Active fire protection (AFP) is an integral part of fire protection. AFP is characterized by items and/or systems, which require a certain amount of motion and response in order to work, contrary to passive fire protection.
Manual fire suppression includes the use of a fire blanket, fire extinguisher, or a standpipe system.
A fire blanket is a sheet of fire retardant material that is designed to be placed over a fire to smother it out. Small fire blankets are meant for inception stage fires. They are normally made of fiberglass or Kevlar.[1] Larger ones can be found in laboratories and factories, and are designed to be wrapped around a person whose clothes have caught fire.
Fire extinguishers are devices that contain and discharge a substance that extinguishes or puts out a fire. These handheld devices come in a huge range of sizes, but the most common are portable fire extinguishers, typically weighing up to 15 kg in total. These can be easily handled and operated by one person and placement can either be wall-mounted, on a fire extinguisher trolley or housed inside a cabinet. Fire extinguishers are one of the most common manual fire suppression devices and are required in all commercial buildings and vehicles.[2] Fire extinguishers can be used with little to no training and are meant for small incipient stage fires. The most common extinguisher is the ABC extinguisher and are found in most offices and homes. It can be used on normal fires, liquid fires, and electrical fires. There are also special extinguishers for kitchen fires and for use on burning metals, those being Class K and Class D respectively.[3]
Standpipes are installed in most large, multistory buildings. There are two types of standpipes: dry and wet. Most standpipes are dry systems and cannot be used by the public. Dry systems require a fire engine to pump water into the system. Most dry systems do not have pre-connected hoses and require firefighters to bring in the hose. In wet systems, there is always water in the pipes and they can be used by anyone. Wet systems will have hoses so building occupants can try and extinguish fires. Wet systems are becoming less common with the increase in number of sprinkler systems being installed.[4] In some systems, firefighters have the option of pumping a Fire Department Connection (FDC) which will increase the water pressure at a standpipe in the event of a fire pump failure or loss of pressure. Typically, these systems pressurize the sprinkler system or the standpipe but not both at the same time.
Automatic control means are any form of suppression that requires no human intervention these can include a fire sprinkler system, a gaseous clean agent, or automatic foam suppression system. Most automatic suppression systems would be found in large commercial kitchens or other high-risk areas.