11/7 Fire

I feel partly responsible for at least the extent of the fire. I would like to apologize for not being there earlier. I won’t offer any type of excuses because the reason doesn’t seem as important now, and it won’t change how others or I feel about myself. I would like the chance to make up for it, so.

I started thinking of a trailer mounted unit myself. Today I bought a 275 gallon tote. Which is basically a plastic tank encased in a wire frame. I figure at a 5gpm discharge rate this will give us 55 min of water, which should be sufficient for a weekend launch barring anything major. It should also be light enough to tow with compact truck/car. It will still weight @2000lbs completed. An on-demand pump with a rating of 8gpm @ 60psi should give us the ability to supply 2 hoses with enough pressure to reach out 20 to 30′. I haven’t done the hydraulics yet but that should be about right.

I was thinking of using air hose rather then garden, for ease of use. Also they can be pressurized on a reel without creeping or walking. For the pump, gas or electric driven. Gas requires fuel & regular maintenance. Electric requires batteries, and some sort of charging. With the amp requirement of an electric, I’m thinking gas. I have a 5hp horizontal shaft motor I’ve been saving for a log splitter that will probably never get built. I also have most of the hose, relief valve, pressure switch, and misc piping. I hope to have it completed by MHM 2010.

I can’t change what happened, but I can help prevent it from happening again.

Sincerely,

Mark

I lived in So Cal for 11 years, and every October, the Santa Ana winds pick up hot and dry… it’s amazing how quickly a fire moves in dry grass and anything else dry… for those who fought it yesterday, that area will be a lot greener than anywhere else on the launch area in the coming years. Firefighters die when the winds shift and they’re suddenly in the path of the fire. Exactly what Warren said. Again, I’m glad everyone is safe.

The fire brooms work very well, until they loose their bristles. A friend who is a professional firefighter showed me a couple brooms today that have mechanically held bristles that are replaceable. The bummer was that he made them because nothing was commercially available.

I think we need a few more brooms – after our tools were wearing out the fire dance was getting quite hot on my feet.

Edward

Those brooms sound good. I had some heavy hiking boots that worked pretty well at protecting my feet and smothering the fire… But the then the soles started falling off when the glue melted.

Mark,
I have two 1200# torflex axles I will donate to the cause. I can also make the trailer to work around any tank. I think we need to have the club officer’s blessings on this since it will probably be stored with the trailer at Larry’s and maintained by the club. But, I’m 100% with you. Warren can probably add to this or correct me, but I believe there is fire retardant powder/liquid you mix into the water. I don’t think air hose would have the volume required to do anything. We can get hoses on reels that will work good.

Boots only work so long, I got a burn on my left toe enough that it blistered and burst in the boot before I could even get back to my truck. Leather holds heat really well, you should see some of my welding gloves from “checking” to see if stuff is hot….

Edward, I’m wondering if the steel spikes/wires they use to keep birds form perching on stuff would work. I assume you have seen them. My question though would be how old were our rakes and did the fire cause all of the bristles to fall our then, or were they already loose from age????

Good discussion!

Chad is pretty spot on with the estimate. The Wildfire Team from Fort Collins, tasked with the mop up since the other units went to respond to the Briggsdale blaze, told me 64.1 acres according to their GPS of the site.

Everyone that helped in whatever manner needs to understand their efforts are incredibly respected. That no one got seriously hurt or burned is a real blessing and proof that even without “Official” training, we were using the right approach to control and contain. Our range participation and spectator numbers have grown substantially and much of the tribal knowledge and safety briefing information has been rehearsed and rehashed and re-cycled and obviously needs to be repeated more often.

Equipment is replacable – people are not. The fire brooms were originally purchased from the Forest Service several years ago, on their recommedation. They suggested we get two – we bought four. Now we will replace and double that number to eight. The same goes for the flappers.

Keep this discussion rolling. We are all volunteers and leaders.