Fire fighting query

[CompactTractorFan]

I bailed from LMF partly because threads like this one I started here would be wasted over there, doubtful if anyone on that forum would know what I was talking about.

What? Did I miss something???

 

[JDgreen227]

What? Did I miss something???

Perhaps you did...but I am THROUGH with LMF.

 

[farmfun]

Perhaps you did...but I am THROUGH with LMF.

What's the LMF - Lemmings Making Futures?:confused2:

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Perhaps you did...but I am THROUGH with LMF.

OK.................................

 

[grsthegreat]

I was talking to a fire chief on a recent inspection of a restaurant i wired, and he told me that the main reason that they shut off the main power is to silence the smoke detectors . He said it drives them nuts.

 

[grsthegreat]

hehe.. i just typed LMF on wiki..... very funny. A hip hop band from hong kong.cant post it here though.... wouldn't pass the censors.

 

[grnspot110]

Been there, done that, makes a purty BLUE flame! Was working a house fire years ago that had the fuel oil tank in the basement (full). I was working through a basement window & hit the fuse/breaker box with a fog stream, exiting, but no shock! After that, pulling the meter was one of my first priorities. Note, pulling the meter does not guaranty dis-connection of power, but usually does in residential construction! ~~ grnspot

 

[schmism]

I cant say for certain what the probability of getting shocked while useing a hose line is.

but i can say for shure that if you do hit live power wires that have had there insulation burnt off of them with a hose stream, they make all sorts of fun noises and colorful lights. IT was at that point that we shut down and pulled the "other" meter on the side of the barn. (cause the first one we pulled i guess only ran the house)

 

[Sackett2]

This thread answered a question that has been bugging me for 12 years.

I was a Facility Manager (FM) at a ICBM Minuteman III Missile site. The job of the FM was every little job needed for daily operation, from Fire Protection, First aid, snow removal lawn mowing etc....
6 months after I had moved on from that job, one of the sites burned down. I knew one of the individuals on the site, I had trained him as a FM but he was now back in the chef career field.

So late in the evening they noticed smoke; and a small room on the corner of the building was on fire; this was the diesel generator room, a generator set up to provide the building with AC power during power loss. About 10' x 20'. After opening up the door and getting blown back by the fire, they closed the door and evacuated the building.

Not 20 feet away was a fire hose with 3500-7000 gallons of water ready. As a FM, a daily job was inspecting the water room and insuring the water availability for emergencies. The Missile crew Locked themselves into their area and waited for 24 hours until the all clear was sounded and came up the ladder to no building.

Also available to the FM was a Case FE loader, and the room next to the generator room could have been separated from the Gen room and the fire couldn't have crawled thru the attic into the rest of the building.

I always wondered why they didn't do anything, and the only thing I came up with was the big power box on the wall. It wouldn't have stopped me; 7000 gallons of water would have been put into that room. Afterwards, someone tried to give the two guys a medal... it was turned down....

 

[ericher69]

Is it really safe to use water to fight fires in buildings that have live electrical wiring without having to concern yourself about a possible shock hazard? Seems to me since water from the hose will conduct electricity, and you are grounded and quite possibly standing on a wet surface....??

Or will water spraying into an outlet or switch simply short it out and trip the breaker, therefore eliminating the hazard? What about water hitting the main service panel?

When making an interior attack on a residential occupancy we use combination fog/straight stream nozzles.

This has many advantages such as;
1. providing fine droplets (fog) for
maximum heat absorption
2. Fine droplets provide less chance of
Electricity being transmitted back to
Firefighter
3. Straight stream for extinguishing the
Seat of the fire (penetration/reach)

In my 13 years of professional firefighting and many fires I have never received a shock (knock on wood) from interior attacks

We do usually shut off main breaker ASAP shut off natural gas ASAP. And back it up with getting hydro to cut power to the building.

We no longer pull meters as some firefighters have been electrocuted doing this! Also if the meter has been bypassed (aka grow-op) pulling the meter will give a false sense of security

Hydro disconnecting power at pole is the only %100 guarantee

Water hitting an outlet will usually NOT trip the breaker unless its a Arc Fault Interrupter (code in Ontario since 2006) for bedrooms

These breakers will trip when any arcing is detected

As for hitting the main panel usually not an issue with cover on and door closed

And as for shutting the power just to shut the smoke alarms off...most in older homes are battery powered and is not a valid reason to cut power

Hope this answers your question