Mutual Aid at Tank Farm Fire
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Photos courtesy of Donald V. Johnson
One of the largest combined fire operations in San Bernardino County— other than for a brush fire—took place in Rialto, Calif, during a gasoline tank fire at a petroleum bulk storage facility operated by Southern Pacific Pipe Lines.
Fire departments from San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, units from Norton and March Air Force Bases, private contractors and the California Department of Forestry, mobilized to assist the Rialto Fire Department to control the stubborn fire at the tank farm with 45 tanks just south of the San Bernardino Freeway.
The fire was finally brought under control late in the afternoon when aerated aqueous film-forming foam was pumped into the burning tank by subsurface injection.
The Rialto Fire Department, commanded by Chief Roger K. Purdie, has 37 paid men and two stations with five pumpers, three tankers and two ambulances. The department also has a special pickup and foam/proportioner trailer with 1000 pounds of dry chemical on the pickup and 700 gallons of 6 percent AFFF concentrate on the trailer. The city has a population of 32,500 and is 50 miles east of Los Angeles.
Rialto, the adjacent Central Valley Fire District, and San Bernardino City operate under initial response agreements.
Shortly after 8:30 a.m. last February 21, a worker at the tank farm phoned the San Bernardino County Communications Center that a tank was overfilled and a vapor cloud of gasoline was forming.
Rialto Engine 1, a paramedic ambulance, the pickup and foam trailer, Chief Purdie, Assistant Chief Richard Bridges, and Central Valley Flngine 6 responded.
As apparat us moved out of Rialto fire headquarters, a large fireball, followed by a column of dense black smoke, shot skyward from the tank for 2½ miles south and adjacent to the Southern Pacific railroad yards and mainline tracks.
At 8:38 a.m., Purdie radioed to the San Bernardino County Communications Center for a code C—major emergency—and called for additional units.
Almost simultaneously, there had been a report of a fire and explosion at the Cal Nevada tank farm just east of the SPPL complex, and the Colton Fire Department dispatched twopumpers to that location. These units moved immediately to assist the Rialto units— backed up quickly by another Rialto company and a Central Valley company.
As Purdie realized the extent of the expanding emergency, he also radioed for Norton Air Force Base to respond with a P-4 crash truck, for police to control crowds and block roads, and for two engines and an aerial from the San Bernardino Fire Department.
Tank fully involved
The first-in Rialto unit, under Captain Glynn Kelley, found a Texaco tank fully involved. This was a steel tank with a solid steel roof and floating inner lid. The tank was 50 feet high with a capacity of 30,140-barrels.
Thirty feet northeast of the overflowing tank was another tank of similar construction with a capacity of 23,300 barrels. It was two-thirds full of nonleaded gasoline. To the southwest, 20 feet away, a third tank of similar construction with a capacity of 15,470 barrels was two-thirds full of diesel fuel. A fourth tank directly west of the diesel tank was full of 30,140 barrels of ethyl gasoline. All four tanks were located in a common diked area which had a 5-foot cement block wall.
A valve, had been opened by mistake and fuel was pumped into the tank that already was filled to capacity with regular gasoline. Approximately 190 barrels per minute (about 8000 gpm) was spilling out of tank vents into the diked area.
“There was a large gasoline vapor cloud forming,” Purdie said, “and something, perhaps a truck or car, caused the spark which ignited the fuel in the tank.”
Foam trailer used
As Kelley and Rialto 1 arrived, he ordered a 4-inch line to be laid from a hydrant. The pickup towed in Rialto 881A, the AFFF trailer.
Lines from the pumper were connected to the AFFF unit and a 1000gpm deluge gun was set up next to the dike area northwest of the burning tanks. Three lines were laid from the AFFF unit to the deluge gun and a fourth 2 1/2-inch line with a fog nozzle was used as a hand line.
As this operation was being set up, three pumpers under Chilef Mellinger from Central Valley, three more with Chief Alan Teague from Colton, and a San Bernardino City engine arrived.
“This quick backup and response under our initial action agreements gave us the manpower and pumping capacity to mount an immediate and effective suppression operation,” Purdie commented.
He then had the incoming chiefs check the south side of the fire. Other deluge guns, ladder pipes on the two San Bernardino City aerials, and many other lines were laid to cool adjacent tanks.
Call for foam made
Additional AFFF foam was called for—Rialto maintains a large stockpile—and other agencies, including Norton and March Air Force Bases, brought in supplementary supplies. Los Angeles City and County Fire Departments and others throughout Southern California, as well as the 3M Company, shipped foam to the scene.
A few minutes after the massive initial attack, the ground fire in the diked area was extinguished by use of the AFFF and the cooling effect of the heavy streams applied to the adjacent tanks.
Purdie reported that 6000 gpm of AFFF helped cool the other exposed tanks, prevented another rupture, and confined the major fire to the one tank involved.
Additional equipment from throughout the region arrived, including the Norton and March AFB crash trucks and a tanker-foam proportioner unit from the Ontario Fire Depatment.
The Rialto chief called for the San Bernardino County mobile communications unit and later for the California Office of Emergency Service communications unit. The latter could better coordinate communications with fire units from the various jurisdictions.
Command post established
A command post was set up with Purdie in command and Chief Smith of Norton AFB as Air Force coordinator. Other command post assignments included public information, Battalion Chief Enslow, Central Valley; equipment, Battalion Chief Mills, Redlands; manpower, Battalion Chief Hills, Loma Linda; communicating, Battalion Chief Ellison, Central Valley; north sector, Chief Shaw and Deputy Chief Newcombe, San Bernardino City and Chief Mellinger, Central Valley; east sector, Battalion Chiefs Smith and Lewis, Rialto; south sector, Chief Teague of Colton, Deputy Chief Alvarez of Central Valley and Deputy Chief Howard of Norton AFB; subsurface injection, Assistant Chief Bridges, Rialto.
The California Department of Forestry dispatched a field kitchen—normally used during major brush fires— and plans were made to feed the more than 220 men involved in suppression operations.
A subsurface injection was begun with nearby pipes, using Ontario’s unit, but the operation was only partially successful in extinguishing the fire at the top of the tank. Incomplete aeration of the AFFF and an overflow of fuel forced discontinuance of this effort.
Meanwhile, at 11:07 a.m., three pumpers were brought in to draft the water that was building up behind the dike.
Some progress was made in reducing the water level behind the dike at the rate of 1000 gpm when at 12:53 p.m. the dike burst. The rupture undermined the ground under the dike and collapsed about 8 feet of the wall of a nearby canal. The hole below the dike went from inches to 20 feet in diameter in a split second, dumping thousands of gallons of water and fuel into the 6-foot-wide canal.
Purdie immediately called for all available assistance, which was immediately dispatched from various sources, including the Rialto Water Department. The California Department of Forestry dispatched two large bulldozers used for forest fire fighting. These units joined skiploaders, dump trucks and other heavy equipment from public agencies and private contractors in rebuilding the dike.
At 4 p.m., the hole in the dike was repaired. Soon afterward, the flange fire on no. 2 tank was put out. The gasoline spraying from the burned-out flange on the main tank was shooting about onehalf the height of the tank (60 feet).
After phone conferences with 3M Company technical experts in St. Paul, Purdie and F. M. Chemical decided that subsurface injection of aerated AFFF would control the fire.
F. M. Chemical supplied a high back pressure foam maker and Rialto Assistant Chief Bridges took command of the subsurface injection. An adapter had to be welded to an inlet south of the burning tank near a loading dock 2000 feet away so that the aerator could be linked to the foam mixture being pumped from the Rialto trailer unit.
Fire extinguished
As the AFFF at 150 psi began to push its way to the flange, the flames increased, but when the mixture eventually replaced the fuel, the fire went out in 10 to 15 minutes.
Purdie then decided to continue to cover the entire dike with AFFF to hold down chances of reignition.
Attempts were made to repair the flange with a collar, but the efforts failed. A kit with a collar was located in Cleveland, Ohio, and flown by air freight to Los Angeles International Airport. A San Bernardino sheriff’s helicopter picked up the unit and delivered it to the location.
The incident was over by 9:30 a.m. and vacuum trucks arrived to suction the liquid from behind the dikes.
A total of 11,106 gallons of 6 percent and 3620 gallons of 3 percent AFFF was used at a cost of $161,494, according to the Rialto chiefs summary. Purdie also estimated that direct and indirect costs of manpower and equipment was $40,332.87.
Reasons for success
Purdie ascribed the successful control of the fire to the following factors:
- Automatic aid and quick knockdown of ground fire.
- Automatic and mutual aid provided ample resources to cover all positions on the fireground and an adequate reserve.
- Rapid response to repair the dike.
- The AFFF subsurface injection was dramatic.
- Support services, police, Rialto city personnel, Red Cross, Salvation Army and others, were instrumental in the success of the operation.
Several fire fighters received minor injuries and paramedic personnel were always on the scene to provide medical treatment.
