
Photo By: Steve Clark Car Fires can be very dangerous!! WHY DO FIREFIGHTERS underestimate them? Why do we not always breath air?
Check this video out! Cars do explode sometimes. We should always be breathing air. It’s FREE. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLoF99LYdts
And use the reach of the stream. Your not gonna save it!!!
Escambia has had numerous cars that were well involved, start up and lundge forward while burning. Always stay clear of front and rear. Newer vehicles are more prone to exploding and dropping there fuel load. Fuel tanks of today are plastic and will spill out and become running fuel fire. Should always have extinguisher available.
Car fires are one of the most underestimated fires we respond to. People carry all kinds of things in their cars and have numerous homegrown upgrades with radios and such so we never know what we are going to find. I responded to a car fire started by a guy cooking meth in the passenger seat. Talk about unexpected. We need to always be masked up, upwind, and uphill from these fires. They can kill us too.
take a dry chem everytime!
WOW…he never flinched and that is scary…no regard for the explosion…never once did he attempt to understand what exploded and if something else may explode…watch near the center of the vehicle a few seconds prior to stream application and you can see white sparks coming from that area just before the boom…even if you are not engaged in suppression you should be looking for signs of potential danger…reach of the stream (right on fire!fire!fire!)…knock it down and ease up to the interior…car fires are full of unknowns…meth labs, ammunition, portable 02 and helium tanks, propane, nitro and the list goes on and on…magnesium car parts and the canisters for airbags, pressurized SRSs, hood and hatch struts…boom boom boom…attack from an angle and use the glass or interior to assist in bouncing the stream around the compartment or roof if the glass does not give way…dry chem is a great way to go as well…hydro-chem a fuel fire that may be contained or running…
Had a firefighter get burned a couple years ago when a gas tank ruptured. Dry Chems should be a standard on all car fires.
Escambia County FIre Rescue had a hood strut explode and hit the nozzleman on Sunday October 23, 2011. FULL GEAR BREATHING AIR.