Editor’s Opinion | Chris Mc Loone
No lie—the hardest part of my job is deciding what to write each month in this column. Do I reminisce? Do I try to make it a lesson? Do I call out something in the issue? To be honest, what I’ve been thinking about most recently is “the big one.”
Back in February, my fire company, and more than 60 others over the course of a week, responded to a fire at an industrial facility in our first due. I’ve been in my fire company for almost 32 years now. During that time, I’ve responded there on any number of occasions for automatic fire alarms, machines on fire, chemical exposures, etc. I don’t think it would be inaccurate to say that over the years, a major fire in this facility was always in the back of our minds.
The company was founded more than 100 years ago and, over time, the original structure has been added onto numerous times, creating a very expansive facility. As we arrived on location, we knew, not only from reports prior to our arrival but also from what we saw in front of us, that this was a working fire.
I’m not going to get into the operations at the fire, the lines laid, or the complexity of the job here. As you might expect, as I write this, the final report has not been issued. But, like many firefighters who respond to such incidents, I’ve spent a decent amount of time thinking about the event overall, my actions during it, and postincident responses.
Like many facilities built more than 100 years ago, the location of this complex is in an area that was mostly fields with a creek and railroad tracks behind it. Today, there are residences, ball fields, and commercial businesses surrounding the complex. Obviously, over the years, the response area changed quite a bit and so has our response planning to it.
A number of things stand out to me about the incident. First, it is an excellent case study for drone usage at such a scene. The police department drones were requested and deployed early in the incident, allowing the incident commander (IC) to track the fire’s progression and determine where master streams were being most effective. During overhaul, the drones helped not only direct master streams but also used installed thermal imaging cameras that picked up the hot spots.
Resources beyond the norm are also what stand out to me. The IC ended up requesting available resources from refineries. He looked into airport resources and what might be available from the Philadelphia (PA) Fire Department. One refinery sent a monitor capable of flowing up to 4,000 gallons per minute. And, this incident is the first one I can remember in Glenside, Pennsylvania, where the county’s fieldcomm unit responded.
What also stand out to me are postincident responses. As I said, when the factory was founded, fields, for the most part, surrounded it. Today, there is an entire residential neighborhood around it as well as businesses. We drove past this facility for years and years, but an incident of this magnitude hadn’t occurred. Neighbors understandably have been on edge, and there have been numerous responses to the site since the IC placed the fire under control, mostly for odors. It’s more important now than ever for us all to remember that these folks are not only neighboring the facility, but they are also our neighbors, and we have to be patient with them as they try to get their lives back to normal after evacuation or shelter-in-place orders.
And, of course, it is weird for me to think that I made the big one. In 1991 and 1992, there were two large fires in my district-one in a supermarket and the other in a church. They were “the big ones” before this fire, and while I knew it was possible, I never thought there would be another one like them. I’m grateful for the experience but will be fine if I don’t make the n