Background New agile fire extinguishing methods could be used instead of, or in combination with, traditional fire hose method in a number of situations, such as small fires in large buildings (Hospitals, Shopping malls), where the traditional fire hose method is rather slow.

In rural areas the first unit to respond is often a command unit that has neither the crew nor the equipment to carry out the traditional fire hose extinguishing. Provisioning fast and lightweight units with agile and lightweight fire extinguishing methods would speed up the process of getting the help. The improvement in the countryside service level would be obvious.

Methods We surveyed and evaluated new, innovative fire extinguishing methods in order to find out if they are useful as complementary methods. Sometimes these new methods are sufficient as such, but most often best used in combination with the traditional fire hose.

We investigated the usefulness of these methods through standardised burn experiments as well as field tests in actual house fires.

The test setup was based on research of most common causes and sources of house fires based on the statistical data. A comparison was also carried out also from the performance perspective, not overlooking work safety issues. All the experiments were be carefully documented using video and thermal imaging.

Results The tests revealed both the usefulness of agile extinguishing methods and their limitations. Also, several best practices for different extinguishing methods were defined. The new, agile extinguishing methods can clearly improve Fire & Rescue response as the actual scene can be reached much faster than in the past.

Conclusions Fire & Rescue services can improve their level of service by a choice of extinguishing method. This will also affect the extent of damage to both victims of an incident as well as buildings and other material.