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FIRE SUPPRESSION Equipment breakdown-- tires caught A precedent for the burn-it strategy between the wheels, tracks, and appears in fire responses to chemical fires. undercarriage of heavy equipment-- has Adding water to fires or hazardous been reported. Handlines should be materials which react to water could deployed to provide protection to exacerbate the emergency. operators and equipment alike. A tire fire in Everett, Washington used the burn-it strategy. The pile of 3,000,000 STRATEGY tires was originally broken into smaller sections. Initially the fire department had The successful options for fighting a tire used foam and water for two days before fire have been employed individually and, the decision to let the fire burn itself out in many cases, in combination with one was employed. another. Reduced to the lowest common denominator, these options are At the Shasta Community College in Redding, the burn-it strategy was 6 Burn-It employed on a tire pile of 8,000 tires. 6 Bury-It 0 Drown-It The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection successfully employed Burn-It the burn-it strategy in Fresno County on a tire fire which consumed 275,000 tires. Some fire officers and fire specialists have The fire was in an agricultural area which proposed adding an accelerant to the tire posed minimal risk to the public. They fire to assist in complete combustion. were fortunate to have no winds, which This plan involves tossing gasoline on the allowed the smoke column to go straight fire and running drag lines through the up. pile to speed up the combustion process. Unfortunately, no one has yet determined The Fresno fire was located on top of a safe way to get close enough to sandy loam. If massive amounts of water accomplish this. were employed in this case, soil and ground water could have become The burn-it strategists, however, do have contaminated in the process. a point. While adding an accelerant to a tire fire is not safe or practical, letting a Importantly, the fire service must manage tire pile burn has its merits. Soil and and control the burn. Protecting water pollution maybe drastically reduced exposures and separating tires from the when many of the products of combustion burn area will still be a tactical priority. go up in smoke. The clean-up cost can, correspondingly, be reduced when compared to other options. 49