Garages—Potential Haz-Mat Incidents

Garages—Potential Haz-Mat Incidents

Volunteers Corner

Hazardous materials incidents aren’t restricted to the chemical plant 13 miles out of town or to the 28-story office building in the city. The most frequent and most frequently overlooked hazardous materials incidents literally occur in your own backyard.

The chief whose response area primarily involves bedroom communities with commercial occupancies of one or two-story row stores (taxpayers) has as much of a major hazardous materials incident potential as the chief whose district includes manufacturing facilities and power stations.

This month’s column will cover garage fires. Kitchen and cellar fires will be discussed in a future issue.

One of the first things that comes to mind when considering a garage fire is the position of the garage in relationship to the most severe exposure—the house. Is the garage detached from the house? Attached to the house? Or worse, under the house?

But before we can fight this fire, let’s remember that modern living brings us in contact with gasoline on an almost daily basis. Its use and storage has become almost a joke. We use gasoline to wash machine parts, clean paint brushes, and sometimes even to start a charcoal fire for the barbecue. During the gasoline shortage, people were stockpiling gasoline in shocking amounts; and the use of approved safety cans was almost eliminated. As we know, the vaporization of 1 gallon of gasoline equals the explosive power of one stick of dynamite.

Along with gasoline, we have the possibility of kerosene being stored for use in space heaters. Although kerosene is a combustible rather than a flammable liquid (having a flash point of more than 100 F as compared to gasoline’s — 45°F, and so not nearly as volatile), it must be realized that kerosene will be stored in large quantities. Open 55-gallon drums of kerosene will ignite at temperatures far below those normally found at a working fire. Gasoline and kerosene are both lighter than water and, if in sufficient quantities, can flow from the garage door, causing an exposure problem to the fire fighter.

Now that the obvious is out of the way, probe a little deeper into your own garage. Close your eyes. What do you see? Pesticides? Fungicides? Fertilizers? Spray cans? Chlorine for swimming pools? A propane tank for the camper or barbecue? And, more than likely, a whole ton of plastics?

At this time, let’s add a vehicle and all the problems it brings—a 20-gallon gasoline tank or propane cylinder, plastics, combustible metals, foam rubber, synthetic tires, and God only knows that can be found in the trunk!

In years past, we would have tried to remove a car from the garage. But with today’s vehicles and their transmission-locking devices, this evolution, under fire conditions, is almost an impossibility.

During an incident, the car will be splitting the fire. Two lines will be needed for suppression. A third line should be stretched for backup.

Fntrance into the garage normally presents no real forcible entry problem, but an overhead door can become a lethal weapon. Overhead doors are held up by springs on either side of the tracks. When and if the springs fail, the door will come down in a hurry, injuring fire fighters or cutting off their means of exit. To prevent this, we should, by habit, jam the track by using a pike pole (hook) or other chock.

Many garage fires are fought with the use of booster or high-pressure lines. These lines just are not capable of delivering enough water to protect the tire fighter. Garage fires should be tought with 1 ½ or l-inch lines and a backup line of at least the same diameter. In most cases, these fires are one line operations, but the backup must be stretched to protect the first line from the unexpected.

Types of garages: A garage that is detached from the house is to the benefit of fire fighters because it allows them to consider alternative methods of attack.

When a garage is attached to the house, there must be no delay in entering the occupancy to search and check for extension.

Many houses do not have fireproof doors leading into the garage from the main house (usually from the den or living room), and some garage walls are not fire-stopped with plasterboard. For this reason, an ongoing examination for extension is a must, and fire fighters should consider carrying a dry line into the house for quick water if necessary.

Garages built under the main section of the house will give us an even more difficult fire. Besides the attack line and backup line, we will be committed to another line to the interior. Many times, these garages are built under bedrooms and without interior doors to dens, etc. The possibilities now become awesome. Searching the bedrooms and determining the location of an interior door should not be done without a charged line in the main section of the house for protection.

In most cases, we will find the storage of fertilizer, gasoline, kerosene or propane tanks on the wider side of the garage or in the rear. Pesticides, poisons, spray cans, etc., usually will be stored in small quantities on shelving or in storage cabinets.

Do not disturb shelf items: For these reasons, when the fire is knocked down, care should be taken to not disturb shelf items, and overhaul must be done under close supervision so as not to escalate an already dangerous situation. If propane bottles are encountered, they must be cooled, especially in the vapor area or vapor space, before being removed. If a bottle’s pressure relief valve has opened or ruptured, the fire forces must be removed until the gas has dissipated. This can sometimes be difficult because fire fighters are aggressive by nature. However, the chief (or officer in charge) has a responsibility dedicated to life—and then property. Cooling of the bottle will reduce the chances of BLEVE while the removal of forces will protect members from the possible devastating effects of a combustion explosion.

Paul McFadden, a former chief of the Bay port Volunteer Fire Department, has been an active volunteer fire fighter for more than 20 years. A deputy chief instructor with the Suffolk County, N. K, Fire Training Center, McFadden teaches both basic and advanced fire fighting courses. Fie also lectures at state and national fire service conferences, and is a career fire fighter with Brooklyn ‘s Ladder 120.

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