6 minutes For Safety: Vehicle Fire Suppression

Friday, March 15, 2013

6 minutes For Safety: Vehicle Fire Suppression

RESPONDING TO VEHICLE FIRES

Suppression of vehicle fires is extremely dangerous and poses many health and safety hazards to firefighters.

The following procedures are recommended:

Wear a high visibility reflective vest or other high visibility clothing if available.
Secure the scene and provide or request assistance for traffic control.
Park your vehicle to provide a protective barricade for you and your crew. Position it so that an inattentive or drunk driver will hit your vehicle and not your crew. Your vehicle is expendable, you are not.
Provide for your escape route at the scene.
Do not use road flares if fuel is leaking from the vehicle.
DO NOT BREATHE ANY SMOKE. Smoke from vehicle fires contains toxic chemicals that will kill you.
Vehicle fires are considered a hazardous materials scene. Suppression action should only be taken if the crew is trained, equipped, and authorized in the use of Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA).
If taking suppression action on wildland fuels, firefighters should ensure that they are a safe distance from the burning vehicle (100-feet minimum), and avoid contact with vehicle fire smoke or fumes.

6 Minutes Home

CFN - California Fire News 2013

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****REMINDER**** Every fire has the ability to be catastrophic. The wildland fire management environment has profoundly changed. Growing numbers of communities, across the nation, are experiencing longer fire seasons; more frequent, bigger, and more severe, fires are a real threat. Be careful with all campfires and equipment.

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer." --Abraham Lincoln

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How fires get their names

Every year in California thousands of wildfires start throughout the state. In most cases, the dispatch center sending the initial resources to a wildland fire will designate a name for the fire, but the first on scene engine or fire official can also name the incident. Fires are usually named for the area in which they start – a geographical location, local landmark, street, lake, mountain, peak, etc. Quickly naming the fire provides responding fire resources with an additional locater, and allows fire officials to track and prioritize incidents by name. For example during the Southern California Fire Siege of 2003, the largest wildland fire in California history, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, was named after the Cedar Creek Falls area where it started. The destructive Old Fire, which burned during the same time period in San Bernardino County, was named after the road along which it started - Old Waterman Canyon Road.

CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States. CDF - CAL FIRE Firefighters answer the call more than 300,000 times a year. CAL FIRE Firefighters make up the fire department for 30 of our 58 counties in California and more than 100 local communities. We serve as the incident command during many of California’s most serious disasters. CAL FIRE Firefighters respond to many various types and forms of calls ranging from structural fires, to auto accidents, to earthquakes, to floods, to the spilling of hazardous materials, to every conceivable disaster; CAL FIRE answer's the calls. CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States . CAL FIRE firefighters protect 33 million acres of State Responsibility Area (SRA). We have over 4,000 members within CAL FIRE and CAL FIRE is associated with the California Professional Firefighters (CPF) and the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF).

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Friday, March 15, 2013