Gasoline Firefighting

Firefighting is much more than getting cats out of trees. In the fire service industry, we face multiple challenges from day to day and from call to call. Firefighting in a whole is much more than hanging out and sleeping at the firehouse. Firefighting has a very broad spectrum like responding to motor vehicle incidents to responding to large gasoline truck fires. In the scenario I am going to provide more detail when it comes to fighting different types of flammable liquid fires and the appropriate approach we should take to effectively extinguish gasoline fires. Gasoline fires are very different to each other much like many incidents we respond to day to day. The scenario is in the town of Yonkers New York. The scenario contains an …show more content…
When you are adding certain types of additives to water you need to know that the additives are the right choice. The correct chemistry should be used to adequately suffocate or extinguish the burning liquid(Gann & Friedman, 2015). The nozzle needs to be aerated so that the agent will create a foam(Gann & Friedman, 2015). The agent should be the correct mixture to ensure that a foam blanket can be formed over the flammable liquid to suffocate or smolder the flammable liquid that has been ignited (Gann & Friedman, 2015). The Large pool or spillway of the flammable liquid is considered a Class B fire. Many 2-dimensional fires or spills is measured by the length and the width of the spill or pool (Gann & Friedman, 2015). Considerations when applying the foam on the fire should be kept in mind as the wind speed can affect the application as well as blowing the layer of foam off of the pool or spill. Some additives that will affect the foaming operation can be the chemicals involved and break down the foam resulting in foam structure break down (Gann & Friedman, 2015). Elevated heat can affect the foam as it can vaporize the water when applications onto the spill (Gann & Friedman, 2015). When you are using foam application you should always create a thick layer to ensure the burned area will not ignite the foamed area that has been confined already (Gann & Friedman, …show more content…
The scenario did not describe which kind of foam the used but, AR-AFFF or AFFF would be my guess. With the magnitude of the spill that was involved it would be a very good suggestion to start with. The AFFF is great foam for flammable liquid fires with the exception of alcohol based liquid. The fuel vaporization on the spill seemed to be contained quickly for containment to be achieved quickly before a major malfunction occurred. With the vaporization cut-off by the application of foam it basically suffocated the fire. Based on the scenario the YFD has no choice but, to extinguish the fire. The fire was underneath a major thruway beneath a bridge which could cause structural integrity to the bridge if the flammable liquid was left for burn off process. The new nozzle that was put into tactical usage on the trucks was a great benefit for the department. Supplying the flammable liquid fire with multiple master streams greatly benefitted the department. The application gave the first arriving unit a quick attack and to get foam on the spill in a timely manner for extinguishment and confinement. The rate of 12 gallons a minute per master stream the application used nearly 650 gallons of concentrate to contain the tanker fire. The master stream nozzle and the reach was a plus for containment. The fog application from the master stream created