Hey...
Another Firefighter has been injured at a working car fire from "projectiles". While not a new problem, one other fairly recent event was when a FF in Windsor Locks, CT was seriously injured when a hood strut "took off" and shot into his leg, thru his bunker gear, seriously injuring him as well. THAT CAR FIRE WAS ON Sunday November 21, 2004. Upon arrival the fire was confined to the engine compartment. During companies gaining access to the engine compartment, a Firefighters had just released the hood safety latch when the hood shock strut exploded and fired into the Firefighter, striking him in his upper thigh and piercing completely through bunker pants and his leg with the approximate 18 inch long strut.

In the most recent event, an Oakland (CA) Firefighter remains hospitalized today with a broken leg when the front bumper of a burning car turned into a projectile late Wednesday. The Firefighter and crew had responded and was successfully and appropriately protecting a residential exposure from the fire, but while the car was burning, the front bumper blew off and struck the Firefighter in her left leg. She will be in the hospital several days and will require surgery. As you are aware, the front bumpers of most cars are attached to shocks that are filled with gas, under pressure with a metal housing...and when they get heated up-they expand and blow up. Hood struts function-and fail-in a similar manner when heated.

USE CAUTION and while lines may have to be positioned to protect exposures in some cases, in most cases, working car fires are stand alone write offs. Get geared up, charge the line but hit the fire from a position where you do not have to be an exposure yourself. Struts, bumpers, air bags etc-all pose a significant danger to Firefighters.

KEEP IN MIND: It is JUST a car fire...a rare reason for any of us to ever get hurt...is at a BS car fire.