What's your "Bread and Butter" for Firefighting...?

Hello all, just a quick question....What does your Department use for Firefighting.......the old standby...Straight water ? Water with additives (water wetter) ? Class A foam (eductors) ? CAFS ? Eductors with AFFF Foam ? AR-AFFF (alcohol, methanol fires) and do you train with other methods...? Thanks.........Paul

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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on March 10, 2010 at 11:03pm

Predominantly the old standby for us. We only have 2 engines outfitted with class "A" foam, and if they are second or third in, they pretty much won't be pumping.

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Permalink Reply by Ron Ayotte on March 10, 2010 at 11:57pm

We use dihydrogen monoxide. My community has an excellent dihydrogen monoxide delivery system, with 99% of the city covered by the dihydrogen monoxide distribution system.

When necessary, we augment our dihydrogen monoxide with aqueous film forming foam, which allows us the use dihydrogen monoxide on the rapid oxidation of petroleum and alcohol products, which produce heat and light and products of combustion.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on March 11, 2010 at 1:47am

I really don't think we do things much differently than any other engine I have seen in SoCal, so I believe my response should cover a fairly significant number of departments in the Western USA. All engines have stored water and the ability to connect to municipal water systems. All engines have the ability to draft water, even the brush trucks. All engines, including Type I, II and III have pre-plumbed AFFF, so dialing up the foam concentrate the foam the daylight out of something is always a possibility. Water and foam... that's about it Paul...

Now the real question is how many people have AFFF but not AR-AFFF? This, in my opinion is going to be the biggest challenge facing the fire service in the next 9-years. Why? METB has been slowly removed from gasoline, and is slowly gaining in availablity. Why? The new stuff uses ethanol instead, which is great for the environment and the 'green' thing to do, but we are left hanging out to dry...

Try using water or AFFF on an ethanol fuel (E-85) and you will be disappointed. Folks need to remember that ethanol floats on top of water... specific gravity issues are really important to know about. Ask Baltimore FD that had an ethanol tanker crash and burn. Putting water on the fire appeared to transport the fuel and water to a street below the overpass where the incident occurred. As more water was applied to the fire, the water, with the burning ethanol on top, slowly moved down the street which was 'downhill'. Car after car caught on fire...

You have to make sure that the AFFF foam you carry is also alcohol resistive (AR) to prevent making the problem worse... Anyone reading this now knows that as time marches by, so will the production of ethanol enhanced fuels. MTBE's by themselves are not necessarily toxic but when they mix with hydrocarbons (gasoline), they act like a soil penetrant which makes the spill that much worse, and in some cases, enables the gasoline to reach underground water sources (aquifers). Then you have real problems where drinking water supplies get contaminated, birth defects present themselves and people ask why... No you know why MTBE's are being phased out and ethanol fuels brought in. The question is, are you prepared for these changes?

CBz

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Permalink Reply by blair4630 on March 11, 2010 at 2:44am

You know, you need to be real careful with dihydrogen monoxide. It has been shown to be hazardous, even fatal, if inhaled into the lungs in moderate to large quantities. Proper education and PPE are a must when handling. That being said, it does work pretty well for firefighting applications.