Being a fire fighter is analogous to being a sailor. A sailor must understand the wind and waves and work with them to achieve the objective of moving the boat in the desired direction.

Likewise, a fire fighter must understand the behaviour of fires and work to control the power of the fire rather that trying to attack it in a reckless manner.

Fire fighters need to understand a variety of special conditions to work safely to extinguish fires:

• Flameover
• Flashover
• Backdraft