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Cars don't burn like that when hitting a tree.

by Oculus 13y ago

chimingin 13y ago
um, yes, they absolutely do. sadly, I know from experience.
adestefan 13y ago
Sometimes they do. This is why both fire and ambulence are dispatched to accidents. Would you like me to start sending you all the nasty images from accident scenes that my EMT brother gets to go to? I find it fascinating how quickly he's able to go from bouncing off the walls to stoic when he gets a single car accident call. They're never pretty.
- wavefunction 13y ago
  >>This is why both fire and ambulence are dispatched to accidents. I don't think you can make that claim necessarily. Firetrucks get dispatched for people experiencing health emergencies as well as ambulances just because they are often able to respond more quickly than EMTs. I know this from talking with my firefighter friends and experiencing it first hand with relatives that have passed. Also firetrucks were always being dispatched to a retirement home where I grew up, not because there were fires or a likelihood of explosion.
  - mindcrime 13y ago
    It varies by jurisdiction. Some fire departments provide both fire protection / fire suppression and emergency medical response. Others do only fire. But even departments that are "fire only" (like the department I was with) are dispatched to most car accidents due to the fire risk. 50 times out of 100 we got there, did a quick size up, found no risk of fire, and returned to quarters, but on the more serious crashes, we would stay on scene while the medics were working. If there was someone pinned in a vehicle, we would pull a 1-3/4" handline and charge it and keep it in place in case anything happened during the actual extrication process.
    - FireBeyond 13y ago
      This, seconded by a current firefighter / paramedic. Any fluid leaking from the vehicle would cause us to charge a line. And was needed for suppression on multiple occasions.
JshWright 13y ago
I've seen cars burn like that after hitting trees, guardrails, other cars... just about any high speed collision has the risk of starting a fire. It's certainly not majority of wrecks, but it's a high enough percentage that most departments have an SOP that the first engine company in on the wreck will stretch a handline (they might not charge it, but fire is enough of a concern that they'll be ready to deal with it very quickly should the need arise).
- mindcrime 13y ago
  Yeah, fires definitely happen as a result of collisions, they just aren't terribly common. Or at least that's been my experience. I think there's an NFPA (or IFSAC or similar) recommendation on the charged handline thing, but my department defaulted to stretching a line but not charging in most cases. But we did require a charged line in place on any extrication scenarios.

Cars don't burn like that when hitting a tree.

by Oculus 13y ago

Cars don't burn like that when hitting a tree.

chimingin 13y ago

um, yes, they absolutely do. sadly, I know from experience.

adestefan 13y ago

Sometimes they do. This is why both fire and ambulence are dispatched to accidents. Would you like me to start sending you all the nasty images from accident scenes that my EMT brother gets to go to? I find it fascinating how quickly he's able to go from bouncing off the walls to stoic when he gets a single car accident call. They're never pretty.

wavefunction 13y ago
>>This is why both fire and ambulence are dispatched to accidents. I don't think you can make that claim necessarily. Firetrucks get dispatched for people experiencing health emergencies as well as ambulances just because they are often able to respond more quickly than EMTs. I know this from talking with my firefighter friends and experiencing it first hand with relatives that have passed. Also firetrucks were always being dispatched to a retirement home where I grew up, not because there were fires or a likelihood of explosion.
- mindcrime 13y ago
  It varies by jurisdiction. Some fire departments provide both fire protection / fire suppression and emergency medical response. Others do only fire. But even departments that are "fire only" (like the department I was with) are dispatched to most car accidents due to the fire risk. 50 times out of 100 we got there, did a quick size up, found no risk of fire, and returned to quarters, but on the more serious crashes, we would stay on scene while the medics were working. If there was someone pinned in a vehicle, we would pull a 1-3/4" handline and charge it and keep it in place in case anything happened during the actual extrication process.
  - FireBeyond 13y ago
    This, seconded by a current firefighter / paramedic. Any fluid leaking from the vehicle would cause us to charge a line. And was needed for suppression on multiple occasions.

JshWright 13y ago

I've seen cars burn like that after hitting trees, guardrails, other cars... just about any high speed collision has the risk of starting a fire. It's certainly not majority of wrecks, but it's a high enough percentage that most departments have an SOP that the first engine company in on the wreck will stretch a handline (they might not charge it, but fire is enough of a concern that they'll be ready to deal with it very quickly should the need arise).

mindcrime 13y ago
Yeah, fires definitely happen as a result of collisions, they just aren't terribly common. Or at least that's been my experience. I think there's an NFPA (or IFSAC or similar) recommendation on the charged handline thing, but my department defaulted to stretching a line but not charging in most cases. But we did require a charged line in place on any extrication scenarios.