Steve Redick video from a recycling warehouse fire yesterday afternoon in suburban Chicago. Toward the end of the clip you will see Steve showing the operations of MVU 923. I wonder if the unit has its own Facebook fan page? (So sorry.)
Here are excerpts from an article by Mark Lawton at the Franklin Park Herald-Journal:
The fire started between 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. at 615 N. Northwest Avenue in an industrial section of Northlake just east of Interstate 294.
The cement and brick building was about three-quarters empty, said Franklin Park Fire Chief David Traiforos during a phone interview after leaving the scene.
In the center of the building, however, a pile of tightly bundled packages of cloth, paper and plastic had caught fire.
The Chicago Fire Department brought in front-end loaders to push the burning bundles outside where they were broken apart and extinguished.
The building sprinkler system did some of the work, Traiforos said.
“It probably kept the building from burning down,” he said. “There’s really no damage to the building other than cutting into the roof and window damage.”
Firefighters were challenged, however, by insufficient water pressure.
Also on STATter911 …
- Video: Franklin Park, Illinois 3-11 motel fire. – August 12, 2011
- Audio & raw video: 2-11 on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago. – January 28, 2011
- Video: Scrap yard burns in Norfolk. – November 24, 2010
- Third suspicious package found at Maryland State office. Two others contained small incendiary devices. One addressed to the Governor. – January 6, 2011
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Good video. I gotta ask, does anyone know how much the mobile vent truck cost? cause that really seems like a GIANT waste of money. I mean come on, how many fires can that really be used on.
Large PPV fans are finding a place at high rise fires when stairwells need to be pressurized. Also tunnels, large commercial structures, etc. Large fire departments with complex response areas and varied hazards may very well find this to be a useful tool. It’s certainly not the kind of rig that your local Maryland V.F.D. would need … although, I’m sure many of them would love to bolt a couple of Federal ‘Q’ sirens and some really buffy Roto Ray lights onto one of these and bring it to the parades …
Seems like a lot of our equipment and teams, you may have a use for it but truly only gets used during training. Hats off to the Chicago FD for allowing this to get used at a fire in one of the suburbs. I would be interested to hear from the firefighters on the scene about the difference this made during the fire.
Beats the heck out of lining up 65 gas powered fans that won’t do the job adequately.
We have one of those MVU fans at our department as part of our MABAS rotation. We’ve used it twice, and both times, it’s been the coolest thing since they figured out water puts fire out. We used it on a warehouse fire we had last month, and it literally vented the whole building in a matter of minutes. We’ve also used it at HAZMAT incidents with some success.