How would you deal with this one as one of the first due compy officers or IC?

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Permalink Reply by Eric Hankins on June 9, 2009 at 9:50pm

Unfortunately my speakers aren't working, so I wasn't able to hear any narration if there was any.

To me it appeares that there is some sort of flammable gas venting off up there? Defintely a Haz-mat type fire of some kind.

My mindset/objectives would be as follows

#1 evacuate the building. If short handed, use Law Enforcment is the less dangerous areas.
#2 attempt to cut off the fuel supply. Call the utilities department if Natural gas/propane etc
#3 right now the Haz-Mat is self mitigating. I am not going to get in a rush to put the fire out. If it is a flammable liquid thats above ground, I would rather deal with a known hazard (fire) than I would an unknown (vapors going everywhere).
#4 once I have plenty of resources to attack the fire and control the vapors, then I would begin an attack. I'm thinking a couple of Tower ladders with foam nozzles on the tips.

I know this isn't the most aggressive tactic that could be imployed, but I would hate to kill a brother or sister in one of those explosions, for nothing.

Tear it apart. Please do, I look forward to reading more posts and learning from them.

Be safe and Have Fun

Hankins

Permalink Reply by Chris Piepenburg on June 12, 2009 at 1:13pm

I guess the first thing you have to look at when you are going to a reported fire in a building like this is to know where you are going. By knowing the type of industry in the building can give you a huge advantage. SO, Knowing that GD Searle was part of the conglomerates Monsanto and Pfizer you have a good idea that you could be dealing with some sort of chemical fire.

The first thing I would do is to evacuate the immediate area and try and get a handle on what is burning. I would start a hazardous materials response to help with haz matty type stuff...evacuation areas, plume models and the like. Like Eric said whatever is burning no is controlling itself, by putting the fire out we could be doing more damage with water runoff. If there was a way to turn off or stop the flow of material then we should do everything possible to control it that way. If not the we have to setup the proper containment area to divert and catch any runoff from the water used to extinguish the fire.