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RINGS OF FIRE Tire piles of 500 tires or more are might come in contact-with; cars, laundry, required to have permits by the California outdoor furniture, or items that could be Integrated Waste Management Board. ingested; like garden vegetables-should be Piles of 5,000 or less require minor waste thoroughly washed. tire facility permits. A tire pile of 5,000 or more requires waste tire facility The health concern for air quality focus permits. Using Professor Williamson's on high levels of volatile organic chemicals estimate, a fire in a minor pile of 500 like benzene, toluene, and xylene. would have the equivalent emissions of 12 Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons are or 16 house fires. A fire in a major pile also a concern. High concentrations of of 5,000 tires would be equivalent to 125- dioxins, and dibenzofurans have been 166 house fires! isolated in smoke plumes of several tire fires. These chemicals are suspected, or have been experimentally proven, to cause AIR QUALITY cancer Air quality should be your first concern Information from past tire fires suggests when responding to a tire fire emergency. that the most immediate health threat Monitoring the smoke plume by an from the smoke plume would be appropriate agency or your hazmat team prolonged exposure to fire fighters should be accomplished on site, as well as working in the immediate burn area and the community down-wind from the fire. to residents adjacent to the tire pile. In Phoenix, Arizona, a tire fire forced the evacuation of 2,000 residents from the WATER QUALITY neighboring community. In Everett, Washington, large quantities of steam and Water quality will be a parallel concern smoke permeated the community. A wind that must be evaluated early in the shift sent the smoke plume easterly and response. Water and foam used in and settled in the less populated area of the around the fire site contaminated with Snohomish River valley. pyrolytic oil could produce excessive run- off that will threaten above and under The tire fire in Somerset, Wisconsin ground water supplies. required the immediate evacuation of a nearby trailer park. Working with the The tire fire in Santa Rosa, California, news media, a public health warning was used one million gallons of water. Eight issued: anyone experiencing discomfort hundred thousand gallons of contaminated from the smoke should remove themselves water were recovered. Only 200,000 from the plume, either by temporarily gallons escaped into underground water moving out of the affected-area or by staying indoors. Outdoor items which you 16