Need a few questions answered about Motorsport fire-rescue

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Keith "Gus" Grant on August 6, 2010 at 8:46am

Lou,

The best guy to call about Dover's team is their safety director, Ed Klima. He can give you all the info from their point of view as well as NASCAR's official position on their requirements.

Briefly, NFPA 610 Guide for Emergency and Safety Operations at Motorsports Venues provides the most comprehensive guide and checklist for these types of facilites. Is it the bible? No, but it is a complete reference point for facilities and response agenices to use and refer to. Being a recommendation, it is not mandated anywhere unless the local authority having jurisdiction has adopted it et al. Many professional track safety teams have been doing what this standard recommends for years with out being regulated because that's what is needed in their industry. Local track funding for a professional team like this can be prohibit, but there are many cost saving measures that can also allow the mom and pop tracks to accomplish those same goals.

Track safety crews have been wearing nomex jumpsuits for years. I can't give you a definite time frame here but the use of turnouts came more so as fire departments were being tasked to provide these services to race tracks. SInce there was no real motorsports standard for track safety apparel at the time, the fire service stuck with what we know best. Now that more and more has been gleaned from SFI rated driving suits and custom made track safety apparel has been commonplace, turnout gear at race tracks will be seen less and less for facilities with more dedicated track safety teams and crews. Turnout gear is not always the best choice in these situations anyway, but with most firefighters getting little if any pay for these track crews, they can't afford to pay those extra costs for PPE. So that may be the only alternative for that situation, unfortunately.

ABC Dry chemical is still the biggest and cheapest agent of choice for racing events. However, it has been proven time and time again not be the best single agent for all circumstances. It is rapidly being supplemented with multi hazard units consisting of Purple K and newer AFFFs and Class B agents especially for fuel and spill fires. NASCAR has had issues for years about using wet agents on the tracks for small "nuisance" fires where the cleanup may be more of an issue than the fire damage or potential. Contaminant damage to the race cars is also a big reason why drivers hate to see dry chemical agents used on their car. The fire may not have done as much damage to the vehicle as the fire extinguishing agent did.

However, when life safety is at risk, a multi hazard fire attack using foam agents and specific hazard dry chemical agents has proven to be far superior to just using multi purpose dry chemical agents by themselves. Let's fact it, racers will race anything even if they're up in flames while in the process especially on the last lap or crossing the finish line. Many a fire truck has been seen in victory lane extinguishing a burning race car while the driver and crew is on the winner's podium receiving the accolades. That's racing.

Extrication tools have evolved over the years for many reasons, usually related to normal transportation and passenger car needs. Racing extrication needs required the increased reach of cutters and advanced cut and spread techniques because of the multi layered affect of the structural roll cage, sheetmetal and seat cockpit areas. While most of the materials in standard stock cars is of the mild steel construction, sprint cars and drag racers use a variety of materials, most being chrome moly steel tubing in the cage and frame while magnesium and titanuim are used heavily driveline and suspension components. These are additional fire hazards to be aware of too.

Exotic metals in the cage structure (like boron, etc.) are found more on on production vehicles that are used in rally or showroom classes that are not purpose built for racing. World rally cars and sedans that follow a common template fo street cars will more than not have complex structures built of these exotic material where a cage type of system will not. Carbon fire components are traversing the boundaries of all motorsports so that would be the most common high tech material found from the top level NHRA dragster down to the Saturday night stockers at the local bullring. Don't forget about monster trucks, jet cars, and so on. Dover also has to think about them at their bigger shows as part of the prime time value of motorsports entertainment.

What seems to be the trickiest during the extrication process for rescuers is knowing how the cages are built, the mechanism of injury to both the driver AND car so that the tool or cut team knows the best way to provide entry points for their equipment. The cut team must create an accessibly point for a medic to get at the driver if needed or for an access point for driver extrication. The cut team also has to be aware of things or areas they should NOT cut that could destabilize the vehicle rapidly and endanger themselves of the driver quickly. It sounds complicated, but it all comes down to practice practice practice and knowing what your hazards are and your EAP or response plan overall.

Please mention that Dover has a crackerjack team in place. These guys are good at what they do as are others I could name. But the NASCAR and higher level track safety teams are not the norm around the country, they are just for NASCAR and the higher level racing organizations. Those teams are what many at the local short track or drag strip level can only dream of or aspire to. That's what a progressive race organization, facility safety manager and adequate equipment, training and personnel funding can do for your track safety program.

Hope that helped.

Keith Grant
Race Safety Innovations
www.rsisafety.com

Permalink Reply by Lou Angeli on August 6, 2010 at 9:02am

Many, many thanks, Gus


Keith "Gus" Grant said:

Lou,

The best guy to call about Dover's team is their safety director, Ed Klima. He can give you all the info from their point of view as well as NASCAR's official position on their requirements.

Briefly, NFPA 610 Guide for Emergency and Safety Operations at Motorsports Venues provides the most comprehensive guide and checklist for these types of facilites. Is it the bible? No, but it is a complete reference point for facilities and response agenices to use and refer to. Being a recommendation, it is not mandated anywhere unless the local authority having jurisdiction has adopted it et al. Many professional track safety teams have been doing what this standard recommends for years with out being regulated because that's what is needed in their industry. Local track funding for a professional team like this can be prohibit, but there are many cost saving measures that can also allow the mom and pop tracks to accomplish those same goals.

Track safety crews have been wearing nomex jumpsuits for years. I can't give you a definite time frame here but the use of turnouts came more so as fire departments were being tasked to provide these services to race tracks. SInce there was no real motorsports standard for track safety apparel at the time, the fire service stuck with what we know best. Now that more and more has been gleaned from SFI rated driving suits and custom made track safety apparel has been commonplace, turnout gear at race tracks will be seen less and less for facilities with more dedicated track safety teams and crews. Turnout gear is not always the best choice in these situations anyway, but with most firefighters getting little if any pay for these track crews, they can't afford to pay those extra costs for PPE. So that may be the only alternative for that situation, unfortunately.

ABC Dry chemical is still the biggest and cheapest agent of choice for racing events. However, it has been proven time and time again not be the best single agent for all circumstances. It is rapidly being supplemented with multi hazard units consisting of Purple K and newer AFFFs and Class B agents especially for fuel and spill fires. NASCAR has had issues for years about using wet agents on the tracks for small "nuisance" fires where the cleanup may be more of an issue than the fire damage or potential. Contaminant damage to the race cars is also a big reason why drivers hate to see dry chemical agents used on their car. The fire may not have done as much damage to the vehicle as the fire extinguishing agent did.

However, when life safety is at risk, a multi hazard fire attack using foam agents and specific hazard dry chemical agents has proven to be far superior to just using multi purpose dry chemical agents by themselves. Let's fact it, racers will race anything even if they're up in flames while in the process especially on the last lap or crossing the finish line. Many a fire truck has been seen in victory lane extinguishing a burning race car while the driver and crew is on the winner's podium receiving the accolades. That's racing.

Extrication tools have evolved over the years for many reasons, usually related to normal transportation and passenger car needs. Racing extrication needs required the increased reach of cutters and advanced cut and spread techniques because of the multi layered affect of the structural roll cage, sheetmetal and seat cockpit areas. While most of the materials in standard stock cars is of the mild steel construction, sprint cars and drag racers use a variety of materials, most being chrome moly steel tubing in the cage and frame while magnesium and titanuim are used heavily driveline and suspension components. These are additional fire hazards to be aware of too.

Exotic metals in the cage structure (like boron, etc.) are found more on on production vehicles that are used in rally or showroom classes that are not purpose built for racing. World rally cars and sedans that follow a common template fo street cars will more than not have complex structures built of these exotic material where a cage type of system will not. Carbon fire components are traversing the boundaries of all motorsports so that would be the most common high tech material found from the top level NHRA dragster down to the Saturday night stockers at the local bullring. Don't forget about monster trucks, jet cars, and so on. Dover also has to think about them at their bigger shows as part of the prime time value of motorsports entertainment.

What seems to be the trickiest during the extrication process for rescuers is knowing how the cages are built, the mechanism of injury to both the driver AND car so that the tool or cut team knows the best way to provide entry points for their equipment. The cut team must create an accessibly point for a medic to get at the driver if needed or for an access point for driver extrication. The cut team also has to be aware of things or areas they should NOT cut that could destabilize the vehicle rapidly and endanger themselves of the driver quickly. It sounds complicated, but it all comes down to practice practice practice and knowing what your hazards are and your EAP or response plan overall.

Please mention that Dover has a crackerjack team in place. These guys are good at what they do as are others I could name. But the NASCAR and higher level track safety teams are not the norm around the country, they are just for NASCAR and the higher level racing organizations. Those teams are what many at the local short track or drag strip level can only dream of or aspire to. That's what a progressive race organization, facility safety manager and adequate equipment, training and personnel funding can do for your track safety program.

Hope that helped.

Keith Grant
Race Safety Innovations
www.rsisafety.com