Peculiarities of work of units of the gas and smoke protection service during mass rescue of people

Introduction. It is well known that in case of fire at facilities with a massive presence of people, there are difficulties in evacuating or rescuing the victims. The reason is the following factors: 1) Visitors do not know the location of the emergency exits, in addition to this, people experience a feeling of fear that suppresses logical thinking; 2) Due to the time spent on concentrating the forces and means of fire departments, rescue of people from smoky premises is not organized in time, which can lead to tragic consequences; 3) Insufficient time of the protective action of breathing apparatus with compressed air and dense smoke do not allow to quickly find the victims. This paper presents the results of modeling and an experiment carried out by the authors to rescue the victims. During the experiment, the necessary number of gas and smoke protection service units was concentrated in advance and ready to rescue the victims, which is almost impossible in a real fire. The paper investigates the difficulties of the work of gas and smoke protection service units in rescuing people at facilities with a massive stay of people, not taking into account the impact of fire hazards. The aims and objectives. The aim of the work is to investigate the features of functioning of the gas and smoke protection service units during mass rescue operations. Methodology. The mechanism of the work of the gas and air search and rescue units during mass rescue works is studied. The work time of the gas and smoke protection service units, spent on the rescue of victims, is described. The experiment was carried out practically under ideal conditions, allowing to concentrate the forces and means of the fire-rescue garrison in the amount hypothetically sufficient for carrying out rescue operations in an unbreathable environment at facilities with mass stay of people. The results of the study. The mechanism of link operation is investigated and presented during mass rescue operations. Difficulties of mass rescue are visually shown. In the conditions of the largely idealized experiment within twenty minutes on two routes simultaneously could be conditionally extracted from the smoke-filled rooms no more than 18 people. The time difference between the first and the last rescued was more than 20 minutes. Conclusion. The results of the study determine the need for significant adaptation of methods and development of technical means for solving problems during mass rescue operations in an unbreathable environment. Keywords: rescue works, gas and smoke rescue unit, breathing apparatus, time, distance, victim.