Been busy for the town volunteer fire department recently.
Two structure fires in 36 hours... I am in the picture below (h/t WJAR ch. 10 Providence), to the right of the man in the white helmet, checking with another team as I am heading to the truck to switch air bottles and head back to work the interior at the first of the two fires.
The second fire was also actually over the town line, and that turned out to be an excellent stop as well. Really a testament to the performance of CAF (compressed air foam- all the stuff that looks like snow out front- there was no snow...) to fight fires. We used probably a third the H20 that you would using conventional water, meaning less damage to the structure (in this case an historic house that predates the signing of the Declaration of Independence) while having superior knock-down capability (though I have spoken with some in the fire service who are not fans, but that could be due to limited exposure to it). Using less water is especially important in a rural setting. In this case, thanks to a coordinated effort with surrounding towns we had more water than we could use on stand by just in case, but it is nice to know that you are not going to actually need it.
While it is fantastic to have up to date and well cared for equipment- it is better to not have to put it into use. With the winter being pretty mild so far, we have yet to have a chimney fire (knock wood). I tend to be fanatical about checking my chimney during the winter burning months (back in NW CT my fire chief had his chimney light up- and if you think we EVER let him hear the end of that- you are definitely wrong...), as a chimney fire can easily get hot enough to crack the masonry and extend into walls, attic space and through fire extension take down a house.
If you burn, make sure that you are burning as efficiently as possible, that your chimney meets NFPA code and is routinely swept, etc. If you have really sticky creosote, that is loaded with burnable material, meaning you are not burning as cleanly as you could. If it is really light and crumbly to the touch, that may be a sign that it has already touched off at some point. And if you hear a sound like a jet engine eminating from your fire place, close it down and call the FD!
2 comments:
I'm *thrilled* to live in a town with the latest and greatest firefighting equipment. At first I was spooked to not have a fire department, but from what I hear you volunteers do a pretty good job!
Heh... Did you get the pictures I sent you from the 'pallet manufacturing fire'? Going to that was like living a 'Far Side' cartoon. What is burning? The pallet factory? That is like a fire at the jet-fuel facility... 12 hours and three quarters of a million gallons of water later, it was out.
Post a Comment