skylinefirepest Loc: Southern Pines, N.C.

Wow, totally unacceptable time to get the first water on the fire. Response time for a volunteer unit was excellent but then they sat and watched it burn for another five minutes before making the attack. From setting the air brakes and engaging pump gear to stretching hose and charging the line should have taken well less than a minute.

Jay Pat Loc: Round Rock, Texas, USA

I think it was 3min and 45 seconds from when the first firetruck pulled up in the intersection till they had a hose on the fire.
I don't know if the firetruck was a tanker or not.
Did they have to hook up to a fire hydrant?
How many sections of hose did they have to use and hook up?
Hoses must snake around. Can't kink the hose.
How many couplings were involved?
Traffic control, no driving cars over the hose.
Firemen probably don't move very fast for their own safety.
No tripping!
I'm not a fireman.

skylinefirepest Loc: Southern Pines, N.C.

The lines are pre-connected and the fire attack should have been started on the water in the truck...and the first truck should have been an engine not a tanker. Then while the attack is being made and other units are arriving they run a line to a hydrant, block the road, etc. The first in engine parks catty angle to the road which blocks it very effectively and gives the engineer a protected environment to operate from. The attack line is deployed un-charged which makes it quick and easy. Once the line is charged then it makes it more difficult to manuever hence the two men on the line.
I'm a twenty five year volunteer at a station that dropped it's ISO rating from a nine to a six with a portable water supply...meaning that we didn't have enough hydrants in our operating area. We were the first in the state of North Carolina to do that! I drive our two thousand gallon tanker which has a deluge gun, a trash line, two pre-connects and a thousand gpm pump. It's fifty thousand pounds of firefighting perfection. And I expect that it's going to be retired about the time that I am since it's now over twenty years old. Our newest engine is a cafs engine that is the latest in firefighting. I love it but I'm getting old...

Jay Pat Loc: Round Rock, Texas, USA

Thanks for the insight!
Pat

Wenonah Loc: Winona, MN

Still doesn't excuse how long it took to put water on the fire once they arrived. Volunteer or not they are supposed to practice and prepare for these situations.

twowindsbear

What are your thoughts on a sprinkler/automatic supression system for a 'filling station?' What building codes require them? Are they common?

TIA

twowindsbear

Yes, seriosly. I have never seen any sort of 'sprinkler system' at a filling station. If there was one at the location in the OP's video it certainly didn't activate. A cursory drive through within the last hour showed only a portable extinguisher on each of the 5 pump islands

What facts have you based your statements on. Or are you making a typical UHH WAG??

skylinefirepest Loc: Southern Pines, N.C.

2windsbear, I've never seen a suppression system at a gas station. I suppose that there could be some...just that I've never seen one. There are automatic cutoffs at the pump island and one inside the store in case of gas spillage. When you see how many people still smoke or use cellphones around gas pumps it's amazing that more of them don't burn!

skylinefirepest Loc: Southern Pines, N.C.

Wetnwild...actually I have seen vehicles blow but it is very unusual. I've seen gas tanks fail and a trail of fire go down the road, propane tanks bleve, tires blow, ac systems blow, etc. Vehicle fires are very photogenic. I've even seen some vehicles catch on fire when they wreck...some with fatal results. Cars going airborne and blowing up are a movie thing. I've seen aerosol cans bleve and go all the way through a layer of half inch sheet rock...and people think that ammunition in a home is dangerous to the firemen when all it does is pop the primer and fizzle. I have a photo of an aerosol can that shot the end of the can into the attic of a garage and made a perfect hole in the ceiling...can you imagine what that would have done to a fireman?

picturedude Loc: Yosemite natl. park, Ca.

All the time, and with multiple extinguishers located in strategic sites.

picturedude Loc: Yosemite natl. park, Ca.

What a bunch of morons. Getting that close. I'm surprised nobody pulled up to a pump and filling their cars up.