Visually Impaired Transcript for Firefighter Video

VISUAL: Fade up from black to scene showing a fire truck and ambulance moving out of the station.

Narrator: NO MATTER WHERE THE FIRE STATION IS LOCATED ... WHEN THE ALARM SOUNDS,  FIREFIGHTERS RUSH TO ANSWER THE CALL.

VISUAL: Cut to scene of firefighter spraying water on a freeze. Scene freezes as text appears one line at a time in a bulleted list. The text reads:

Residential Fires

• Occurs every 76 seconds  
• Result in annual losses of $8.5 billion  
• Kill nearly 3,000 persons annually

Narrator: THEY KNOW THAT EVERY SECOND COUNTS ...

FOR KEEPING A FIRE FROM SPREADING ...

MINIMIZING PROPERTY LOSS ...

AND MOST OF ALL ... SAVING LIVES.

VISUAL: Firefighter's boots are seen steeping through a puddle as fire is reflected in the water.

Narrator: BUT ... WHILE THE DEDICATION OF FIREFIGHTERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY MAY BE THE SAME ...

VISUAL: Firefighters spray water through an open door onto a fire. Scene changes to wide shot of single firefighter then a team of firefighters in action battling the same fire.

Narrator: THE SIZE OF THE CREWS THEY DISPATCH TO A FIRE MAY VARY SIGNIFICANTLY FROM STATION TO STATION ... SOME WITH JUST TWO FIREFIGHTERS PER ENGINE ... OTHERS WITH AS MANY AS FIVE.

VISUAL: Firefighters are seen in front of the door to the NIST Fire Test House getting ready to conduct a performance test. SO ... HOW EFFECTIVE ARE DIFFERENT SIZE CREWS AT COMBATING RESIDENTIAL FIRES? 

VISUAL: Sign on the side of the NIST Fire Test House is seen showing the logos of the organizations participating in the NIST-led study. This changes to scene of personnel at test talking with each other/

TO ADDRESS THAT CRITICAL QUESTION ... AND OTHERS ... A LANDMARK STUDY WAS CONDUCTED BY A CONSORTIUM OF FIRE RESEARCHERS LED BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY. VISUAL: Jason Averill on camera. Text appearing on screen reads:

Jason Averill, Leader Engineered Fire Safety Group, NIST

Jason Averill:  "This is the first time in a national study that we have been able to isolate the effects of crew size – in this case two persons, three persons, four persons, and five persons – on an engine ... also look at the effects of engine arrival time, the spacing between subsequent engines, and the different fire growth rates ..."

VISUAL:  Scene of two-story NIST test house at training facility. Text on screen reads:

Montgomery County Public Safety Training Academy

Narrator: USING A TWO-STORY TEST HOUSE BUILT NEAR THE NIST CAMPUS IN MARYLAND ...

VISUAL: Closeup of flashing lights on top of fire truck. Scene changes to show fire truck arriving at NIST test house for firefighting exercise.

Narrator: THE RESEARCHERS STUDIED DIFFERENT SIZE CREWS OF FIREFIGHTERS IN ACTION AGAINST RESIDENTIAL FIRES.

CREWS OF TWO ... THREE ... FOUR ... AND FIVE FIREFIGHTERS ...

VISUAL: Evaluators taking notes during firefighting exercise. Scene changes to firefighters entering open door with hose and releasing smoke from inside NIST test house.

Narrator: ...WERE TIMED PERFORMING EACH OF 22 STANDARD TASKS FOR RESPONDING TO A FIRE ...INCLUDING ... GETTING WATER ON THE FIRE ... PUTTING LADDERS IN PLACE ... AND RESCUING OCCUPANTS.

THE RESULTS?

VISUAL: Scenes of firefighters conducting exercises. Action freezes as study finding appears on screen. Text on screen reads:

Crews of 4 and 5 firefighters completed tasks 25 – 30 percent faster.

Narrator: FOUR- AND FIVE-PERSON CREWS COMPLETED ALL OF THE FIREFIGHTING AND RESCUE TASKS ON AVERAGE 25 TO 30 PERCENT FASTER THAN TWO- AND THREE-PERSON CREWS RESPECTIVELY.

THIS FINDING COULD HELP COMMUNITIES BETTER DETERMINE THE NUMBER OF FIRE STATIONS AND FIREFIGHTERS THEY SHOULD HAVE AT THE READY.

VISUAL: Jason Averill on camera.

Jason Averill: "Currently, the way that deployment decisions are made is that the fire chiefs and the city or county managers or the mayor—the people who have the resources at the local level—get together and look at matching the resources they have to the risks they have. "

VISUAL: Scenes from exercises at NIST fire test house.

Jason Averill: "There is no technical basis for understanding if you make a change to your deployment—you add or subtract people, you open or close additional stations—there is no validated data to support understanding what the effects of those decisions are."

VISUAL: Fire truck at NIST fire test house.

Narrator: THANKS TO THE EFFORTS OF THE NIST-LED FIREFIGHTER CONSORTIUM ... THE DATA ARE NOW IN HAND AND READY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

VISUAL: Dissolve to credits (five pages). Text on screens read as follows:

For more information  
www.nist.gov  
inquiries [at] nist.gov (inquiries[at]nist[dot]gov)

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Members of the Research Consortium

Commission on Fire Accreditation
International International Association of Fire Chiefs  
International Association of Fire Fighters  
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Urban Institute  
Worcester Polytechnic Institute 

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Produced by  
National Institute of Standards and Technology Public Affairs Office May 2010 

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Video footage provided with permission by:

International Association of Fire Chiefs (Firefighter Testing)

Shutterstock Inc.  
Francois Arsenault (Fire Truck Leaving Station)  
Richard Kelly (Firefighters Battling a House Fire)
Lathe Poland (Firefighters Spraying Water on Fire) 

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The display of products and services in this program is for demonstration purposes only and does not imply an endorsement by NIST.

VISUAL: Fade to black.