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The long run
It's not really news (2009), but I wanted to wait the end of the inquiry.
I wanted to share with you this intervention because of the challenge it has represented for the FD, on the material as much as the human ressources level. It has been the biggest and longest firefighting operation ever in Switzerland.
It's a call that started at 15:50 ,thursday 24th september 2009, with a smoke detection in an archive building. The building is situated in Lausanne (Switzerland), in a commercial and industrial complex. The detection was then confirmed by a phone call : fire at the second level underground (-2), in the paper storing room of an archive storage company.
http://maps.google.ch/?ll=46.523669,6.609864&spn=0.001897,0.003...
The city FD dispatched an engine and added another engine, a ladder, a SCBA equipment truck and a support truck when the phone call came in.
Upon arrival, the firefighters saw nothing from outside the building. They deployed their lines to the fire location (given by the employees) and started to extinguish. Or so they thought. The water was pouring over the metal shelves, like the ones here :
and did not reach the flames. The electrical motor from the storage system wasn't working anymore and it was impossible to open the storage. By that time, the heat had become too important and the FFs had to retreat and set up a water cannon at the entrance of the room. That room, with a surface of 4'600 m2
(uncompartimented) and located in a basement of 15'000 m3 contained 50'000 cardboard boxes of paper archives (about 3'000 m3 of paper).
Friday morning 2 additional engines from the city (professional FD) and 2 from neighbouring towns (volunteer FD) had been alarmed and 3 more water cannon deployed, at each stairwell leading to the storage room. The heat increased further (up to 1000 °C) and it was soon impossible to reach the water cannons. And the cars located on the level above the fire (-1) also caught fire. Heavy smoke was coming out of every side of the building. The swiss railroad company also sent its extinction train.Photo: Keystone/Salvatore di Nolfi
Friday afternoon, after 24 hours of battling, additional reinforcements were asked from the professional FD from the neighbouring state (50km away) and a hole was dug at level 0, above the parking, to make an exit for the fumes :Cooling down through the hole. Photo: Keystone/Martial Trezzini
The EMTs set up a medical post and each FF going in was checked medically.
The engine of one of the pumper that had been engaged from the beginning failed and additional means had to be alarmed.
As the means of nearly every FD near the city were already engaged, firefighters from all over the state were called, and mixed SCBA teams of professional and volunteer FFs were sent in. The civilian protection organisation was mobilised to provide food and shelter to the 300 firefighters, EMTs and policemen engaged and organise fuel and material supply.
The SCBA equipping/desequipping point.
Early saturday morning, it became clear that the means were not enough to cool the fire, but only to prevent it from spreading. It was decided to dig a trench at the side of the building and extinguish from the outside.
The heat emanating from the hole, the metallic structure inside the room and the risk of collapse rendered any access from the side impossible.
Saturday afternoon, it was finally decided to mobilise the military and their water transport means. Two 2km long lines were laid from the lake to the burning building, and water was pumped in at a rate of 18'000 l/min. Simultaneously, it appeared that the building was built on an old garbage dump and that there was a methan accumulation under the burning building.
150 mm lines, on military trucks © Philippe Maeder
The military means.
The 53 m3 bassin (from the army) were the water was sent and one of the engines pushing it in the building
Overnight, enough water was sent into the building to fill completely the -2 level, but it was only full to 1/3. But luckily, the water that escaped had washed away the methan pocket.
But the water level enabled the firefighters to enter the building from the side and start to secure the ceiling.Photo: Keystone/Eric Jaquerod
© Eric Jaquerod
© Eric Jaquerod
Once the ceiling was secured, the cars from the level -1 were removed, and a long and tedious work began.
Photo: Keystone/Dominic Favre
The remaining paper were removed slowly and cooled oustide, before being freezed and sent to a specialised center, for restoration (when possible)
To do that, worker were equipped with SCBA masks and each was monitored by a FF.© Keystone
Eventually, on the 12th october, all the flames were extinguised. 18 days after the beginning of the fire.
In all, 2'177 individuals acted on the site (FD, PD, EMT, military, civilian protection service, engineers, construction workers). At the peak of the firefighting operation, there were 370 persons on site. In all, 8'000 SCBA cylinders have been filled during the intervention. And there hasn't been a single injured person, only some cases of exhaustion.
Some figures :
Individuals engaged :
professional FFs: 140
volunteer FFs: 1070
civilian protection: 489
policmen: 293
EMTs: 96
fire marshals: 18
technical and logistical support: 71
About the food :
Hot meals: 5319
Lunchs: 1376
Snacks: 7446
Water bottle consumed: 3342
source
Professional and volunteer firefighters, PD and FD, civilians and military worked hand in hand, during 432 hours, to extinguish an inferno. From what I have seen since, the tensions between professional and volunteer FF have diminished, each having seen exactly what they can receive from the other.
As a side note, to pile up so much combustible in such a space without proper extinction systems is unlawful and the judicial proceedings will take several years until we'll know who's to settle the bill (which is estimated at about 25 million dollars).
A video showing some of the operations (in french) and some pictures :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXDj3VqdWTo
A picture gallery from the local newspaper :
http://www.24heures.ch/galeries/milliers-archives-partent-fumee-lau...
Have you ever had such a long fire or engaged so many people on a single location ?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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First off, what an incredible well thought out forum post. This was the most severe fire load related incident dealing with just archived paper files as the fuel I have heard of and the reliance on electrical motors alone to move cabinets apart, considering the weight involved may end up with new fire codes to address this problem in the design stage.
The logistics for this incident were intense, but some things you did, such as using municipal buses for EMS are great examples for readers here on the FFN to use for their incidents where you need a quick make shift shelter for EMS related needs.
Understanding that the interior heat issues were severe, I would be interested in learning firsthand from your experience using the MSA Gallet style fire helmet. There is a strong preconcieved idea among USA firefighters that a fully enclosed fire helmet, like yours, compared to the traditional leather helmet styles here in the states will cause heat stress.
Your thoughts?
CBz
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Permalink Reply by Maheu on
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I think 9/11 outpasses any incident past and future, so let's say, for the discussion's sake, that it's in another category of its own.
Wildfires would be another straightforward answer, but I'd also put them in another category, due to the geographical extent and complete different environnement..
I was more thinking of fuel tanks, refinery or other industrial fires.
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Thank you. I read several intervention reports on FFN and I thought I could share some from across the pond.
For what I know, this storage facility did not respect the fire codes. For example, there should have been fireproof compartiments and an extinction system. The state archive for example have hundreds of small sub-units, without electrical motors, and in each, a carbon dioxyde extinction system.
They had to use the municipal bus because there were more firefighters to be checked than there was space in the tent ...
Unfortunately, the three times I went there, I was assigned to the command center as radio operator or to other duties outside the building.
But from what I gathered from my colleagues, the heat was so intense they had to crouch in the water, and the only thing sticking out was the helmet. You may have noticed on the pictures that several firefighter wear a hood (the professionals) and some don't (the vollies). But the vollies had no trouble following those with the hood inside the fire.Additionally, I must say I don't see in what an enclosed helmet would hinder more the heat transfer than a hood. And in a confined space, heat exchange with the air is not really something desirable, as the firefighter's head will most certainly be the coolest thing. For a firefighter in full gear, the only part of the body in contact with fresh air is the face, through the SCBA.
On the other hand wildfires and vehicle extrications are something different and there's a lighter version of the helmet.
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that would lead us away from the firefighting and bring us to broader rescue operations. And for that matter, I think third world countries like Bengladesh with their floodings or Iran with their earthquakes have stories a lot worse.
I think the Texas City accident pretty much qualifies. We only miss firsthand account.
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Permalink Reply by Roy Walker on
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Lets not turn this into a bigger better post and examine this post for the learning experience it is. It is amazing to see that so many departments could operate without running into problems of equipment compatability. I have seen smaller incidents plagued by problems such as coupling incompatability and the differences in SCBA that are used. One point you could adress as you were in comunications and that is the ability to use a shared radio frequency by all the different units.
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The equipment compatibility is solved very simply : we have a state owned non-profit fire and natural elements insurance, which is also responsible for the training and equipment of the FFs. FDs are free to buy additional material (for example the different bunker gears you can see) or accessories (survivor lamps, etc), but we all receive the same basic material. And there's an agreement on national level for the lines that are used (we have the same as the Germans).
This allows the ordering of series of trucks with identical designs (and the corresponding discounts), that can be swapped and replace one another if needed. But it also means that if the design is flawed, all have the same problems ...
For the SCBAs, only two different brands are in use, to limit a little bit the dependance towards the manufacturers but also allow a certain degree of interoperability. The state is split in two for the two brands and maintenance centres for the SCBAs are regionalised.
To solve the communication problems, each organisation had a forward command vehicle that reported through phone lines to a common command center.The command vehicle for the firefighters, which was also the common command center at the beginning.
The common command center, before it moved to a neighbouring building.
For the radio frequencies, we have :
- 1 common channel for all the FDs of Switzerland
- 1 "catastrophe" channel that is programmed on the radios of the chiefs and command vehicles of all the rescue organisations and monitored by the police (it is used for coordination with the rescue choppers, for instance).
- 2 channels for FD state level communication, that are also the ones for the dispatch (1 main, 1 alternate)
- 3 frequencies that are the local channels for all the FD's in the state, distributed like a mosaïc and published statewide. In mutual aid situations, the rule is to use the channel of the FD you are assisting.
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Thank you Maheu for a very comprehensive and informative report. You have spent a great deal of time preparing this post and even follow up in a timely manner. I take it you are a full time firefighter with one of the departments involved. I am anazed how well your command and control appear to have functioned and can see why all the agencies developed respect for one and other again thank you brother for allowing us a glimpse into the Swiss Fire Department operations.
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