Fan company blows away NYC fire department chiefs

The owners of Tempest Technology in Fresno, Calif., always believed their little company could do something big if it got the attention of the mighty Fire Department of New York.

Now, they've got it.

Tempest's firefighting equipment performed so well in a recent federal test that leaders of the world's most prestigious fire department finally took notice. "It is like our Everest," said Tempest President Leroy Coffman III, "and we've finally gotten to the top of that mountain."

Since 1987, Tempest has built high-powered industrial fans used to help fight fires. The company, with 25 employees, sells an average 4,000 fans a year to fire departments around the United States and in Europe.

The Los Angeles Fire Department has been using Tempest fans for nearly 20 years, Coffman said. But the biggest prize -- the New York department, with nearly 200 fire trucks and 11,500 firefighters -- was elusive.

Coffman and his father, Tempest founder Dexter Coffman, didn't have the full attention of department decision-makers until their fans were tested last month in New York. FDNY officials wanted to see if the fans could help battle high-rise building fires.

Tests by the federal National Institute of Standards and Testing showed the Tempest fans cleared noxious smoke and reduced the fires' scorching temperatures, giving firefighters a safer path to fight fire. The tests validated what the Coffmans have believed for two decades: High-powered fans increase firefighters' safety and can ultimately save lives.

Helping firefighters was not the Coffmans' original goal. Their company, founded in 1987, initially sold the belt-driven fans to inflate hot air balloons. Then company officials learned the Bakersfield Fire Department was experimenting with blowers to clear smoke from burning buildings. The practice is called positive pressure ventilation.

Coffman saw an opportunity and seized it. During one early test, a 27-inch Tempest fan cleared smoke from a burning building in less than two minutes.

At the time, many departments used large fans to suck smoke out of buildings once the fires cleared. "People thought it was crazy to blow air into a fire," Dexter Coffman said. "... They have to see it for themselves in their own environments."

Tempest sold thousands of fans to fire departments and industrial users. But several of the nation's largest departments, including New York's, remained skeptical. Jerry Halpin, president of the Fire Apparatus Manufacturers' Association, said larger departments rely on more government-related testing before adopting new equipment or new firefighting practices.

That's why the federal testing institute's results were so important.

Jerry Tracy, a New York battalion chief, had been working with the national institute for 10 years to develop better ways to control heat and smoke in high-rise buildings. Most people try to escape via stairwells. "Over the history of the fire service, that is where people have lost their lives, by being overcome with smoke," Tracy said.

Between 1985 and 2002, the testing institute's statistics show roughly 385,000 fires in buildings with eight or more floors, resulting in 1,600 deaths and more than 20,000 injuries.

Tests conducted two years ago in a 30-story building in Toledo, Ohio, and in a 16-story building in Chicago impressed the New York fire department. And last month's tests on abandoned buildings on New York's Governors Island removed any lingering skepticism, Tracy said.

The fans stopped smoke from filling stairwells and halted the "blow-torch effect." That dangerous phenomenon occurs when windows explode, allowing air to rush in and accelerate the fire. "The fire will race through the hallways and into the stairwells, raising temperatures to 1,800 degrees," Tracy said. "But once we activated the fans, in under 30 seconds the ambient temperature dropped to 40 degrees."

Tracy said his department had bought 10 Tempest fans a year ago with grant money but hadn't committed to more. He said his department chief "wants to move forward with these fans immediately. ... We really think that this will help save lives."

If it were up to Tracy, he would outfit each of the city's nearly 200 fire engines with a $3,000 Tempest fan.

For Tempest Technology, New York's stamp of approval opens a whole new marketing opportunity to any department that fights high-rise building fires.

Dexter Coffman said his company has helped change the way firefighting is done. Tempest "is much better for that. It has momentum now."

E-mail Robert Rodriguez at brodriguez(at)fresnobee.com.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)