About This Quiz
Firefighters are real-life heroes and risk their lives every day for the greater good. Whether it is responding to accidents, running into burning buildings, or putting out fires, firefighters do it all. They undergo difficult training (both mentally and physically) to ensure they are ready and prepared for anything.
While we know they put out fires and save lives, how much do you actually know about firefighting? How much do you know about the tactics, rules and procedures that they abide by? For example, are you aware of the first thing a firefighter has to do before entering a burning building? How about who takes charge on a call?
Also, to be a firefighter, you need to know a variety of different things from the different classifications of fire, to the correct way to carry someone out of a building that is engulfed in flames. Whether you want to prove your knowledge of all things firefighting to your friends, or simply want to learn more about these heroes, this is the right quiz for you.
Without any further ado, get your turnout gear on and prepare to take on our challenging quiz. Will you go up in flames or douse the fire on your way to victory?
If firefighters need to save someone from a mangled vehicle at the scene of a crash, they will use the Jaws of Life. It is a hydraulic apparatus that can pry apart the vehicle to free someone from the wreckage.
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PPE stands for personal protective equipment. It is essentially any type of protective gear, clothing or helmets. They can protect from a range of different things, such as chemicals, heat and more.
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At most fire stations, the colors of the helmets will signify the rank, position or seniority of a firefighter. For example, a white helmet often identifies a chief, and red normally signifies a captain.
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In general, CPR is used to help get the heart to begin pumping blood through the body again. While someone with a broken bone might require it, nearly every heart attack will require CPR to save the victim.
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If a fire is smoldering, it means it is only burning with some smoke, no fire. A fire could potentially be smoldering for hours, or even days, before it is noticed, due to the lack of flames.
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While the main part of a firefighter's job is to fight fires, there is much more that they are responsible for doing. The aforementioned tasks are only a few of what most firefighters will need to do.
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Like most things, when air is heated to an appropriate amount, it will expand. Molecules will also move faster, and hot air will often float upward. That is essentially how hot air balloons are able to fly.
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An incident commander is one of the most important people on the fire company when it arrives at a scene. They develop objectives, are responsible for everyone else and manage all operations.
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Smoke is made up of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter. Of course, smoke can also contain a wide range of different chemicals depending on what is burning.
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Benjamin Franklin helped to found the very first fire department in the United States. The Union Fire Company in Philadelphia was founded in 1736 and stayed active until around 1820.
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Going into a burning building or an accident scene is very dangerous. To help try to minimize the danger, firefighters always enter these situations with someone else and never alone.
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As you might be able to tell from the name, the correct way for a firefighter to lift someone and take them to safety is known as the fireman's carry. It allows a person to carry another without the help of anyone else.
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There are many important things that a firefighter needs to do at the scene of the accident. However, the very first is to check the breathing of any victims. If they are not breathing, you need to perform CPR or another method to try restore their breathing.
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There are many phases and stages of a firefight, and one of the last is a salvage operation. This is when firefighters will go through a burnt area and see if there is anything that can be saved or salvaged.
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The average rate for an adult heartbeat is between 60 and 100 beats per minute. This will vary depending on a number of things, but anything between that range is normal. Some extreme athletes, however, might see theirs drop a bit lower.
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Unfortunately, if your brain cells do not have access to oxygen, you don't have much time before they will begin to die. In general, brain cells can only go about 6 minutes without oxygen.
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When a fire is just starting, it is in the incipient stage. At this point, a fire is still able to be controlled or completely extinguished, but it is also well on its way to potentially becoming a larger problem.
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Burns come in different levels of severity, with third-degree burns being the worst that a person can have. If someone has skin that is charred, that is a telltale sign that they have suffered from a third-degree burn.
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Of the near 3,000 people who died in the 9/11 attacks, 343 of them were firefighters who put their lives on the line to try to save the civilian victims of the terrorist attacks.
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While completing a salvage operation isn't ever easy, the most important thing you need to look out for is a collapsing roof. There is a good chance the structural integrity of the roof has been negatively affected, and that could cause it to collapse.
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Ironically enough, someone who is suffering from heatstroke will likely not be sweating. It is this inability to sweat — for whatever reason — that is a major cause of people overheating. Sweating helps cool us off.
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According to Data USA, the average firefighter is 38.6 years old. The average male firefighter is 38.7, while the average female firefighter is a bit younger at 36.3 years old.
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According to NFPA reports, there are around 350,000 house structure fires in the USA alone every year. These start for a number of reasons and can lead to expensive repairs, injuries or worse.
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Toggle, slide-gate and compression fire hydrants are all real and exist today. They all fall under the term "dry barrel" as the entire waterline is all under the ground and thus not prone to frost.
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According to an NFPA report, about 70% of all firefighters in the USA are volunteers. While there are volunteers in large cities, it is usually the smaller towns that have a volunteer fire department.
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The weight of firefighting gear can vary greatly. It weighs at least 45 pounds for the basics, but if you need to add extra items like a radio, axes and other things, it can weigh well over 100 pounds.
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According to the USFA and its data, well over 3,000 Americans die every year from house fires alone. This is troublesome and, unfortunately, hasn't shown any signs of going down.
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While all the listed methods certainly start fires, cooking is the largest contributor to home fires in the USA. Leaving ovens or stoves on is incredibly common and can lead to dangerous house fires.
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While it varies from person to person, anyone with a breathing rate between 12 to 20 breaths per minute is usually within the normal range. Any higher or lower than that could be a cause for concern.
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Like adults, there is a range that is considered "normal" breathing for infants. In general, that is between 30 and 60 breaths a minute. Any more or less, and you should consider consulting a doctor.
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While 8 year olds are still considered children, that is the age where you can begin using adult CPR techniques on individuals. While there are similarities, adult techniques are not quite the same as child or infant techniques.
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Of the many firefighters working in the USA, only about 4% of them are female. While this might seem low, it is actually an improvement from the past, but there is still a lot of room for improvement in that department.
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When checking the pulse of an infant who is completely responsive and awake, you check their brachial artery. This is located on the infant's arm, between the elbow and the shoulder.
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There are five classes of fire in the U.S.. Each class has different characteristics and different methods for suppressing them if they are to occur. The fire classes are A, B,C, D and K.
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While you might think the first thing to do is immobilize the injury, you would be wrong. First, it is important to stop any bleeding before immobilizing, as blood loss can contribute to many issues and potentially even death.
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