Eastbourne Fire

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Andy Burns escribió:

One report I saw yesterday said that Eastbourne pier (which is privately owned) was insured.

[Steve B]

Very interesting tv programme a few years back about a disasterous fire that occurred in one of the alpine tunnels. It seems that a very effective way to control this type of fire is to employ a water spray curtain. I think it has to do with the fact that a given amount of water translates into about 1700 times its original volume as it becomes steam, thereby taking a lot of the heat out of the conflagration.

It seems to me that this might be a good way to tackle domestic chimney fires.

Steve

[dennis]

Just think of the poor troops that had to use Green Godesses low pressure hoses, they weighed a ton compared the the little high pressure hoses the firemen use.

Fire fighting has advanced a lot and made the job a lot easier than it was 30 years ago.

Next we should see little remote controlled robots with sprays on them that they can drive into a fire and produce a lot of mist to put it out. It can be driven by hydraulic motors using the same water supply pipe as for the spray.

If the unions let them!

[Nightjar]

The Green Goddess also put out 1,000 gpm, which would probably have been useful on the pier fire.

[The Other Mike]

I've seen hydrants 'checked' twice in recent years, both times it was a presumed illegal abstraction of water for commercial use, the Fire Brigade were nowhere in sight.

The first one was a bowser being towed by an unmarked flat bed truck (maybe a builder?) one just a few weeks ago was a road roller that filled its huge water tanks used to keep the rollers cool. It wasn't hard to notice that despite numerous hydrant points on the main road that were coned off for the resurfacing works they had driven this vehicle a few hundred yards away onto a much quieter road where they presumably thought no one would notice.

Apparently some water companies can provide metered standpipes for legitimate abstraction on an 'as required' basis within their area. This most recent one was using just a bit of fabricated aluminium with the appropriate fittings, no meter in sight.

[Andy Burns]

One fire service I'm aware of certainly does its own checks on hydrants.

[Tim Watts]

Apparently, with a steam traction engine, if challenged by a copper when using a hydrant, the correct answer is "if I don't take on water, the boiler will explode officer".

[Nightjar]

Ours has a small van that is dedicated to the task.

[Andy Burns]

"Nightjar

[Nightjar]

[damduck-egg]

Rang a local Fire station number a few years ago ,I can't remember now I had obtained it but didn't want go through the normal number (ordinary not 999) for speaking to the Fire Brigade in case somebody would get a rollicking. The brusque reply I got questioning why I was ringing them on this No almost put me off going further but thier attitude quickly changed when I said " well if you arn't interested in the standpipe your Van Driver left in the gutter after checking the hydrant I'll take it home and report it on the public number ,or I may keep it". As far as powerfull Fire pumps ago New York used to have some very powerful ones which unusually for the states used a British Engine for the Pump a Napier Deltic.

G.Harman

[dennis]

On 04/08/2014 07:20, "Nightjar

[Nightjar]

[The Other Mike]

That sounds very much like something Fred Dibnah would say :)

Fusible plugs would presumably put out the fire long before that?

[Tim Watts]

It's certainly something my mate's mate (who owned a traction engine) said.

Apparently also had a "debate" with a confused countryside copper near a rally about who was "in charge" of the vehicle after having drunk beer.

It went something like:

"I'm not in charge, officer - I'm only the engineer (or might have been fireman)" (doing the regulator, stoking and water).

The other guy said something like: "I'm not in charge officer, I'm only the steersman".

Not that I'm condoning driving a big heavy steam engine whilst over the limit...

I think the upshot was "if you both stop here and leave it until morning, I won't go back to the station and phone someone for a professional opinion".

I would guess so - but it still leads to an explosion of sorts - a *lot* of steam and hot shit blowing back out the firedoor straight onto the footplate. Drivers and firemen have come off badly like that at various points throughout industrialised history - but it is admittedly rather better than the boiler actually blowing itself into shrapnel in everyone's general direction.

[John Williamson]

Nice.