NEWS IN BRIEF
ESL issues safety notice
ESL’s two-wire 400 series smoke detectors equipped with integral thermostat (T option) may not function properly if used with a fire alarm control unit that includes an alarm verification feature. The company stresses that all affected models—all 120 series detectors with code dates lower than 9126—must be inspected promptly to determine whether they are connected to a control unit that incorporates alarm verification. Detectors that are so connected must be modified or replaced. Contact Electro Signal Lab, Inc., 75 Terry Drive, Hingham, MA 02043, (617) 740-3800.
Motorist’s awareness cited in saving two lives
Two engineers riding a pickup truck westbound on a Michigan highway rode through an ignited pool of gasoline and diesel fuel and escaped with minor injuries. The flammable liquid spilled on the highway after an out-ofcontrol tanker crashed into the center median of the highway; the tanker’s driver was killed.
The motorists later attributed their escape to the delay in opening the truck door, a safety tip the passenger in the pickup said he recalled from the movie Backdraft. The first impulse of the driver of the pickup, Carl Ulfig, was to jump out of the truck immediately. Passenger Ted Wiley, however, ordered him to wait a minute before opening the truck door. Waiting that minute, some say, saved the men’s lives.
Among the responders was Richard A. Marinucci, chief of the Farmington Hills (MI) Fire Department. “The tanker was headed west on an eightlane interstate highway when it lost control and bounded into the concrete median,” Marinucci recalls. “The pickup truck was traveling east, and the flammable liquid gushed from a gash in the tanker’s side across the median into the eastbound lane. The pickup was almost even with the tanker as it erupted, and the ignited flammable liquid surrounded the truck and had ignited the combustibles in the pickup truck. The driver drove out of the burning puddle. Once they got out of the puddle, the men had just enough time to get out and run. The fact that they stayed in the truck until the initial flames from the burning liquid burned off saved their lives —staying in the truck for a few seconds saved their lives.”
New plan reduces hazards of Class IIIB liquids
In-rack, quick-response automatic sprinklers and plywood or metal barriers can protect against combustible liquid pool fires involving Class IIIB liquids (including vegetable and motor oils, which have flash points at or above 200°F) stored in plastic containers, according to Factory Mutual Engineering and Research (FME&R). In addition, says the research facility, the protection system eliminates the need for overhauling existing fire protection schemes and implementing undue restrictions for handling the materials.
Although these substances are considered the least hazardous of flammable liquids, they feed a fire in progress when their containers melt and their contents form pools of burning liquid on the floor, FME&R explains. Previous tests conducted at the facility showed that automatic sprinklers alone could not control the pool fires. Consequently, FME&R had recommended the interim action of removing these liquids from warehouses until a solution could be found.
Three full-scale fire tests performed by Factory Mutual Research Corporation (FMRC), the nonprofit research affiliate of FME&R, showed that the inrack sprinkler/barrier design is highly effective in preventing pool fires. This arrangement differs from the traditional protection plan that places heavy emphasis on ceiling sprinklers. “The sprinkler/barrier design within the rack is relied on to control a fire well before the ceiling sprinklers operate,” FME&R points out. When the in-rack sprinkler/barrier protection scheme is used, Class IIIB liquids cannot be mixed with other commodities in the areas protected by the barriers.
In the first test, motor oil was stored 10 feet high, and horizontal barriers of ¾-inch plywood were installed between the shelves. In-rack, quick-response sprinklers were placed at each transverse flue between pallets and in the longitudinal flue space. A different commodity was stored above the plywood barrier.
In the second test, conditions were identical except that the midrack sprinklers (at the rack face between rack uprights), which make it difficult for forklift operators to handle the materials, were removed. The pool fires were controlled, and the flames were confined to the original ignition pallet. The storage height was doubled to 20 feet in the third test, and another plywood barrier was added at the top tier of the rack. Midrack sprinklers were not installed, and again the in-rack sprinkler controlled the fire.
A memorial fund has been established to aid the families of the four Hilltop Hose Company #3 (Natrona Heights, PA) firefighters who lost their lives in a fire/collapse incident on December 20, 1991. Direct all contributions to: The Hilltop Hose Company Memorial Fund, Box 214, Natrona Heights, PA 15065.
WPI announces doctoral degree program
A doctoral degree program in fire protection engineering is now offered at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Sixty hours of the program’s required course work will build on the foundation of the 11 fire protection engineering graduate courses and engineering, science, and mathematics courses offered at the institution. The remaining 30 credit hours have been allocated for dissertation.
WPI has offered a master’s program in fire protection engineering since 1979. For additional information, contact Neil Norum at WPI, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609-2280, (308) 831-5328.
NFSA chapter donates “bum trailer”
The Northern Illinois Chapter of the National Fire Sprinkler Association (NFSA) donated a specially designed burn trailer to the Illinois Fire Inspectors Association (IFIA) to use in training and for demonstrations. Frank Robertson, NFSA Northern Illinois Chapter president, made the presentation to IFIA President Captain Daniel Tholotowsky of the Pleasantview Fire Protection District.
The trailer was on display at North Clark Street in Chicago last October on Fire Prevention Day for a series of burn/extinguish demonstrations. Chicagoans sat inside the trailer and watched a small fire set in a wastepaper basket in the living room burn for a minute before the flames crawled along the drapery and reached the ceiling—much like what happens in residential fires. Fire sprinklers then doused the flames and quickly extinguished the fire.
Austin Fire Department marketing program cited
“Your safety is our business,” the motto recently adopted by the City of Austin (TX) Fire Department, reflects the department’s serious and concerted efforts to manage customer services and market safety services and other programs. The campaign to improve the department’s quality of service and enhance its public image began two-and-a-half years ago and won for the department this year’s Greater Austin Quality Award, the equivalent of the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award coveted by members of the private business sector, according to Assistant Chief Robin Paulsgrove.
The award was instituted by a Quality Council comprised of the Austin Chamber of Commerce, the City of Austin, and the University of Texas.
Among the objectives of the program are to ensure that customers are being given the appropriate services, to get to know the customers better, and to introduce public education programs to increase the department’s visibility and the public’s understanding of commonly used firefighting tactics. Paulsgrove cites as an example a homeowner who might perceive venting roofs or windows as excessive property damage.
The department also has been working to improve its relationship with local industries so that compliance and safety will be increased in a manner that will not have a negative impact on the company’s image in the community. The Austin department found, for example, that responding to small haz-mat spills with numerous engines, sirens blasting, and lights flashing discouraged the companies from calling the fire department when such incidents occurred. Switching to a procedure that involves dispatching a single response team without the sirens and lights, has helped create a better rapport with industry and has increased compliance and safety, Paulsgrove explains.
Noting that progressive fire chiefs today are paying greater attention to marketing, Paulsgrove points out that the National Fire Academy has added modules on marketing and total quality management to its Executive Fire Officer curriculum.
USFA, NHTSA initiate EMS public education program
Reducing inappropriate or unnecessary calls to local EMS systems, improving the public’s understanding of the role of the emergency medical services, and instructing the public on when and how to access the system are the objectives of the U.S. FireAdministration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration program that will run during this year. The project will make a variety of educational tools available to emergency response organizations, educational institutions, the private sector, and allied government agencies.
Interested parties are invited to submit brochures, fact sheets, articles, or other materials to be considered for incorporation into the program. Suggestions for campaign messages also are welcome. Materials should be sent to EMS PIER Program, 1901 L Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20036.
FEMA adds nine to advisory board
The following members recently were added to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s advisory board: John E. Bourne, Jr., former mayor of North Charleston, South Carolina; James Thompson, former governor of Illinois; William H. Huddnut III, mayor of Indianapolis, Indiana; Rep. Nancy J. Brown, Stanley (KS), member of the Kansas state legislature; Julia Taft, former director of the U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance Office in the Agency for International Development; Jerry G. Knight, chief of the St. Petersburg (FL) Fire Department; Harold D. Covey, president of State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. and State
Farm General Insurance Co., Bloomington, Illinois; John Hoyle, president of St. Luke Hospitals, Inc., Ft. Thomas, Kentucky; and Frederick Krimgold, associate dean, College of Architecture and Urban Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
IAFC targets smaller departments
The new International Association of Fire Chiefs’ membership category, departmental membership, is designed especially for fire departments serving communities with populations of fewer than 10,000.
Enrollees who sign up by March 31, 1992, will save S15 in dues and will be included in a free drawing for Emergency Resources videotapes worth more than S700.
Departmental memberships include the full benefits of an IAFC membership, as well as an average saving of S65 per person on registration for the lAFC’s annual conference; each department member can register at the member rate.
Additional details are available from the IAFC, 1329 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 20036-6516, (202) 8333420.
FMi&R awards 37 arson-prevention grants
More than S67,000, representing 37 arson-prevention grants, has been awarded to fire service organizations during 1991 by the Factory Mutual Engineering Committee Against Incendiarism. The committee also donated S2,300 worth of related publications to fire service groups. Ranging in size from S500 to S 5,000, the awards fund equipment, training, and special programs.
Among the grant recipients are the Nebraska and Michigan chapters of the International Association of Arson Investigators, the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office, the Oswego (NY) Fire Department, the Saskatchewan (Canada) Fire Commissioner’s Office, and the Glassboro (NJ) Police Department. Grant requests were evaluated by arson coordinators at 17 district offices across the continent.
