CAFS In Industrial Firefighting

[FLASHOVER05]

How often, if at all is Cafs used in Industrial Firefighting?????

[bullfighter199]

hey man last i checked it was not being used by us oilpatch guys but they may use it in refineries. we just use AR-AFFF foan on most of the stuff we deal with. that or purple K.

[iamvff]

Our CAFS system is class A foam. I am pretty sure we can set it up for class B, but it's a real pain in the ass. Also, I have heard horror stories of the two different foams gelling when people have tried to switch.

iamvff

[FLASHOVER05]

Also, I have heard horror stories of the two different foams gelling when people have tried to switch.

iamvff

Are you talking Hairgel?

[Eno_75]

About the "gellin," A and AFFF are two things you definitely don't want to be "gellin." We had a mishap at one of my departments where they mixed and gelled so thick that it burned out the foam pump in about 2 minutes during a training evolution. Fortunately, it would be extremely difficult for us to mix that up in our instance (in the future) because all of our AFFF comes in enormous totes and the A (if it happens) will be in smaller jugs.

Heat knows no class, and the exposure protection available through proper application and mixtures of A foam produced through CAFS would be valuable anywhere. Granted, we wouldn't be using it in any direct / indirect application against combustible liquids, but in an elevated master stream you could blow snot all over your exposures and at least protect it while your heavy guns lay waste to your primary source. We've got a Pierce stud pump with a 3500 GPM (from draft) pump, a 300GPM foam pump and a 5000GPM monitor on the roof to worry about that stuff- nevermind the 30 or so static monitors on site fed by 24-36" mains.

We're evaluating CAFS' practicality for our site right now- in theory though the class A is best suited for our interior structural and exposure protection... I'm hoping that we'll be able to cram an effective system on our incoming Quint- where it will be used in this capacity as often as it should occur (c'mon, we're industry... probably not much.)

Any further thoughts on this would be appreciated!

[CdnFyreGuy]

Check out a site called www.fireproductsearch.com it has at least one article there about class b CAFS. It's written by Mr. Colleti (spelling?) whom I believe is the big CAFS guru for a pump manufacturer. He has written numerous articles regarding CAFS systems and seems to be positive about it with regards to class b. Might be a money saver for the following, I don't claim to have seen this but Pierce claims their system uses approx 30% less solution than a non cafs system. With foam costing X $'s that could add up to a lot at a big industrial fire.

[Toxic]

We recently used a CAFS system to fight a fire inside a silo. The product was crushed canola meal that still contained a certain percentage of oil. While the CAFS didn't really put the fire out (even with several drums of foam we got from the airport) it was more effective than any other foam delivery we tried. CAFS sure does make nice foam...

[BriKen]

At our department we have 1 cafs unit, but it never rolls and it is actually being retired and replaced this year. It is great for rapid attack, but all of our engines now carry foam making it almost obsolete

[WFD999]

How often, if at all is Cafs used in Industrial Firefighting?????


B.O.S.S. (Bravo Oilfield Saftey Services) has two trucks running cafs running out of Grande Prairie. This company was fired up by one of the original owners of Safety Boss

[cdares]

Anyone knows of a place that wants a good CAFS unit- mounted on a trailer with a tank let me know...we have one for sale- PM me...

[offshoreonshore]

B.O.S.S. (Bravo Oilfield Saftey Services) has two trucks running cafs running out of Grande Prairie. This company was fired up by one of the original owners of Safety Boss

While you are correct that they are running CAFS units you are wrong about ownership, in a sense. One of the principals in B.O.S.S was a part owner of SafetyBOSS Inc in the post SafetyBOSS Canada/Key Safety days.

[TJBurke]

I work Emergency Response in Ontarios' Nuclear Stations. We use CAFS at one of the Stations. We have a mini-pumper with CAFS capabilities. Small truck for moving around tight areas ect. We have used it in many applications and I am extremely impressed.