What is the best way to put out mobile home fires?

[TC1875PVFD]

We have had several mobile home fires where we spend several hours
chasing it around in the ceiling with that stupid recycled paper insulation.
We are spending to much time and causing as much damage as the fire it
seems> Any Ideas or has anyone found a way to control it earlier in the attack?


I Appreciate all replies and we have done pretty much all that was said except TIC which we do not have one in our dept. or any mutual aid depts.Thanks All.

[This message has been edited by TC1875PVFD (edited 05-11-2001).]

[Icerader]

Have you tried..."light" water AKA wet water, fine water....a detergent based additive....or try foam.

[EastKyFF]

Here in Eastern Kentucky, the Mobile Home Capital of the World, we get our fair share too.

Since the "attics" don't bear entry due to their size, a piercing nozzle is your best route, especially with foam. Just get between each pair of joists and give it a good soaking. Pair it with a thermal imaging camera or non-visual infrared device of another type, and you should be pretty effective.

[res7cue]

We've exeprienced several attick fires (not just mobile homes) involving the cellulose insulation.

If you have a TIC or access to them, this is your best bet. Fire seams to want to travel along joists, etc and can travel to the complete opposite side of structure and results in a rekindle later on.

We have been involved in fires where we've had to hook the entire ceiling to eliminate the possibility of a rekindle.

We had a mutual aid job a awhile back involving a fire in a 8' x 10' bathroom. The ops officer only wanted the bathroom ceiling pulled after he looked in the crawl space attic. I tried to convince him that he needed to check further and he refused.

Needless to say, about 4 hours later we were back and did a beautiful job of burning the entire top floor and attic off the house.

The stuffs a pain in the a**.

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[wtfd655]

There was an article in Fire Engineering about this type of insulation a couple of months back. Might check into it, it was a good article, but I don't remember what month it was in, or what all it said.

If it's in a trailer, might as well soak the insulation, or pull all of it, any type of fire in a trailer that damages walls, ceilings, etc, will invariably cause more damage than the trailer is worth. Unless the trailer is brand spankin' new, even then it's doubtfull.

[fireman_1]

Well, it's kinf of impossible to stop a trailor fire unless you get called whenever somke is just beginning to show up! We just saved a trailor because we were called soon! But if it's flaming when you get there...just try to keep it under control and don't let it spread!

Pierce Saber Fire Truck-$250,000/Equipment for that truck-$150,000/Using the truck to save someone's life-Priceless!!!

[Drewbo]

Mobile homes?

1. Hook the home up to the hose wagon and drive it in a lake? (Mobile Right)

2. Don't let the ocuppants cook Fish Stick while Jerry Springer is on.

No, sorry I could not resist, and mean no offense to those who live in mobile homes.

Seriously, do you have a heat detector, the interior walls and ceilings are so thin you should be able to detect most anything burning on the other side. Also, the walls and ceilings are long inexpensive prefab type deals, pull them back. The owner would rather have to nail up a bunch of boards then replace everything he owns, at least have the IC explain it that way.

Doing live burns in trailiers in the area will help you. if Grandpa Joe kicks it and the son donates his trailer you the town, get to burn it, get an apriciation for how quick the dang things go.

later

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* God Looked down and
* saw this was bad, it
* was bad, it was Drew
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[RS-1Alum]

I have been to many with other departments but not in the Nation's Capital. One thing that I can never recall is making an attack from the door in the rear of the trailer next to the bedrooms. If there is fire in the living room area we risk the posibility of blowing it into the bedrooms by taking the line in the "front" door. If there were occupants trapped we would be better served by going through the unburned area, making a quick search, and pushing the fire out towards the burned area. Granted the situation is not as common since most mobile home fires seem to be fully involved on arrival, however I have seen it several times. Anyone else ever notice the tendency to use the main entrance on most attacks?

[Truckman]

Unfortunatly, Fireman-1 is correct. Damage in mobile fires usually out weigh any chance of repair. The most important thing is to attempt to make entry in a manner that will cut the fire off from the unburned portion thus increasing the probability of survival of occupants in tenable areas.

When going in to overhaul, the best route for total extinguishment is to pull all burned areas and hydraulically overhaul the exposed area. In other words flood the area with water. This is the only way to insure there will not be a rekindle. Because as we all know, the words "rekindle" or "recall" to a fire will make a Fire Chief look for new officers.

Finally, if the fire is an investigation of "smoke" or a "smoke detector" with no visible fire where insulation may be burning, the construction of mobile homes may still require numerous inspection holes or the pulling of walls and ceilings.