From an article by Dennis Culver at New-Press.com:
Peter Garda and his employees sifted through his office Monday morning salvaging what they could from the charred shell of his Lehigh Acres coffee distribution center.
Garda said he was out of town when the fire broke out Sunday afternoon at the 33,000-square-foot distribution center for Stan's Coffee Service and P&L Foods on Second Street West.
Firefighters arrived on the scene around 2 p.m. Sunday and fought the smoldering blaze through the night and into Monday afternoon.
Lt. Chad Ketron, with the Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District, said the cause of the fire is still undetermined.
While the fire was contained Monday and no other structures were threatened, Ketron said a section of the roof collapsed, which made it difficult for firefighters to access hot spots in some parts of the building.
Smoke continued to billow from the building Monday as firefighters knocked holes in the outside walls in an effort to gain access to parts of the structure still smoldering.
Also on STATter911 …
- Raw video: Lehigh Acres, Florida house fire. – February 26, 2012
- Raw video: House fire in Lehigh Acres, FL. – August 7, 2012
- Raw video: Lehigh Acres, FL house fire. – March 6, 2013
- Raw video: Townhouse fire in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. – March 14, 2012
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1. Insurance cost reductions pay for sprinkler system in 8-10 years and reduce costs from that time on.
2. System detects and holds fire until FD arrival before significant damage to inventory or structure.
3. Why don't insurance companies strongly encourage or mandate sprinkler systems?
there where fire sprinklers in place.
The images of darkened walls and darkened garage doors indicate a fire that has been burning for a long time. The type of building indicates lightweight metal trusses which fail early and kill / trap firefighters. Entry should be limited to life saving of any possible occupants. Large caliber ground based monitors and elevated streams with smooth bore nozzles will work well in these situations. The smooth bore nozzles allow better penetration of the large building, and allow high volume with lower pressures. Early vertical ventilation from the safety of the tower ladders can relieve the heat buildup and improve visibilty. Garage doors need to be wedged open or supported after making cuts or raising the doors. High heat levels as indicated by the charring of the tops of the garage doors can cause door hardware to fail and trap or injure firefighters. And hey, hey; lets be careful out there!
I guess with all the recent lay-offs in Lehigh Acres the main reason for remaining on the scene for 2 plus days was lack of manpower. Those 5 guys operating all the equipment had thier hands full.
Am I missing something as to why they used no master streams through the open garage doors for such a long period of time?
Great stop! How about we put down the saw after we open the door and stretch a line and flow some water. Can't fix stupid!
Dave, are you sure this issn't a training video of a controlled burn?
Uhhhhh, with limited staffing and super high heat/humidity in Florida in the summertime, you try to work at capacity with full gear on. It's easier when you're not actually asked to do "everything". The other post summed it up with the blackened bay doors. It was already gone PTA
True, but they had flowed enough water to fill up the truck docks but not extinguish the fire.
They removed the rollup doors and proceeded to allow the fire to come to them instead of extinguishing it.
In addition to a 2.5" loop, portable monitor or deck gun, use that thing attached to the bucket of that truck thing and stick it in the doors and put the fricking fire out. After cutting some holes in the roof from it.
My 2 centss from Calif.
It does look like after they cut the rolling doors, their was not a quick follow-up with hose streams for the Fre Attack.
Personnel/Staffing issues?
They did get the building to burn a lt faster by Venting and delaying the fire attack with large caliber streams.
Limited manpower and high temperatures do wear out the responders. Smart tactics make use of what manpower you have, and modern technology can help. Lightweight portable monitors that flow 500 GPM are available. The old reliable 2.5" handline in a loop on the ground with a guy sitting on it isn't too physically taxing. The deck gun on an engine doesn't require much physical energy and doesn't care what the temperature is. An aerial stream can be used at ground level and controlled by the operator of the vehicle. Once set up, even the old heavy ground monitors don't require much physical activity. Why exhaust your people when there are tools for them to use?
They could save a lot of money with all those fancy lights on the front of their trucks. It doesn’t really look like it matters if they show up or not anyway.
The structure was gone when they got there? Did you not watch the first video? Cold, lazy smoke drifting from the building is not my definition of to far gone. My guess is that if they had any expeience and were well versed in forcible entry, the fire could have been gotten with a single line. But hey, you gotta inside for that approach to work.
Best lesson learned: when you suck, keep your videos off of the Internet.
Wow!! I missed this clip while I was on vacation. WTF!! At least the MA tower (Fort Myers) knew how to use a tower in this situation. Another good example of washing the exterior of the building as the fire continues inside. Just a suggestion, if you need to have someone use a handline to cool your mega-dollar ladder tower while it just sits there looking pretty, move the sumbitch. Or, you could go all crazy and take the tower out of the cradle and use it to work on putting the fire out. Be careful, it could get dirty doing that.