NEAFC 32nd Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIATION OF FII~ CHIEFS
do not approach the cylinders; leave them alone, because at any moment, the
release valve may let go, and that presents quite a stream of fire. It is probably
a ~ 12-foot rush of flame, burning perhaps 4 feet off the nozzle, and is usually
directed away from the center o~ c the installation, parallel to the building,
because that is the way the cylinders, are set in.
So that if you have any doubt about whether or not the cylinders have
been warmed up at all, leave them alone. Do not play water on the cylinders,
because by doing so, you may keep a fusible plug from operating correctly.
Now, it is true that if you can be sure the cylinders have a spring-loaded
release, a stream of water would be indicated to keep the cylinders, cool and
from. building ’pressure.
But, you may have a cylinder with only a fusible plug, and if you_do
play water on. it, it is conceivable that pressure could build up, and you
would have an excessive pressure condition in the cylinder.
Another point is that you are tying up a loss that could be used on combustibles.
So we believe that the cylinder should not be wet down and kept cool,
but should be left alone. You know, better than I do, that if you play .water
on the combustible, even in the presence of intense fire, you can keep the
combus.tible from catching, and you won’t have a problem for over a few
minutes in the cylinder, because in elevated temperatures, and so forth, they
will discharge themselves very rapidly.
I had occasion to see a couple of cylinders go, a while back, and I don’t
think it was over three .minutes, intermittently, that they were completely
empty, and they were no longer a problem to the fire, and they controlled
the combustibles within the area.
That is probably your greatest incidence of LP, as concerned with fires.
It is conceivable that if you have a bulk plant in your area, sometime you
might be called upon to attend a call at that particular station. It is certainly
something that yoti should be aware of, and have studied and gone over the
flo.w diagram of the bulk plant, width the Manager.
Briefly, a bulk plant consists of a tank car unloading station, a compressor
for transferring the liquid, a large storage tank, pumping facilities., and a
building used for marilfolding and filling of cylinders, by the pump.
There is a great deal of piping, a great deal of valving. And~ familiarity
with the valves, of course, is the No. 1 weapon, I should say, in combating a
bulk plant fire. Secondly, the storage tanks should be kept cool. They have
spring-loaded release only, so that you are not getting into di~culty in so far
as fusable plugs are concerned. You have contained there a great deal more
fuel, and by designating, a couple of hose lines, you can keep 10,000, 15,000
or 20,000 gallons of propane cool, so that you will not further involve the
fire. That hasbeen proven; that has. been .done a certain number of times.
There is one thing that I should like to impress upon you very strongly, and
it is this. Do not extinguish a propane fire, unless by s 9 doing, you can shut
off the source of the fuel. I think that you can all appreciate the hazard of an
accumulation of unburned: ga s, as compared with burning fuel. It is a great
deal more ext_re_me .to have an area loaded with a mixture of fuel and gas,. ~han.
57