The flames on the firefighter were quickly extinguished by firefighters on an attack line, preventing any injury to him. Operations were changed to defensive mode and exposure protection after the second explosion occurred.
A second firefighter received minor burns to the back of his hand while performing vertical ventilation operations.
The second of the three explosions were caught on camera by an employee of a local hospital who was reported to be on his way to work. The explosion occurs at the 1:05 mark.
Yikes!! Despite the poor quality of the video, the flash and ensuing mushroom cloud are pretty impressive.
At some point, firefighters were made aware that the garage contained multiple 55 barrels of gasoline that were being stored there by the occupant. A man smoking in the garage caused the fire when smoking materials ignited vapors from the gasoline. The man is being treated at a local burn center for second degree burns to his hand.
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Fortunately, all PPE worked as designed and nobody got seriously hurt. If I get a chance, I'll talk with the firefighter who was most affected by this event, I'm sure that he will not forget this for a long time.
This video should remind us that you really never know for sure what is being stored in an occupancy until after the event is over and the clean up is underway. What appears to be routine can bite you in the ass in a hurry and catch if you are unprepared.
Thanks for reading,
Schmoe
A man smoking in the garage caused the fire when smoking materials ignited vapors from the gasoline. The man is being treated at a local burn center for second degree burns to his hand...
ReplyDelete...and multiple contusions to his head. What the hell was this genius thinking, anyway? Did his parents have any children that lived?
The way that barrel of gasoline went up it's a wonder no one was killed. That is one nasty fire. I'm kind of wondering if the fire department will get called out when the neighbors get together with torches and pitchforks. Just why anyone would store gasoline like that is beyond me.
The smoker also suffers from first degree stupidity.
ReplyDeleteMad Jack - People like that are why people like me enjoyed a great career and people like you pay higher taxes than you should have to. Job security my friend, job security.
ReplyDeleteImproperly stored gasoline tends to be more of a problem when gas prices start to climb, though still pretty rare. I don't know what this guy's motivation was, may it was stolen somewhere or maybe he just got it cheap. Either way it caused some problems.
Alan - I would have to agree, I don't think he could make it through ground school let alone be solo material.
Thanks for the comments.