GWOT Unknown Type Fire
Nov. 6th, 2018 03:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drewkittyGWOT Unknown Type Fire
Another day, another convoy. Today we are pioneering the fine art of looting. I'm sorry, 'salvaging Employee and Client owned property.' You would not believe the arcane variety of excuses we are using for basically going and taking other people's stuff. One of my proudest is the gross misuse of our Home Depot card - going to the ruins of the local Home Depot, taking pictures of everything we are loading up (at this point, pallet racks). The Client's Finance guy is preparing an invoice that looks a lot like a bill by the time we are done.
(Home Depot paid, by the way. They were delighted that we were able to take their signs down and make it possible to stop paying a lease on irradiated light industrial property that would have value again sometime in the 22nd century.)
This left us fully loaded when the call came in on the radio.
"Alert One for unknown type fire, perimeter encampment."
I had Security's best players with me. This was going to be strictly a 'B' team show. Junior Varsity. Not ready for the big leagues.
As we approached the site we could see the rising black column from the perimeter camp.
Shit. Might as well put out a skywriter ad, "Distracted site here! Attack now!"
That was one of several reasons for calling an Alert One, a full mobilization of the site. This augmented our fifty-odd Security personnel with over two hundred employee militia, the Reaction Team.
But the real interesting part would be seeing how the also employee based Fire Brigade would be at handling what amounted to a shantytown and shack fire.
###
As the convoy pulled in and was cleared, the normal SOP was to proceed to the Motor Pool. Instead, I took the meat of our convoy - the Hate Truck, my command truck and our tail gunner - directly to the perimeter camp.
The smoke column had turned white. Good, water on the fire. I changed nets.
"Chief 555 assuming Incident Command, Perimeter IC. Break. I have a mixed fuels fire in an encampment, dangerous rate of spread, approximately 100' by 100' spot. All active and reserve firefighters will respond immediately."
Oh shit. This was just not on.
"Break, break. Echo 18 to Perimeter IC. Go totally defensive. Break. Echo 18 to Security Control. All Security and Fire Brigade vehicles will stage at the Perimeter encampment, Code 3. Break. Echo 18 to Facilities Group, Emergency Traffic. Respond two Facilities Engineers To C as in Charlie Building, Immediately. Copy Back."
I turned to my driver, "Punch it and hit the siren."
Shreve seemed puzzled but complied. Then I hit the PA system as we pulled up in a screeching roostertail turn.
"ATTENTION IN THE CAMP! EVACUATE THE CAMP NOW! COME TOWARDS ME, RIGHT NOW."
I dismounted. I didn't need binoculars to see the problem. Too much fire, not enough water.
I half-heard acknowledgements as I started the next steps in the process.
"Break. Echo 18 to Motor Pool. Respond one tractor to the perimeter camp Code 3. Fit one truck with pusher blade and respond to perimeter camp Code 3."
Now for the fun part. I had three radios so I could coordinate three nets. I was listening to Facilities, which was getting its people stacked into C building - our closest building to the camp, which was still several hundred yards away. I was listening to Fire Brigade, which was all tactical all the time. That was double plus ungood. I was active on Security Control, which had several problems.
"Echo 18 to Security Control and Fire Brigade. Change Of Command. I am assuming incident command of the Perimeter Fire, time now. Chief 555, You Are Division A. David 14," - Sarah - "you are Operations Security. I am also assuming Operations Water Supply. Division A, switch to defensive firefighting operations immediately! Copy back."
Janine's reply was a puzzled growl.
"Division A, going defensive."
I had just taken control over her organization and told her to do something different from what she wanted to do. But that was why she was the fire captain and I was the incident command. Yes, fighting fire is important. Yes, saving lives is important. But it wasn't just a fire problem.
"Security Ops, evacuate the perimeter encampment of all persons not actively fighting fire immediately! Take all parties into custody, this is a crime scene. Break, Water Ops to Facilities, Emergency Traffic. Charge numbers two, two inch lines, plural, from Hydrants C-4 and C-7. Extend these lines towards the perimeter camp. Break. Water Ops to Motor Pool. I need the buffalo, Code 3."
One of many problems with the Fire Brigade is that we had a sum total of less than ten (10) trained firefighters. And they liked to fight fires. But again, this was not a fire problem - and no one had had time for thought about the water problem.
Our one brush truck carried 200 gallons. The one municipal engine - with leaky pump seals! - carried 500 gallons.
The one water carrier we had, the buffalo, was a 500 gallon water trailer that had to be hooked up. to a tow vehicle to move. By policy it was always kept full and equipped with a portable gasoline pump and 200' of 1" forestry fire hose. But the municipal engine could draft out of the big hatch in the top and refill itself in about sixty seconds. Then the buffalo would have to go back for more.
By having Facilities extend charged hose lines in the direction of the fire, we could cut down on the distance we would have to run the buffalo back and forth - and if we lost control, have hoses out to fight the grass fire that would result.
I was as unqualified to be Water Boss as I was to do any of the other things I had been doing recently. For one thing, I could not for the life of me remember the hose pressure graph for 2" line -- I knew it was more than one hundred yards but less than one thousand yards. Fuck it.
"Water Ops to Facilities and Logistics, I need numbers four repeat four 2" trash pumps 100 yards east of C building Code 3, with crews."
The trash pumps were portable and could be lifted on the backs of carts. Two men could drag them forward as needed. The damn graphs were on laminated paper ziptied to the pumps. Hopefully someone could read.
The problem was that the Fire Brigade was so focused on direct attack - you know, putting out the fire while it was still small - that no one was thinking about what would happen when they ran out of water.
As I watched the municipal engine did a 3-point turn, backing away from the fire. One firefighter was driving. A second was paying out 2" hose from the incident, out the back of the truck. It pulled forward three hundred yards and stopped. Out of preconnected 2" hose.
All the parts necessary to hook the hoses together - wrenches, wye valves, etc. - were on the truck.
The Facilities group was cursing and dragging their lower-quality but still 2" hose forward from C building. As I watched, a Facilities cart bearing a trash pump stopped just long enough to drop the pump and one person, then raced towards the municipal engine.
I recognized the firefighter who opened two panels on the side of the truck, threw out three milk crates of assorted fire stuff, and started carefully flicking switches on the truck's fire pump panel. His helmet read "542"
In other words, fire engineer for values of everything we were doing lately.
The post-Firecracker engraved label on the pump panel read,
"IF YOU ARE NOT A TRAINED FIREFIGHTER SIGNED OFF BY CHIEF 555, DO NOT TOUCH THIS OR ELSE." Someone had scrawled my call sign. As in "OR ELSE ECHO 18"
Cute.
And we meant it, too. It is far easier to make a pump panel blow up than to get it to do what you want it to do.
"Water Ops," I said as I ran up to 542. "I've got two 2 inch lines coming from C and also the buffalo."
"Thank God, I've been calling for water and I'm not hearing anything."
I reached over and wordlessly turned on his radio.
His face said it all.
"Engineer 542 is assuming Water Ops," I transmitted -- and made sure that he heard.
He nodded once. We could do the postmortem later. And the traditional firefighter punishment for fucking up - buying food for the entire working crew on the incident, which could be very expensive. Cheaper than lost lives, however.
"Break. Water Ops to Facilities Charlie, charge C-4 repeat C-4."
Now he was on it. Good.
I climbed up on the municipal engine for a better view. I fished out my binoculars, which I always carry on convoy ops.
Hose water was now reaching the engine. The engine was now pumping water back down its own hoses to the fire area.
"Echo 18, H5 Observation, give me a 360 sweep for threats please."
I didn't want them focused on the fire. I wanted them watching our backs.
The smoke was all white now, and a lot less of it.
"Perimeter IC to Division A, report on conditions," I demanded.
A slight 'pop' over the net as a face mask was loosened.
"Twenty by forty spot, fully contained, lines around it. Two propane tanks cooling. No BLEVE. No apparent casualties. Estimate two hours for mop-up."
That was entirely too close for comfort.
Now to investigate.
Another day, another convoy. Today we are pioneering the fine art of looting. I'm sorry, 'salvaging Employee and Client owned property.' You would not believe the arcane variety of excuses we are using for basically going and taking other people's stuff. One of my proudest is the gross misuse of our Home Depot card - going to the ruins of the local Home Depot, taking pictures of everything we are loading up (at this point, pallet racks). The Client's Finance guy is preparing an invoice that looks a lot like a bill by the time we are done.
(Home Depot paid, by the way. They were delighted that we were able to take their signs down and make it possible to stop paying a lease on irradiated light industrial property that would have value again sometime in the 22nd century.)
This left us fully loaded when the call came in on the radio.
"Alert One for unknown type fire, perimeter encampment."
I had Security's best players with me. This was going to be strictly a 'B' team show. Junior Varsity. Not ready for the big leagues.
As we approached the site we could see the rising black column from the perimeter camp.
Shit. Might as well put out a skywriter ad, "Distracted site here! Attack now!"
That was one of several reasons for calling an Alert One, a full mobilization of the site. This augmented our fifty-odd Security personnel with over two hundred employee militia, the Reaction Team.
But the real interesting part would be seeing how the also employee based Fire Brigade would be at handling what amounted to a shantytown and shack fire.
###
As the convoy pulled in and was cleared, the normal SOP was to proceed to the Motor Pool. Instead, I took the meat of our convoy - the Hate Truck, my command truck and our tail gunner - directly to the perimeter camp.
The smoke column had turned white. Good, water on the fire. I changed nets.
"Chief 555 assuming Incident Command, Perimeter IC. Break. I have a mixed fuels fire in an encampment, dangerous rate of spread, approximately 100' by 100' spot. All active and reserve firefighters will respond immediately."
Oh shit. This was just not on.
"Break, break. Echo 18 to Perimeter IC. Go totally defensive. Break. Echo 18 to Security Control. All Security and Fire Brigade vehicles will stage at the Perimeter encampment, Code 3. Break. Echo 18 to Facilities Group, Emergency Traffic. Respond two Facilities Engineers To C as in Charlie Building, Immediately. Copy Back."
I turned to my driver, "Punch it and hit the siren."
Shreve seemed puzzled but complied. Then I hit the PA system as we pulled up in a screeching roostertail turn.
"ATTENTION IN THE CAMP! EVACUATE THE CAMP NOW! COME TOWARDS ME, RIGHT NOW."
I dismounted. I didn't need binoculars to see the problem. Too much fire, not enough water.
I half-heard acknowledgements as I started the next steps in the process.
"Break. Echo 18 to Motor Pool. Respond one tractor to the perimeter camp Code 3. Fit one truck with pusher blade and respond to perimeter camp Code 3."
Now for the fun part. I had three radios so I could coordinate three nets. I was listening to Facilities, which was getting its people stacked into C building - our closest building to the camp, which was still several hundred yards away. I was listening to Fire Brigade, which was all tactical all the time. That was double plus ungood. I was active on Security Control, which had several problems.
"Echo 18 to Security Control and Fire Brigade. Change Of Command. I am assuming incident command of the Perimeter Fire, time now. Chief 555, You Are Division A. David 14," - Sarah - "you are Operations Security. I am also assuming Operations Water Supply. Division A, switch to defensive firefighting operations immediately! Copy back."
Janine's reply was a puzzled growl.
"Division A, going defensive."
I had just taken control over her organization and told her to do something different from what she wanted to do. But that was why she was the fire captain and I was the incident command. Yes, fighting fire is important. Yes, saving lives is important. But it wasn't just a fire problem.
"Security Ops, evacuate the perimeter encampment of all persons not actively fighting fire immediately! Take all parties into custody, this is a crime scene. Break, Water Ops to Facilities, Emergency Traffic. Charge numbers two, two inch lines, plural, from Hydrants C-4 and C-7. Extend these lines towards the perimeter camp. Break. Water Ops to Motor Pool. I need the buffalo, Code 3."
One of many problems with the Fire Brigade is that we had a sum total of less than ten (10) trained firefighters. And they liked to fight fires. But again, this was not a fire problem - and no one had had time for thought about the water problem.
Our one brush truck carried 200 gallons. The one municipal engine - with leaky pump seals! - carried 500 gallons.
The one water carrier we had, the buffalo, was a 500 gallon water trailer that had to be hooked up. to a tow vehicle to move. By policy it was always kept full and equipped with a portable gasoline pump and 200' of 1" forestry fire hose. But the municipal engine could draft out of the big hatch in the top and refill itself in about sixty seconds. Then the buffalo would have to go back for more.
By having Facilities extend charged hose lines in the direction of the fire, we could cut down on the distance we would have to run the buffalo back and forth - and if we lost control, have hoses out to fight the grass fire that would result.
I was as unqualified to be Water Boss as I was to do any of the other things I had been doing recently. For one thing, I could not for the life of me remember the hose pressure graph for 2" line -- I knew it was more than one hundred yards but less than one thousand yards. Fuck it.
"Water Ops to Facilities and Logistics, I need numbers four repeat four 2" trash pumps 100 yards east of C building Code 3, with crews."
The trash pumps were portable and could be lifted on the backs of carts. Two men could drag them forward as needed. The damn graphs were on laminated paper ziptied to the pumps. Hopefully someone could read.
The problem was that the Fire Brigade was so focused on direct attack - you know, putting out the fire while it was still small - that no one was thinking about what would happen when they ran out of water.
As I watched the municipal engine did a 3-point turn, backing away from the fire. One firefighter was driving. A second was paying out 2" hose from the incident, out the back of the truck. It pulled forward three hundred yards and stopped. Out of preconnected 2" hose.
All the parts necessary to hook the hoses together - wrenches, wye valves, etc. - were on the truck.
The Facilities group was cursing and dragging their lower-quality but still 2" hose forward from C building. As I watched, a Facilities cart bearing a trash pump stopped just long enough to drop the pump and one person, then raced towards the municipal engine.
I recognized the firefighter who opened two panels on the side of the truck, threw out three milk crates of assorted fire stuff, and started carefully flicking switches on the truck's fire pump panel. His helmet read "542"
In other words, fire engineer for values of everything we were doing lately.
The post-Firecracker engraved label on the pump panel read,
"IF YOU ARE NOT A TRAINED FIREFIGHTER SIGNED OFF BY CHIEF 555, DO NOT TOUCH THIS OR ELSE." Someone had scrawled my call sign. As in "OR ELSE ECHO 18"
Cute.
And we meant it, too. It is far easier to make a pump panel blow up than to get it to do what you want it to do.
"Water Ops," I said as I ran up to 542. "I've got two 2 inch lines coming from C and also the buffalo."
"Thank God, I've been calling for water and I'm not hearing anything."
I reached over and wordlessly turned on his radio.
His face said it all.
"Engineer 542 is assuming Water Ops," I transmitted -- and made sure that he heard.
He nodded once. We could do the postmortem later. And the traditional firefighter punishment for fucking up - buying food for the entire working crew on the incident, which could be very expensive. Cheaper than lost lives, however.
"Break. Water Ops to Facilities Charlie, charge C-4 repeat C-4."
Now he was on it. Good.
I climbed up on the municipal engine for a better view. I fished out my binoculars, which I always carry on convoy ops.
Hose water was now reaching the engine. The engine was now pumping water back down its own hoses to the fire area.
"Echo 18, H5 Observation, give me a 360 sweep for threats please."
I didn't want them focused on the fire. I wanted them watching our backs.
The smoke was all white now, and a lot less of it.
"Perimeter IC to Division A, report on conditions," I demanded.
A slight 'pop' over the net as a face mask was loosened.
"Twenty by forty spot, fully contained, lines around it. Two propane tanks cooling. No BLEVE. No apparent casualties. Estimate two hours for mop-up."
That was entirely too close for comfort.
Now to investigate.
