Ethanol presents fire challenge
Posted on Monday, March 24, 2008
The alternative fuel flowing into the nation’s gas tanks is presenting a new challenge for Northwest Arkansas firefighters.
Fire departments in Northwest Arkansas’ largest cities are ready to do battle with cornbased ethanol fires, using pricey alcohol-resistant foam to snuff out flames.
But many small-town and rural fire departments across the nation and in Northwest Arkansas don’t buy the specialized foam because it’s too expensive — even as more trucks and trains are transporting ethanol.
“We’ve had several instances in very progressive communities that haven’t gone well because they weren’t prepared with the right foam,” said Ed Plaugher, national programs director for the International Association of Fire Chiefs in Fairfax, Va.
“The proliferation of ethanol is becoming an issue in our communities,” he said. “Preparation nationally for these fires varies widely, but I think we have a severe shortage of alcohol-resistant foam in our communities.” Rural and small-town fire departments in Northwest Arkansas aren’t buying the specialized foam they need to do battle with an ethanol fire because of cost. Instead, their plan is to call the Northwest Arkansas Regional Hazardous Materials Team for help, just as they would for any major gasoline blaze.
“We don’t have enough foam to fight a fire like a tanker fire,” said Elkins Fire Chief J. D. Demotte. “I can guarantee you that. We can’t afford to do it all.” Jay Norton, an administrative assistant for the Lincoln Volunteer Fire Department, said firefighters are likely to use a “surround and drown” tactic if a tanker truck carrying ethanol causes a fire in the western Washington County town.
“It’d be a defensive operation,” Norton said. “We don’t have the capability of handling anything like that.” At $ 100 apiece, 5-gallon buckets of alcohol-resistant aqueous film-forming foam concentrate are too expensive to squeeze into some small fire departments’ budgets. That’s about twice as expensive as the film-forming foam used to put out gasoline fires.
Firefighting foams used by Northwest Arkansas fire departments work the same way. They create a barrier between a fire and the fuel, and they prevent the release of flammable vapors.
What makes the alcohol-resistant foam unique is that the bubbles it produces can’t be eaten by ethanol, Plaugher said.
The Northwest Arkansas Regional Hazardous Materials Team, which includes firefighters from Bella Vista, Bentonville, Fayetteville, Lowell, Rogers, Siloam Springs and Springdale, placed alcohol-resistant foam in fire stations throughout the region years ago, said Allan Skogen, deputy chief in the Rogers Fire Department.
Firefighters have been dealing with new challenges for years as industries find new ways to manufacture products, and ethanol is no different, said Ed Stith, the Springdale fire marshal who’s on the region’s hazardous materials team.
“We just have to adjust to those chemicals,” Stith said. “Over the years, the hazmat [hazardous materials ] team has a pretty good system of coming up with the right foam to handle things.” In Rogers, alcohol-resistant foam is the only foam used, and it’s stored at every city fire station, Skogen said. It works well against other types of blazes, but it’s especially good with the ethanol that eats through other types of foam and keeps burning.
To use it, firefighters must break the seal of the white 5-gallon buckets and allow the gel to flow into a hose where it’s mixed with water. The fire hose’s foam-aerating nozzle creates the bubbles that make the thick foam needed to snuff out fires.
Depending on the desired consistency, 94-97 percent of what comes out of the hose is water, Skogen said.
Small cities are likely to look to the regional hazardous materials team for help if a major ethanol fire comes to pass, said Gentry Fire Chief Vester Cripps. They’d take the same approach if a tanker carrying gasoline or diesel fuel caught fire, Cripps said.
Departments have long had arrangements that allow one department to step in and help out when another department needs assistance, Cripps said.
“We’d make the initial response, and once we identified it, we’d activate the regional team,” Cripps said.
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