a little fire action in the Buffalo NY area

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tothemax93

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a Building at the old Bethlehem steel plant started on fire, Wednsday. It was 6 city blocks long. The news said it was being used as storage, cars, boats, etc. The smoke showed up on weather radar because it was so thick. The air smells like the fire, within 10 miles of the site. They still have the main road closed past the building, three days later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHn_gSVYw2U
 
I guy about a mile down the street from me found a big piece of melted plastic/ash from that fire in his driveway Thursday morning.
I live about 6 or 7 miles from that plant.
 
Wow....big blaze! Are there any secondary fires from all that stuff blowing around?
No other fires. Only one minor injury in the whole thing. The whole fire started when a hot light bulb fell on a pile of cardboard.
 
Wow....big blaze! Are there any secondary fires from all that stuff blowing around?
Luckily there haven't been any residual fires caused by hat blaze that I know of.
They just finally opened Rt. 5 again (a major artery to Downtown Buffalo) tonight.
 
Wow, no sprinklers? That would have ended things quickly.

Surround & drown, using water monitors (300 gpm minimum) and no one goes inside, as the structure is too-unstable with something that big. Even being close to the exterior walls can be a problem, if the wall collapses. Something like that is tough to fight.

There was a fire at a fertilizer company in Ft. Lauderdale FL in the 1970's, and most of the people who fought in that fire are dead now, many from cancer.

Miami-Dade County Fire-Rescue (M-D F/R) has a longitudinal study underway because the incidence of cancer amog firefighters in the dept. is many times higher than the general population. There is a retired firefighter from M-D F/R who travels around the country lecturing at fire depts. about how employers have to do a better job of minimizing the job factors which contribute to the possibility of cancer.

Being downwind of that fire would make me go elsewhere until the fire was extinguished. The plume of heat, smoke, and fire gases extends downwind for miles from a fire like that.
 
FM,
You have to realize that the building that burnt was an old section of the Lackawanna Steel Plant that was built in 1902.
It shut down in the 70's and the section that burnt was just a shell used to store boats for the Winter.
I'm sure there was no fire suppression system in the building.
 
Regardless of the age of the building, sprinklers could have been retrofitted at some point in the building's useful lifespan. There are sprinkler systems that are literally 100 years old that through proper maintenance are still functional today. Florida's building code is one of the most-restrictive in the nation. If a new occupancy occurs in a building, the current requirements for life safety systems must be met for a legal occupancy. This could mean a retro-fit of a sprinkler system, new installation of standpipes, extension of an existing system, re-fitted alarm and detection systems, etc.

A big part of our in-service job was going to buildings to test-flow their standpipes and to check the operational capabilities of their fire pumps. Whenever work is performed on those systems, they have to be re-inspected to be put back into service. I was involved in both the plans review for new and existing work involving fire supression systems, as well as the site inspections for work performed, including flow tests. On occasion, if a business wanted to stay open while a supression system required to be operational was out of service, they would pay for an engine company and crew to stand-by to provide immediate supression capacity if a conflagration occurred. You can imagine the cost.

Since the death of the domestic steel industry, most of the fire piping (usually cast-iron for industrial buildings) now comes from China. A problem in the industry is 'microbially-influenced deterioration' of the steel pipes now used in installations. The pipes, which used to last for many decades (see above) are now rotting-out in less than 10 years, in some instances! Bacteria destroys the piping from the inside-out. Research is still ongoing as-to why this is happening, when it wasn't an issue prior.

The Pompano Beach Fire/Rescue had a structural fire at a vehicle storage and workshop industrial occupancy recently, and it made it on the news because of the action of a firefighter, who was climbing to the roof of the one-story masonry building, its roof being of bar-joist construction. I dunno if it was a male or a female, but the nitwit demonstrated how not to use a hose line while on a ladder. From the looks of it, he/she was using a 1-3/4" 'hand-line' and was about to emerge above the level of the roof, when they partially-opened the hose, and then did something very stupid. They rapidly fully-opened the nozle valve, and became a lesson in Newton's Law of motion, "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." When they opened the nozzle too quickly, they were knocked right-off the ladder, and it collapsed to the ground. News reports said the firefighter wasn't hurt, but if I was their supervisor, I would be drawing up an action plan to re-train this dangerous employee.

Bar-joist roofs are notorious for weakening to the point of structural failure after as-little as ten minutes involvement in a fire. I would never climb onto the roof of a structure w/a bar-joist roof where the fire had vented through the roof. Once one area collapses, it can bring down the entire roof. There is a notorious case-study about a furniture store in Charleston SC where the bar-joist roof collapsed while firefighters were inside, killing them. Here's another: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/reports/face200318.html

Sadly, the collapse of bar-joist roofs continue to kill firefighters despite the past history of their known deficiencies in a structural fire. This is something that needs to change, and it lies at the feet of the fireground supervisors to effect this change. Firefighters need to stay-out of bar-joist buildings, and off their roofs if the fire has penetrated through the roof.
 
Most of the time the pumps are only at idle when fighting fires. If you have some long distance from the hydrant and I am talking hundreds of feet, or relay pumping, then you might come off idle. The automatic pressure relief valve systems are designed to prevent just such an occurrence as happened in Pompano Beach. One of my friend's is the fire/EMS chief there and I know they are trained better than that. It was just a stupid mistake by the firefighter. There is a news video online and it shows the firefighter jerking fully-open the hose nozzle valve, which then pushes him/her off the ladder, and which throws the ladder to the ground.
 
Most of the time the pumps are only at idle when fighting fires. If you have some long distance from the hydrant and I am talking hundreds of feet, or relay pumping, then you might come off idle. The automatic pressure relief valve systems are designed to prevent just such an occurrence as happened in Pompano Beach. One of my friend's is the fire/EMS chief there and I know they are trained better than that. It was just a stupid mistake by the firefighter. There is a news video online and it shows the firefighter jerking fully-open the hose nozzle valve, which then pushes him/her off the ladder, and which throws the ladder to the ground.

He/she got damn lucky!!
 
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