Wildfire Equipment

[Carl]

Similar to the topic of Wildfire PPE, in GMFRS we have beaters and Scotty Backpacks across all the appliances. Several stations nearer to the moorland areas have blowers and are fully trained in they use.

Does your service have dedicated teams. If so what equipment do they carry?

[Luminoki]

In H&W we dont have dedicated teams afaik, we do have three landrover defenders ( Hereford, Malvern and Bewdley ) and they carry the petrol powered blowers along with FireExpress media. I know Bewdleys is used a fair bit in the summer to fight the grass fires caused by sparks caused by the steam trains on the Severn Valley railway. Front line pumps carry beaters and knapsacks

[Becile]

Ok..

• 4 x firefighting unimogs 4500l water capacity with roof monitors and side delivery capable of pump and roll. Water sprayers on the wheels, Complete with 200 l of class a foam concentrate to use as a water aditive or foam.complete with firefog system.
• 26 multi role vehicles long wheel base dual cab landrovers 13 complete with 200 l of water and water additive dual firefog sytems. Capable of being clipped to the body for pump and roll.beaters taken off but mattlocks on.
• All driver's trained in off road.
• All fire fighters have wildfire awareness training...wind slope aspect and laces protocol ( can try to upload the presentation if you want..or p.m.)...the wildfire NOG is worth a look if you haven't already!
• All wildfire areas mapped on mdt with high risk (fuel loadings  identified) rvps, open water sources, 2 wheel and 4 wheel routes pre identified.
• 5 x wildfire Smas trained to new NFCC guidelines.
• All appliances carry 2 beaters and 2x backpacks (20l capacity)
• Larger pump capacity appliances (3)to support hvp wildfire pumping.
• Drones on PDA of top 10 wildfire sites when fire severity index goes above 3.
• Yes we've got some gear...but hit it hard and quick is the maxim...most incidents will only use the off road vehicles.

We looked into blowers, and our smas are pushing for offensive burning ( that won't happen in my opinion)

[Matt]

Something that I have noticed flicking through images on the likes of Twitter tonight is beaters.  

Some Brigades are still using a bit of 70mm hose on a wooden handle (in one picture noticed the one was split and can't of been much use), others use a bigger jafco style beater on a wooden handle (made in house) and others then use the bigger jacfo style beater which is far bigger than the piece of hose.  

Obviously some are going to be more effective than others but though the old hose ones were long gone, not seen any of these for a very long time on appliances.

[Becile]

And generally should not be used to beat at all, best methodolgy is to sweep/rub with them.Fatique is a big issue when using them.

[Noddy]

Yup ^^^

ive lost count of the times I had to show folks how to „beat“ a fire with a beater.  The idea is to smother it by sweeping or rubbing as becile says, not fan it by literally beating it. 

[Steve]

Water back packs & beaters (old school) and a few chromes at the outer stations... I mean, do we need them??? ?

4 hours ago, Noddy said:

Yup ^^^

ive lost count of the times I had to show folks how to „beat“ a fire with a beater.  The idea is to smother it by sweeping or rubbing as becile says, not fan it by literally beating it. 

So true.... a lesson taught to me by and old 'Outer London' lag back in 1990 at some random common fire in the Far East.

[Messyshaw]

How long until you leave Steve? You may live to regret that smugness ?!

[Steve]

3 weeks tomorrow.

You may be right, it appears the SE is now going the way of the NW, several large fires to the West of London. I should be safe as long as the East & Essex doesn't go that way.

[TandA]

On 01/07/2018 at 21:58, Matt said:

Obviously some are going to be more effective than others but though the old hose ones were long gone, not seen any of these for a very long time on appliances.

Still got the old hose style beaters here.  Very effective when used correctly but, as others have said, the tendency from too many is to swing them too high and hard which is ineffective, sends sparks everywhere spreading the fire and must be knackering too.  

4 hours ago, Steve said:

should be safe as long as the East & Essex doesn't go that way.

Hmm, don’t bank on it.  Things are beginning to look very very dry out here.  With another two weeks of this weather forecast, I think things will get busy out east soon enough.