IL EPA ****es me off

[FF2426]

Has anyone else had trouble with the state EPA taking their sweet @$$ time to get a permit to perform a burndown for training? The last one we did took us over 4 months to get the permit. We have had a lot of people interested in letting us burn down the structures on their property for training but when we tell them it will take at least 4 months to get permit they tell us that is too long of a wait so they just tear it down.

I know not all structures are prime candidates to be burned down and that we don't need to burn down a house every weekend of the year but when we do get the chance to burn down a quality house it is usually lost due to the time it takes to attain a permit.

What can we as FF do to make the EPA see that actual structures are invaluable training tools and that their lolly-gagging on inspections and issuing permits does nothing other than rob FF out of quality training that will give us valuable knowledge to use when peoples lives are in danger?


Rant over anyone have any thoughts?

[chiefmeyer301]

ditto we have run into the same thing. had one olboy that is a good suporter of the dept had a farm house for us and when found out it took that long called and said " get everyone together next sat at 9am" next sat at 9am pagers tripped for a stucture fire. guess who? not as good as could have been but!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTH

[trainer]

We had the same thing happen, live fire evolutions in the AM, break for lunch back at the station…..must have missed one cause it rekindled or got into the attic and we lost it…darn the luck. Have faith guys our local representative is working on legislation to speed this process up and also make it affordable, but will take some time.

[strub34]

I have a couple of things to bring up on this subject, whether what I've been told is hearsay or not.

My department has been burning Class A materials in a burn barrel, well ventilated with wet straw over the top to get some color in the smoke. We have an IFSI instructor, Safety Officer, and 1 instructor per company making entry. We do all this inside an abandoned house we acquired from the village but EPA wouldn't let it be burnt down due to it being in the middle of town. It offers prime training aspects for engine company AND truck company operations as it has an old narrow stair case with 90* turn half way up. I realize this is not ideal for all departments, but has worked wonders for us to train on advancing a charged hose-line and SAR of a smokey/non-visible environment.

For actual live-fire our county has a Regional Wide training facility. But also, could you not just acquire an old box car from the rail road, weld one end's doors shut as to make sure no leaks and then burn class A / pallets in that end? You can get a hell of a fire rolling with just one or two pallets and some straw. I teach my thermal layering and smoke-reading classes in a small room about the same size as a box car and seen it done successfully that way.

[FF2426]

I have a couple of things to bring up on this subject, whether what I've been told is hearsay or not.

For actual live-fire our county has a Regional Wide training facility. But also, could you not just acquire an old box car from the rail road, weld one end's doors shut as to make sure no leaks and then burn class A / pallets in that end? You can get a hell of a fire rolling with just one or two pallets and some straw. I teach my thermal layering and smoke-reading classes in a small room about the same size as a box car and seen it done successfully that way.

For regular burn trainings we have no issues. We are 5 miles from IFSI and have access to most of their bldgs, but you can only do so much inside of a brick bldg. We have a lot of guys on the dept. that have never seen a real house burn or understand the concepts of how fire affects construction. I feel that IL EPA is robbing these guys espeacially because they will have almost no idea of what to expect to see in a real structure fire.

Trainer: what local rep is working on this legislation so I can contact him/her and also my own rep to help sponsor it.

[trainer]

Well 2426, I just can’t remember; the reason I say that is I was at a meeting not in my district when the subject was brought up but can almost guarantee my rep Don Moffitt will be for it, but contact your rep. Maybe CR will chime in on this and tell us if there is a bill of if it’s just talk, searching that site is way to boring and I have not had enough coffee yet this morning.

[FF2426]

Well 2426, I just can’t remember; the reason I say that is I was at a meeting not in my district when the subject was brought up but can almost guarantee my rep Don Moffitt will be for it, but contact your rep. Maybe CR will chime in on this and tell us if there is a bill of if it’s just talk, searching that site is way to boring and I have not had enough coffee yet this morning.

Planning on it, I just wanted to know if there was someone else either already working on it or thinking about starting it so they could link up.