"Fire Department In A Box"

"Fire Department In A Box" MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 28-4-18 In rural Alaska, where roads are poor and water mains often are not available, dozens of villages now have a new alternative to the conventional fire department. It's called a "fire department in a box" and calls for fighting fires with foam instead of water. The idea might also be useful in other rural parts of North America. The fire fighting equipment is contained in two metal trailers that can be pulled behind pickups, all terrain vehicles, or even snowmobiles. The trailers use compressed air to produce firefighting foam from a small amount of water. The trailers contain all the firefighting equipment needed, including a 30-gal. solution tank to make the foam, 400 ft. of hose, a hose reel, and a water pump. They also carry hand-held extinguishers, an ice auger, helmets, gloves, goggles and pick axes. The equipment is less expensive to maintain than a fire truck and doesn't require a fire house for storage. And the trailers maneuver easily on poor roads and can be used where water is scarce or mostly frozen. Actually, fighting fires with foam is a technique well established by the U.S. military. This is just a new adaptation of it. "In a small compact package you have the ability to produce 1,200 gal. of firefighting foam in a very short period of time," says Tom Harris, president and chief executive of Alaska Village Initiatives, an Anchorage nonprofit that developed the Micro-Rural Fire Department, as it's formally called. Fiftyfive Alaskan communities now have the new equipment, and 12 units are being built. The project's goal is to provide 250 rural Alaskan communities with the equipment in five years. Once at the scene of a fire, it takes only five seconds for the firefighting foam to activate, and 600 gal. of foam can be discharged in 90 seconds, even at temperatures down to 40 degrees below zero. Steve Schreck, Alaskan rural fire training specialist, says each fully equipped trailer costs about $70,000 which is less than one third the price of an average fire truck. The system works. Two instructors recently gave 28 hours of instruction over a three-day period to show the locals how to use the equipment, and two days later there was a house fire in one village. It was extinguished in only two minutes and damage was confined to one room. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Steve Schreck, Fire Service Training, 5700 E. Tudor Road, Anchorage, Alaska 99507 (ph 907 269-5061; fax 907 338-4375; website: www.dps.state.ak.us/FireTraining/fstservices/fstcodered.asp).

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