1

Other Concerns

2

Environmental Suppression

What does this mean? When is it applied?

3

Environmental Suppression

What is …ES Understanding your suppression tactics have

an impact on the ecosystem (physical and biological components) and acting to minimize these impacts.

Suppression Impacts Magnitude of impacts will vary depending on

the location of the facility and surrounding land use

Must account for impacts to soil, water, air, and sociological factors

Your Decisions may increase damage to the environment

Your Lack of Decision may increase damage to the environment

Impacting the Environment

Impacts from Suppression Water

Overwhelming the leachate collection system

Runoff Slope instability

6

Suppression Water

Accounting for millions of gallons of water

7

For Example

Using three Type I Fire Engines with deck guns Flow rate is 1,000 gpm per engine = 3,000 gpm Fire flow for one hour = 180,000 gallons 1 gallon of water weighs 8.35 lbs Fire flow for one hour weighs = 1,503,000 lbs or 751 T

You can quickly have a water supply, control, disposal, and stability issue

8

Case Study

Dump in Asia Millions of gallons of water used to attempt

to suppress the dump fire Resulting in massive slope failure

9

Case Study

10

Slope Stability

Two key observations Do not cut the toe of the slope Do not load the top

11

Leachate Management

12

In 2005 researchers examined landfill leachates during and after an accidental landfill fire and compared constituents to those occurring in the leachate under normal conditions.

The fire at the landfill site was put out by excavation and cooling by use of water.

Researchers concluded that landfill fires extinguished by excavation may lead to elevated leachate levels, especially COD and heavy metals, but that this is only a short-term effect. Source: Øygard et al., 2005

13

Foams

Water has limitations in cooling and penetrating class A fuels (e.g., wood, paper) because of a naturally high surface tension.

This high surface tension causes water to form into droplets

Class A foam reduces surface tension and allows more water to penetrate.

Foams aid in the prevention of rekindles.

14

Special Sauces

Class A - Ordinary combustible

Class B – Flammable Liquid and gas

Class C – Electrical Class D – Metal Fires

Class K – Cooking oils

15

Which Foam to Use?

Select the Class of Foam Most LF Fires will be Class A Some fires involve Class D materials

Examine the Environmental Issues Determine the supply Do not mix foams

Unknown compatibility Find the MSDS

Foams

Why Special Sauce? Toxicity

Wildland Foam Tested Class A Foams available on the list

3M Foam – Fluorinated Surfactants

No Longer Produced

PFOS in worker as high as 12 ppm

PFOS General pop 30 – 50 ppb

17Source: www.fs.fed.us

Approved Foams 2009 Per USDA Forest Service

Ansul Silv-Ex FireFoam 103B 3 Phos-Chek WD 881 4 FireFoam 104 Angus ForExpan S Pyrocap B-136 Phos-Chek WD 881-C Phos-Chek Anchor Point National Foam KnockDown Summit FlameOut Angus Hi-Combat A 5 Buckeye Platinum Class A Foam Chemguard First Class 6 Solberg Fire-Brake 3150A 7 Phos-Chek First Response

See

http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/fire/documents/qpl_fm1.pdf

18

Foam Toxicity

Fish Toxicity of Class A Foam Concentrates Rainbow Trout, 60 post hatch, 96 hr exposure LC50 ranged from 10 mg/L to 156 mg/L for

approved foams The lower values indicate greater toxicity 10 of 15 foam were below or at 30 mg/L

One drop in your gas tank (13 gallons) is ~ 1 ppm

http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/fire/wfcs/performance/documents/fish_fm_sum.pdf

Fire Foam May Damage the Environment

London Free Press – Pottersburg Creek Spill May 14, 2007 Fire Suppressant (F-500) blamed for fish kill 15 gallons of foam mixed with 2,000 water Hundreds of fish killed

http://www.lfpress.com/cgi-bin/publish.cgi?h=video_pottersburg&s=hottopics

Video