Foam Units

In my county, we have two dedicated Foam Units, identical E-One Titan II 4x4 crash trucks that they keep at one of the stations near I-95. They aren't staffed full-time, but two of the crew on the engine are technicians and staff it if it's needed. I was wondering, how many people have foam units, what kind are they, and how often do they get used?

Foam 426 on one of the two calls it gets on average a year. This was a two alarm service station fire that happened on Thursday.

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jonathan Halverson on March 21, 2010 at 10:53am

In Fairfax we have a so called "super tanker" stationed some what nearby that holds more foam for the rig. I've never seen it, or even a picture of it, all I've heard of it is from other people.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by ashfire on March 21, 2010 at 11:17am

There are some manufacures who build trailers or slid ons for foam operations.
www.haydencompany.com
www.firehouseinternational.com
There is one fire company that has a pumper that the local power company helped to pay for because it carries twin agent chemicals and foam so that it can respond to their power plant but the unit is also used as a rural pumper for the area its in.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by ashfire on March 22, 2010 at 9:51pm

This might bring up another operation for the fire service, Twin agent units. The use of dry chemicals with foam.
We use to have a squad truck we that had a large Purple K extiguisher with 50 ft of hose mounted in the compartment but was never used.
I have seen more twin agent units used for air field as rapid units to get to a aircraft before a foam truck gets there.
I have even seen CO2 tank trucks used by the fire service.
I guess one thing is cost of what to use when the time comes.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jace Woodworth on March 30, 2011 at 10:26pm

we've got four engines, one of which is a 100ft. ladder with a 4,000 gpm nozzle on the end of it, so yes we've got some foam units, but considering the population of a REFINERY, its our business.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jace Woodworth on March 30, 2011 at 10:29pm

that pic I just replied with is of our 04' Pierce with a 3,000 8FG hale pump... 800 water 500 foam.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ross Wortman on March 30, 2011 at 10:50pm

ethanol is a polar solvent which means it binds with water, therefore with a non AR foam the water and ETOH on the surface of the bubbles continues to burn

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Wade Seely on March 31, 2011 at 5:19pm

we are able to produce foam from any of our engines, and they all carry a small amount of foam at all times. If we need more foam we have a foam trailer and we and use the dept. pickup to bring more to the scene. What we have on the engines is enogh to allow time for the trailer or the pickup.