gentle safety reminder for vehicular fire responses

[BFD389RET 112]

Here's another example, in this video out of Arizona , the fire vehicle is a step van typically aluminum and Fiberglass, and loaded with you name it right? its not a Toyota, a few issues here... Being from a department where My company had its share of Car Fires (sometimess 8 or 10 a shift in the 90's) its easy to ignore some of the "safety" side of these incidents ... Some people have been so instilled with the "Hollywood" version of 9 explosions from 12 directions... they often run away expecting that.. at the same time We are trained to Chock all vehicles at 5 am this obviously didnt happen, and the very idea that these fellas are going to STop the vehicle rolling after the fact is pretty silly and they are LUCKY that they didnt loose the hoseline, or get someone hurt.....

The video is worth a look... seems like these guys are having a bad morning for sure....

http://youtu.be/vbRFvCIVSDg

Edited October 21, 2014 by BFD389RET

[antiquefirelt 994]

All the standard Monday Morning Quarterbacking aside, it always seems to be a vehicle fire that looks like a "Monkey F***** a Football".

[BillV 0]

what would have been the proper safe way to chock the wheels in this instance?

[BFD389RET 112]

what would have been the proper safe way to chock the wheels in this instance?

Hmm well, You might start with something More Then what they started with.. the idea of Using a member to keep the vehicle from scratching Engine seems To me to one of the less smart options, Find it pretty difficult to believe that Norwalk FD doesnt have a sog on the use of wheel chocks Both On the apparatus as well as on MVA's and Vehicular incidents of any kind.... using a standard wheelchock May or may not have changed a thing, In this case. but if it had then you wouldnt have a member pinched or hurt , a rig with potential Damage or a Vehicle which could have rolled off d into someone residence..

[dwcfireman 656]

My thoughts on this video.....

It's an old video, and I've seen it in many classes. I'm not here to jab at BFD389RET, rather provide some insight and expand on the topic.

I've been to my fair share of vehicle fires, and none of them have turned out like this. And none of those car fires did myself or the crew chock the vehicle. Is it the right thing to do? Probably. Does it hurt you if you don't? Well, the video show that bad things can happen during the most simplest of scenarios. Does this mean we should check every vehicle that's on fire? In my own humble opinion, YES! Let me explain why.

Motor vehicles are filled with multiple complex mechanisms for everything they do, from moving forward and backward, entertaining you while you drive, keeping you and your passengers comfortable, and even keeping the vehicle PARKED. When we're presented with a motor vehicle fire we can disregard many of the vehicle's functions. We don't care about the radio, the AC, the heating core, or the LCD screen GPS multi-function unit on the dash. When a vehicle is on fire we expect it to do one thing, and that's not move. I would like to take a moment and say that I've never put out a car fire that was moving. It seems that that should be a generic statement, but let's face the reality that a car fire could start rolling away on you.....quite literally.

So what keeps the vehicle parked? On your regular car, like the ones that most of us own (with an automatic transmission), when the vehicle is in park the transmission won't allow the axle to spin, thus stopping the car from moving. Generally, this is not compromised by fire. On the other hand, manual transmission vehicles require the use of a parking brake, which is a simple mechanism that uses a lever in the cab, a cable from the lever to the brake system, and the regular brakes. This thin strand of aluminum (sometimes steel) wire is easily compromised by high heat. Then there are larger commercial grade vehicles with air brakes, where a lack of air pressure in the system keeps the brakes locked down. Fire can impinge on the air lines and destroy the braking system, however, losing more air just prevents the brakes from releasing. In the case of the step van above, it probably didn't have air brakes. Contrary, brake pads/drums can melt away if temperatures get high enough. Though the pads are meant to be able to stand high temperatures, you cannot guarentee they will be working when you show up to a fully involved vehicle fire. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Here's the bottom line: VEHICLES ARE EXTREMELY UNPREDICTABLE! You don't know what is going to compromised, you don;t know what is getting damaged, and you don't know how the car is built. If you come across a car fire, or any vehicle fire, chock it! A set of small iron chocks will always be cheaper than a new bumper for your engine.