism is used as the preferred term, acronym refers more specifically to when the abbreviation is pronounced as a word rather than as separate letters; examples include SWAT and NASA . Initialisms, contractions and crasis share some semantic and phonetic functions, and are connected by

2132-777: Is an alternative way used to describe all Albanian lands. Syllabic abbreviations were and are common in German ; much like acronyms in English, they have a distinctly modern connotation, although contrary to popular belief, many date back to before 1933 , if not the end of the Great War . Kriminalpolizei , literally criminal police but idiomatically the Criminal Investigation Department of any German police force, begat KriPo (variously capitalised), and likewise Schutzpolizei ( protection police or uniform department ) begat SchuPo . Along

2214-604: Is based on the type of fires that the extinguisher is more suitable for. In the United States, the types of fire are described by the National Fire Protection Association . The earliest known firefighters were in the city of Rome. In 60 A.D., emperor Nero established a Corps of Vigils ( Vigiles ) to protect Rome after a disastrous fire. It consisted of 7,000 people equipped with buckets and axes who fought fires and served as police. In

2296-504: Is chemical flame inhibition. This can be accomplished by applying dry chemical or halogenated agents that interrupt the chemical chain reaction and stop flaming. This method is effective on gas and liquid fuel because they must have flame to burn. Abbreviations An abbreviation (from Latin brevis , meaning "short" ) is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction , initialism (which includes acronym) or crasis . An abbreviation may be

2378-465: Is composed of emergency managers and planners, physicians and paramedics and includes specialists in the fields of structural engineering, heavy rigging, collapse rescue, logistics, hazardous materials, communications, canine operations, and technical search. Virginia Task Force 1 has partnerships with the Department of Homeland Security / Federal Emergency Management Agency for domestic response and

2460-418: Is controversy as to which should be used. One generally accepted rule is to be consistent in a body of work. To this end, publishers may express their preferences in a style guide . Some controversies that arise are described below. If the original word was capitalized then the first letter of its abbreviation should retain the capital, for example Lev. for Leviticus . When a word is abbreviated to more than

2542-695: Is sometimes used to signify abbreviation, but opinion is divided as to when and if this convention is best practice. According to Hart's Rules , a word shortened by dropping letters from the end terminates with a period, whereas a word shorted by dropping letters from the middle does not. Fowler's Modern English Usage says a period is used for both of these shortened forms, but recommends against this practice: advising it only for end-shortened words and lower-case initialisms; not for middle-shortened words and upper-case initialisms. Some British style guides, such as for The Guardian and The Economist , disallow periods for all abbreviations. In American English ,

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2624-407: Is the substance being oxidized or burned in the combustion process. The most common fuels contain carbon along with combinations of hydrogen and oxygen. Heat is the energy component of a fire. When it comes into contact with a fuel, it provides the energy necessary for ignition, causes the continuous production and ignition of fuel vapors or gases so that the combustion reaction can continue, and causes

2706-438: Is time to withdraw firefighters from a fire, and react calmly in emergency situations. The chief officer must direct the activities of a fire department and supervise all firefighting activities, requiring extensive knowledge of city layouts, the location of streets, fire hydrants and fire alarm boxes, and the principal buildings. A chief officer must be familiar with sources of fires, including explosives, hazardous chemicals, and

2788-584: Is typically US . There are multiple ways to pluralize an abbreviation. Sometimes this accomplished by adding an apostrophe and an s ( 's ), as in "two PC's have broken screens". But, some find this confusing since the notation can indicate possessive case . And, this style is deprecated by many style guides. For instance, Kate Turabian , writing about style in academic writings, allows for an apostrophe to form plural acronyms "only when an abbreviation contains internal periods or both capital and lowercase letters". For example, "DVDs" and "URLs" and "Ph.D.'s", while

2870-778: The London Blitz , 700 fire men and 20 fire women, as known during the time period died as a result of heavy bombing, 91 of these perished at the same time defending London. By the end of the London Blitz, 327 firefighters had lost their lives. In January 1608, a fire destroyed many colonists' provisions and lodgings in Jamestown, Virginia . By the mid-1600s, Boston , New Amsterdam (later New York City ), and Philadelphia were all plagued by fires, and volunteer fire brigades began to form. In 1736, Benjamin Franklin founded

2952-516: The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments , Fairfax County Fire and Rescue is labeled number 4 in the 800 MHz trunked radio system. All FCFR units begin with 4 followed by the station number. For example, the engine from station 19 is E419M, and the tower-ladder from station 1 is TL401M. During an emergency that would require a response from multiple agencies, dispatchers are quickly able to identify what county

3034-576: The Modern Language Association explicitly says, "do not use an apostrophe to form the plural of an abbreviation". Also, the American Psychological Association specifically says, "without an apostrophe". However, the 1999 style guide for The New York Times states that the addition of an apostrophe is necessary when pluralizing all abbreviations, preferring "PC's, TV's and VCR's". Forming

3116-601: The National Fire Service , were established to supplement local fire services. Before 1938, there was no countrywide standard for firefighting terms, procedures, ranks, or equipment (such as hose couplings). In the month of August in 1939 with war looking very possible the Fire Service's act of 1938 came into effect. This unified Great Britain's fire service and prepared them for the German war machine. During

3198-690: The Old English poem Beowulf used many abbreviations, for example the Tironian et ( ⁊ ) or & for and , and y for since , so that "not much space is wasted". The standardisation of English in the 15th through 17th centuries included a growth in the use of such abbreviations. At first, abbreviations were sometimes represented with various suspension signs, not only periods. For example, sequences like ⟨er⟩ were replaced with ⟨ɔ⟩ , as in mastɔ for master and exacɔbate for exacerbate . While this may seem trivial, it

3280-530: The Union Fire Company in Philadelphia, which became the standard for volunteer fire organizations. These firefighters had two critical tools: salvage bags and so-called bed keys. Salvage bags were used to quickly collect and save valuables, and bed keys were used to separate the wooden frame of a bed (often the most valuable item in a home at the time) into pieces for safe and rapid removal from

3362-549: The United States Agency for International Development /Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance during international missions. As a part of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, the task force maintains constant operational readiness as a local resource for residents of Fairfax County and surrounding jurisdictions. ● Almost all apparatus are considered career-staffed unless where marked by

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3444-459: The 1990s led to a marked rise in colloquial abbreviation. This was due largely to increasing popularity of textual communication services such as instant and text messaging. The original SMS supported message lengths of 160 characters at most (using the GSM 03.38 character set), for instance. This brevity gave rise to an informal abbreviation scheme sometimes called Textese , with which 10% or more of

3526-661: The 20th century. The contractions in Newspeak are supposed to have a political function by virtue of their abbreviated structure itself: nice sounding and easily pronounceable, their purpose is to mask all ideological content from the speaker. A more recent syllabic abbreviation has emerged with the disease COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019) caused by the Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (itself frequently abbreviated to SARS-CoV-2 , partly an initialism). In Albanian, syllabic acronyms are sometimes used for composing

3608-414: The 3rd century B.C., an Alexandrian Greek named Ctesibius made a double force pump called a siphona . As water rose in the chamber, it compressed the air inside, which forced the water to eject in a steady stream through a pipe and nozzle. In the 16th century, syringes were also used as firefighting tools, the larger ones being mounted on wheels. Another traditional firefighting method that survived

3690-654: The College of Applied Health Sciences, and Gavin Horn, director of research at the Illinois Fire Service Institute. The conditions (observed in healthy male firefighters) are "also apparent found in weightlifters and endurance athletes..." Once extinguished, fire debris cleanup poses several safety and health risks for workers. Many hazardous substances are commonly found in fire debris. Silica can be found in concrete, roofing tiles, or it may be

3772-667: The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department is the largest fire department in the Commonwealth of Virginia . The Fairfax County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association (FCVFRA) partners with the FCFRD to combine 12 volunteer fire and rescue departments in Fairfax County. Volunteers in these 12 departments are full partners with the career staff of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, providing emergency services in and around Fairfax County. These volunteers are trained to

3854-768: The US Navy, as they increase readability amidst the large number of initialisms that would otherwise have to fit into the same acronyms. Hence DESRON 6 is used (in the full capital form) to mean "Destroyer Squadron 6", while COMNAVAIRLANT would be "Commander, Naval Air Force (in the) Atlantic". Syllabic abbreviations are a prominent feature of Newspeak , the fictional language of George Orwell 's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four . The political contractions of Newspeak— Ingsoc (English Socialism), Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), Miniplenty ( Ministry of Plenty )—are described by Orwell as similar to real examples of German ( see below ) and Russian ( see below ) contractions in

3936-1209: The air or on their skin. These metals may include beryllium , cadmium , chromium , cobalt , lead , manganese , nickel , and many more. Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), some of which are carcinogenic, come from the incomplete combustion of organic materials and are often found as a result of structural and wildland fires. Safety hazards of fire cleanup include the risk of reignition of smoldering debris, electrocution from downed or exposed electrical lines or in instances where water has come into contact with electrical equipment. Structures that have been burned may be unstable and at risk of sudden collapse. Standard personal protective equipment for fire cleanup include hard hats , goggles or safety glasses, heavy work gloves, earplugs or other hearing protection , steel-toe boots , and fall protection devices. Hazard controls for electrical injury include assuming all power lines are energized until confirmation they are de-energized, and grounding power lines to guard against electrical feedback, and using appropriate personal protective equipment. Proper respiratory protection can protect against hazardous substances. Proper ventilation of an area

4018-460: The apostrophe can be dispensed with if the items are set in italics or quotes: In Latin, and continuing to the derivative forms in European languages as well as English, single-letter abbreviations had the plural being a doubling of the letter for note-taking. Most of these deal with writing and publishing. A few longer abbreviations use this as well. Publications based in the U.S. tend to follow

4100-512: The building for which they are responsible; others may be responsible for fire control in a particular area, direct a crew in the suppression of forest fires, or function as fire patrolmen in a logging area. The chief officer is in charge of their firefighters during fires or emergencies, and is expected to command and control the overall situation while effectively combating a fire or other emergency. Chief officers must be able to evaluate their firefighters, use sound judgement when deciding when it

4182-401: The ceiling in short pulses of a diffused spray (e.g., a cone with an opening angle of 60°) can be undertaken to test the heat of smoke: If the temperature is moderate, the water falls down in drops with a sound like rain; if the temperature is high, the water vaporizes with a hiss—the sign of a potentially extremely dangerous impending flashover. Ideally, part of reconnaissance is consulting

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4264-438: The combustion qualities of materials in buildings, homes, and industrial plants . In certain jurisdictions, civilians can get certified to be a Fire Warden, and some cities require certain types of buildings, such as high rises, to have a certain number of Fire Wardens. For example, the city of Houston in the United States requires every tenant in a high-rise to have at least one Fire Warden for every 7500 sq. ft. occupied, and

4346-485: The district or city street system they will have to negotiate in order to perform their duties. They must meet minimum physical fitness standards and learn various firefighting duties within a reasonable period Examples are: Specialized areas of operations may require subject-specific training. Examples are: Full-time career firefighters typically follow a 24-hour shift schedule, although some fire departments work 8- or 12-hour shifts. Australian firefighters work

4428-443: The fact that Rome had no fire department, by creating his own brigade—500 men strong—which rushed to burning buildings at the first cry of alarm. Upon arriving at the scene, however, the firefighters did nothing while Crassus offered to buy the burning building from the distressed property owner, at a miserable price. If the owner agreed to sell the property, his men would put out the fire; if the owner refused, then they would simply let

4510-584: The fire. The first American attempt at fire insurance failed after a large fire in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1736. Later in 1740, Benjamin Franklin organized the Philadelphia Contributionship to provide fire insurance, which was more successful. The Contributionship adopted "fire marks" to easily identify insured buildings. Firefighting started to become formalized with rules for providing buckets, ladders, and hooks, and with

4592-719: The formation of volunteer companies. A chain of command was also established. A firefighter's goals are to save lives, protect property, and protect the environment. A fire can rapidly spread and endanger many lives, but with modern firefighting techniques, catastrophe can often be avoided. To prevent fires from starting, a firefighter's duties may include public education about fire safety and conducting fire inspections of locations to verify their adherence to local fire codes . Firefighting requires technical proficiency of operational tactics, equipment, and scene awareness. Firefighters must also have, or be able to acquire, knowledge of department organizations, operations, and procedures, and

4674-428: The former Oftel (Office of Telecommunications) use this style. New York City has various neighborhoods named by syllabic abbreviation, such as Tribeca (Triangle below Canal Street) and SoHo (South of Houston Street). This usage has spread into other American cities, giving SoMa , San Francisco (South of Market) and LoDo, Denver (Lower Downtown), amongst others. Chicago -based electric service provider ComEd

4756-456: The globally popular term OK generally credited as a remnant of its influence. Over the years, however, the lack of convention in some style guides has made it difficult to determine which two-word abbreviations should be abbreviated with periods and which should not. This question is considered below. Widespread use of electronic communication through mobile phones and the Internet during

4838-679: The immense heat generated by a fire, even without direct contact with the flames (direct flame impingement), such as conductive heat and radiant heat , can cause serious burns even from great distances. There are a number of comparably serious heat-related risks, such as burns from hot gases (e.g., air), steam, and hot and/or toxic smoke . Prolonged, intense exertion in hot environments also increases firefighters' risk for heat-related illnesses, such as rhabdomyolysis . Accordingly, firefighters are equipped with personal protective equipment (PPE) that includes fire-resistant clothing such as Nomex or polybenzimidazole fiber (PBI) and helmets that limit

4920-505: The location of the alarm or to the fire past any security or locked doors, and, if necessary, fighting the fire until the fire department arrives. The U.S. Forest Service publishes guidelines for the minimum distance a firefighter should be from a flame. As stated in the National Wildfire Coordinating Group's Incident Response Pocket Guide: "A safety zone is an area where a firefighter can survive without

5002-458: The major hazards associated with firefighting operations is the toxic environment created by combusting materials. The four major hazards are: To deal with such hazards, firefighters carry a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA; an open-circuit positive pressure system) to prevent smoke inhalation. These are not oxygen tanks (oxygen as a powerful fire accelerant would represent a grave risk when combined with virtually anything combustible in

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5084-450: The oxygen in the air above the fire, thus removing one of the elements that the fire requires to burn. This can also be done with foam. Another way to extinguish a fire is fuel removal. This can be accomplished by stopping the flow of liquid or gaseous fuel, by removing solid fuel in the path of a fire, or by allowing the fire to burn until all the fuel is consumed, at which point the fire will self-extinguish. One final extinguishing method

5166-487: The period is usually included regardless of whether or not it is a contraction, e.g. Dr. or Mrs. . In some cases, periods are optional, as in either US or U.S. for United States , EU or E.U. for European Union , and UN or U.N. for United Nations . There are some house styles, however—American ones included—that remove the periods from almost all abbreviations. For example: Acronyms that were originally capitalized (with or without periods) but have since entered

5248-468: The presence of fire) but use compressed air in a similar manner to SCUBA diving gear . A firefighter's SCBA usually hold 30 to 45 minutes of air, depending on the size of the tank and the rate of consumption during strenuous activities. While this gear helps to eliminate the risks, firefighters are still exposed to smoke, toxic dust, fumes and radiation that have contributed to firefighters being 14% more likely to develop cancer. Obvious risks associated with

5330-470: The problems encountered in a toxic environment. The first step in a firefighting operation is reconnaissance to search for the origin of the fire and to identify the specific risks. Fires can be extinguished by water, fuel or oxidant removal, or chemical flame inhibition; though, because fires are classified depending on the elements involved, such as grease, paper, electrical, etcetera, a specific type of fire extinguisher may be required. The classification

5412-835: The same lines, the Swiss Federal Railways' Transit Police—the Transportpolizei —are abbreviated as the TraPo . With the National Socialist German Workers' Party gaining power came a frenzy of government reorganisation, and with it a series of entirely new syllabic abbreviations. The single national police force amalgamated from the Schutzpolizeien of the various states became the OrPo ( Ordnungspolizei , "order police");

5494-474: The same standards as career personnel and are involved in all aspects of the fire and rescue services from staffing ambulances and fire suppression vehicles to participating in domestic and international urban search and rescue. As independent, nonprofit organizations, the volunteer departments own 8 of the 42 fire stations in Fairfax County and operate out of an additional 7 fire stations. Over 355 volunteer personnel placed units in service on 1,877 occasions, out of

5576-401: The secret police) and VoPo for Volkspolizei . The phrase politisches Büro , which may be rendered literally as "office of politics" or idiomatically as "political party steering committee", became Politbüro . Syllabic abbreviations are not only used in politics, however. Many business names, trademarks, and service marks from across Germany are created on the same pattern: for

5658-518: The spread of the fire. However, there is no mention of fires being extinguished, rather they were contained and burned themselves out. Ancient Rome did not have an organized firefighting force until the Vigiles were formed during the reign of Augustus . The first ever Roman fire brigade was created by Marcus Licinius Crassus . Fires were almost a daily occurrence in Rome, and Crassus took advantage of

5740-423: The start of the 1800s, insured buildings were identified with a badge or mark indicating that they were eligible for a company's firefighting services. It is a common belief that buildings not insured with a particular company were left by its firefighters to burn, unless they happened to be adjacent to an insured building, in which case it was often in the company's interest to prevent the fire from spreading. This

5822-556: The state KriPos together formed the "SiPo" ( Sicherheitspolizei , "security police"); and there was also the Gestapo ( Geheime Staatspolizei , "secret state police"). The new order of the German Democratic Republic in the east brought about a conscious denazification , but also a repudiation of earlier turns of phrase in favour of neologisms such as Stasi for Staatssicherheit ("state security",

5904-652: The structure burn to the ground. After buying many properties this way, he rebuilt them, and often leased the properties to their original owners or new tenants. Prior to the Great Fire of London in 1666, some parishes in the UK had begun to organize rudimentary firefighting crews. After the Great Fire, Nicholas Barbon introduced the first fire insurance. In order to reduce insurance costs, Barbon also formed his own fire brigade , and other companies followed suit. By

5986-546: The style guides of The Chicago Manual of Style and the Associated Press . The U.S. government follows a style guide published by the U.S. Government Printing Office . The National Institute of Standards and Technology sets the style for abbreviations of units. Many British publications follow some of these guidelines in abbreviation: Writers often use shorthand to denote units of measure. Such shorthand can be an abbreviation, such as "in" for " inch " or can be

6068-971: The term abbreviation in loose parlance. In early times, abbreviations may have been common due to the effort involved in writing (many inscriptions were carved in stone) or to provide secrecy via obfuscation . Reduction of a word to a single letter was common in both Greek and Roman writing. In Roman inscriptions, "Words were commonly abbreviated by using the initial letter or letters of words, and most inscriptions have at least one abbreviation". However, "some could have more than one meaning, depending on their context. (For example, ⟨A⟩ can be an abbreviation for many words, such as ager , amicus , annus , as , Aulus , Aurelius , aurum , and avus .)" Many frequent abbreviations consisted of more than one letter: for example COS for consul and COSS for its nominative etc. plural consules . Abbreviations were frequently used in early English . Manuscripts of copies of

6150-511: The transmission of heat towards the body. No PPE, however, can completely protect the user from the effects of all possible fire conditions. Heat can cause flammable liquid contained in tanks to explode violently, producing what is called a BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion). Some chemical products such as ammonium nitrate fertilizers can also explode, potentially causing physical trauma from blast or shrapnel injuries. Sufficient heat causes human flesh to burn as fuel, or

6232-421: The vaporization of solid and liquid fuels. The resulting self-sustained chemical chain reaction is complex and requires fuel, an oxidizer, and heat energy to come together in a very specific way. An oxidizing agent is a material or substance that will release gases, including oxygen, when the proper conditions exist. It is crucial to the sustainment of a flame or fire. Using water is one common method to extinguish

6314-453: The vocabulary as generic words are no longer written with capital letters nor with any periods. Examples are sonar , radar , lidar , laser , snafu , and scuba . When an abbreviation appears at the end of a sentence, only one period is used: The capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. In the past, some initialisms were styled with a period after each letter and a space between each pair. For example, U. S. , but today this

6396-414: The water within to boil, leading to potentially severe medical problems. Furthers risks include the occurrences of backdrafts . Backdrafts occur when there is a large amount of oxygen introduced to an oxygen-depleted fire. If a fire is compartmentalized and most or all of the oxygen has been burned up, there is a high risk of backdraft if something such as a window or door is opened. Introducing oxygen to

6478-464: The words in a typical SMS message are abbreviated. More recently Twitter, a popular social networking service , began driving abbreviation use with 140 character message limits. In HTML , abbreviations can be annotated using < abbr title = "Meaning of the abbreviation." > abbreviation </ abbr > to reveal its meaning by hovering the cursor . In modern English, there are multiple conventions for abbreviation, and there

6560-478: Was symptomatic of an attempt by people manually reproducing academic texts to reduce the copy time. Mastɔ subwardenɔ y ɔmēde me to you. And wherɔ y wrot to you the last wyke that y trouyde itt good to differrɔ thelectionɔ ovɔ to quīdenaɔ tinitatis y have be thougħt me synɔ that itt woll be thenɔ a bowte mydsomɔ. In the Early Modern English period, between the 15th and 17th centuries, the thorn Þ

6642-478: Was the bucket brigade, involving two lines of people formed between the water source and the fire. Typically, men in one of the lines would pass along the full buckets of water toward the fire while in the other line women and children would pass back the empty buckets to be refilled. In the 17th century the first "fire engines" were made, notably in Amsterdam. In 1721, the English inventor Richard Newsham made

6724-451: Was used for th , as in Þ ('the'). In modern times, ⟨Þ⟩ was often used (in the form ⟨y⟩ ) for promotional reasons, as in Y Olde Tea Shoppe . During the growth of philological linguistic theory in academic Britain, abbreviating became very fashionable. Likewise, a century earlier in Boston , a fad of abbreviation started that swept the United States, with

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