AFD Engine 1 on scene near UMass Southwest towers
The still alarm -- automatic response due to tripped smoke detectors -- first came in around 10:30 PM last night but then within minutes became a box alarm as UMass first responders reported "smoke in the building."
AFD Engine 2 (the quint) gets in close to Berkshire Dining Commons
The Quint has a 75' aerial ladder
The tone sent out to all on and off duty firefighters brings a massive response to the UMass Berkshire Dining Commons, in this case Engine 1, Engine 2, Engine 3, Ladder 1, an ambulance, AFD Chief Nelson and assistant Chief Stromgren.
Off duty firefighters and Call Force are automatically mobilized
AFD Ladder 1 with a 102' aerial platform standing by
Two firefighters went up on the roof and headed down into the building searching for the source of the smoke, which turned out to be electrical: Burned out motor on a HVAC system.
By midnight all AFD assets had packed up and returned to quarters, waiting for the next tone.
E2 taps into Fire Dept Connection to supplement building's sprinkler system
14 comments:
Photo #1 certainly has an ominous look to it. Hope they never have to fight a fire in any of those dorm towers.
Indeed.
Fortunately they are all sprinklered.
But I worry about a catastrophic inferno event that cuts the water pressure.
Like a plane being flown into them.
That would do it.
Larry, I think you will find that what you called a "built in hydrant" is actually the opposite -- it is a means for fire trucks to pump INTO the building's sprinkler system FROM hydrants so as to maintain pressure in the building's sprinkler system, which would be necessary if there were a working fire with multiple sprinkler heads attempting to fight it.
Facts do matter...
Dr. Ed is correct. Those are commonly called FDC's, or Fire Department Connections. They allow our engines to supplement the building's sprinkler system, standpipe system, or both.
Photo #1 has me singing Silver Bells- It's Christmas Time in the city...
A C-5 with a full load of 51,000 gallons of jet fuel clips the top of a SW tower and then crashes into Van Meter, with flaming wreckage continuing on downrange and into Wildwood.
In the course of this crash, a minor/insignificant valve is broken which -- because the town was double-billing the university for water -- leads to both water towers quickly draining. A Hadley firetruck, rushing to the scene, takes out a key telephone pole which happened to have both WMECO (13.6KV) circuits on it, and because the "A" phase of one shorts to the "C" phase of the other (not it's own "C" phase but the one of a different circuit, which the engineers never anticipated) it takes out the entire South Deerfield Substation, which is now also on fire.
UMass quickly starts generating as much electricity as it can -- running the turbines at full (emergency) power and then venting vast quantities of steam overboard except that they have no way to replace the water and they quickly go off line.
That's it for electricity between South Hadley & Sunderland.
There is no water, no electricity, no cell signal and massive fires seemingly everywhere. Wildwood *is* on fire but there is more smoke at the Middle & High Schools, which aren't, although there is a box alarm sounded for each of them.
Much of UMass is on fire -- and there is so much smoke that folks think that a good chunk of Amherst College is as well.
Parents are desperately (recklessly) attempting to get to their children while equally desperate UMass students are simply trying to "get the hell out of Amherst" and total anarchy ensues.
Team Maria has so little credibility that the parents do NOT believe that children are safe at the Middle/High School while the only person that the UM students would listen to -- the hockey coach -- is already dead.
All roads are almost instantly impassable -- fire trucks can't even push vehicles out of the way because there are vehicles on sidewalks, lawns and everywhere else -- it's a logjam.
It's dark, it's smoky, and LOTS of people are dying...
That, expanded, is the prologue of my book....
Wow there are some doomsday, negative whack jobs on this blog. Time for some to get a life, and learn to enjoy life a little bit.
see what happens when Ed finally hears he is right? sorry bud, but your 1 out of 1000 isn't a good average for correct facts. dont let it go to your head.
First, I wrote and posted it before I heard I was right on the "FDC" -- and honestly was never trained on those because we didn't deal with them, there weren't any where I was.
Second, every serious EMS person to whom I proposed the "what if a C-5 clips a tower and crashes into Van Meter" has turned white upon thinking about it. There is no backup -- the AFD, while quite able, simply isn't able to fight two major fires concurrent with major casualties. they simply don't have enough guys. Or enough "stuff."
Third -- and this is the point of my book -- the ONLY cooperation between the town and UM has been how to control the UM students/Amherst Residents (and they ARE both) -- not how to meet their needs.
I'm going to use something that I hope never happens (although well could) to show how the students are being screwed on a daily basis.
I will say one thing in fairness -- firefighters do what they have to, and the AFD probably would draft out of the sewerage treatment plant because they had to -- But beyond that, if the water towers are empty, where the hell do you think they can get water from????
Shoulda quit while you were ahead, Ed.
The doomsday shouters are half the fun. There are also some pretty funny bastards, too. Very entertaining.
Whatever....
Remember the visceral image of the (1972) \Napalm Girl running naked from her burning village?
That's the image I open my book with -- I intend to be about as fair to both town & gown as they were to me -- which means "not very" -- and the entire thesis of my book is that UM students are considered nothing but a fungible resource to be exploited.
Now, anyone want to say why a 2-impact C-5 crash couldn't occur? (Say a bird-ingestion catastrophic engine failure -- Canada Geese aren't small birds...)
Anyone want to say that a C5 doesn't take off with a LOT of jet fuel aboard, or that it's tanks couldn't be punctured by scraping the top of a SW tower (which have those red lights for a reason), or that it wouldn't continue to fall out of the sky?
Or that the UMass water towers are essential to maintaining AMHERST hydrant pressure in the area? Does Amherst have any standpipes of its own -- anywhere?
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