Large Structure Burn Team

[FF715MRFD]

Just wondering if anyone here has done a burn with Iowa's Large Structure Burn Team, and what you thought about it. We did one this morning and I thought it was very unorganized and at some points dangerous. There was about 12 different departments there and four months ago each department gave the Burn Team a list of what apparatus they were bringing, the equipment that was on it and the manpower we would have there. This morning we scrambled around for an hour and a half tearing trucks apart because the Burn Team didn't know what they wanted or who had it. They also had only 1 fill site set up for tankers. We were drafting from a river so water wasn't a problem but we could only fill two trucks at a time, my department and a neighboring department saw that this was not going to work and took control of the situation and got it to the point where we could fill 5 trucks at a time. Overall the burn went OK (we only burnt down one building that wasn't supposed to be burnt:D). I just felt that there was some poor planning and use of information by the Burn Team. Anyone else had this experience?

Josh

[toddmcbr]

I wasn't aware there was an Iowa Structure Burn Team. Where is this team out of or where are the members from him.

We have burned many large structures in the western part of the state. Setup sometimes doesn't go as planned but we have not had any major problem in recent years. They ran into one about 10 years ago where the planning wasn't so good. I believe they ended up painting 3 fire trucks and several POVs.

[FF715MRFD]

They are based in Des Moines and the members are from surrounding areas. They were good people to work with, but I thought that there could have been a little more planning and attention to fine details.

The burn was originally planned for May but kept getting put off because of wind( The building was in the middle of the town). I think that everyone just wanted to get it down and that could be some of the reason for the flaws in planning.

[parafire81]

So if I understand this right...

This team is made up of a group of guys from around Des Moines. Do they exist solely for the purpose of organizing and instructing live fire exercises on large structures, or can they be called in for major incidents?

[FF715MRFD]

Sorry if I wasn't clear on my explanation. The groups sole purpose is to organize and conduct burns and live training excersises of large structures. They have no apparatus of any kind, they are just the command group for any excersises that they do.

[FirefighterAl]

Just wondering if anyone here has done a burn with Iowa's Large Structure Burn Team, and what you thought about it. We did one this morning and I thought it was very unorganized and at some points dangerous. There was about 12 different departments there and four months ago each department gave the Burn Team a list of what apparatus they were bringing, the equipment that was on it and the manpower we would have there. This morning we scrambled around for an hour and a half tearing trucks apart because the Burn Team didn't know what they wanted or who had it. They also had only 1 fill site set up for tankers. We were drafting from a river so water wasn't a problem but we could only fill two trucks at a time, my department and a neighboring department saw that this was not going to work and took control of the situation and got it to the point where we could fill 5 trucks at a time. Overall the burn went OK (we only burnt down one building that wasn't supposed to be burnt:D). I just felt that there was some poor planning and use of information by the Burn Team. Anyone else had this experience?

Josh
Yeah i was just wondering if the proper paper work was filled out for the DNR for checking asbestos in the structure?...we are allowed two training fires a year without asbestos in them otherwise they have to be removed then after so many days that we are allowed to burn....Here is the DNR web site so you can check this out...http://www.iowadnr.com/air/prof/asbestos/tfire.html I myself think that alot of old structures will still be standing because of this rule...noones gonna spend the money to hire this removal done and the fire dept(s) lose out on training fires...bout the only training we can do is smoke it up and do rescue training...does any one have any other thoughts on this?