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Our Dept Spent 6 Hours Last Night at a Grass Fire that Consumed 100 Large Round Hay Bales, is There a better way Than Rolling them out and Saturateing Each one,, or do you just leave them and Let them Burn,, not an option for us on this particular Fire,, any comments would be greatly appreciated
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Here today for a Safer Tomorrow
How about a piercing nozzle and Class A foam.Hey it finally started to rain here about an hour ago.
ricky's got a good idea. Also they make a system called CAFS it uses class a foam, my best answer would be to reduce the inner temp.
Good luck http://www.firehouse.com/interactive/boards/smile.gif
Todd
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Changed user name from IMAFIREFIGHTER4FREE to Imaff4free
Todd
Seperate the unburned from the burned.. usually will need a tractor for that.
If you can, let the burning ones continue to burn and protect the unburned.
If allowing then to burn is not an option, the class a foam is by far the best option for extinguishment.
We have had good luck with the piercing nozzle. If you have the means to break them apart with a tractor or cat this will help reduce the time.
Remember lots of water
Forget that foam and piercing nozzle stuff. We have had an chain of these in a local district where some how stacked bales of hay are mysteriously combusting and they had one last friday as a matter of fact. Once the hay has had any smoke and biproducts exposed to it, the hay is useless. Animals can't eat it. Save as much as you can w/ a tractor and just let it burn. Keep one or two trucks to watch it and send the rest home. Don't waste time and money trying to putting something out which will be discarded later! If there are exposures, protect them and LET IT BURN!!
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When In Doubt, Blitz It Out!
I agree with Inferno- we often have hay stacks that involve 1-ton bales. These are stacked as may as 30 to 50 bales per stack. Needless to say if equipment can get them separated they are saved, but once the smoke and fire get to the bales, we pull back protect exposures and let the stacks burn. the cleanup for the dairy is much eaiser than trying to put if out.
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P. Bishop
Let them burn. Move either the burned or unburned bales, which ever is best.
Jeffrey,
What was the situation that eliminated the option letting the bales burn?
Letting them burn means remaining on scene whilst they do - lots of brands and danger of fire spread. Yes, separate the unburned if possible (and yes - they are useless when smoked) - Class A or Vindicator!!!! (or both)! and final point - Hay can spontaneously combust....it's common for heat to build up in the centre of the bales.
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www.firetactics.com
Random Thoughts...
As some of the other posters were headed, but didn't say outright --
A major goal of the fire service is preservation of property. Doesn't matter if that property is what's on fire right now, or the cost of cleanup afterwards.
The hay is already ruined -- letting it burn will reduce the cleanup cost so the owner doesn't loose the value of the hay PLUS the cost of disposal.
Now y'all are welcomed to come up and help next time we have a hay fire in New England were most hay is still in square 40 or 80lb bails & stored on the upper floors of the barns -- no surround & drown unless you want to collapse the barn, so y'all start pulling one bail at a time to seperate good hay from bad. Then use the piercing nozzles and Class A foam. If you get a 200' long barn, you're in for a fun afternoon, evening, morning...
Side note --
Ok, I can see the advantage in round bales, and I'm seeing them more and more in New England even with our small rolly polly fields.
But two years ago, I was in California with flat wide open land, and never saw a single roll -- it was all square bailed! Just stacked and covered by a tarp if anything in the field.
Any ideas why Cali uses square bails still???
I agree if you have a barn w/ hay inside it burning, but with a bale out in the middle of a field with no exposure problems, I see zero reasons to put water, or foam on useless hay. Why waste money and manpower? I would keep 1 engine and 1 brush unit tending the scence once all of the good hay has been seperated and saved. There is no need to tie up more appuratus and firefighters to hose down damaged hay. Paul-About the spontaneously combusting thing. Hey, the quicker that the hay burns, the sooner that everyone gets to go home!
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Quote:
When In Doubt, Blitz It Out!
why not lay a blanket of "A" foam all around it and then let it go. or just wet the surrounding area.
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The opinions and views expressed herin are solely mine and not on the behalf of any department or organization I belong to.