How would you deal with rowdy fire-starters ?

[Whitewater_419]

Hey all;

This was brought up in ott.general and I said I'd ask here to see what the rest of you would do:

You're called to a fire in a quarry/pit - Upon arrival, there is a large bonfire and a bunch of individuals around the fire. They have no burn permit, there is no method of fire control nearby (no buckets, hoses, rakes or shovels) - It's a bunch of people having a huge honkin' fire that's sending embers and sparks into surrounding treed areas.

Upon arrival and initial setup, you're told to "f*** off" and the group spreads out loosely to show they're not going to let you near their bonfire.

If police response time is an average of 20 minutes away - would you wait for them ?

[LTPVFD]

Been there once before - in the north - we were actually called by the police
to deal with several large bonfires in an old gravel pit. Conditions were ripe for sparks and embers to create a wildfire incident.

We had extinguished a couple of the smaller fires, and were moving on to the bigger ones. Thats when the rocks and bottles started to fly in our direction. :eek: After a few bounced off the truck, we packed up and went home - our safety was number 1. :idea:

In this scenario, I would not go in without the appropriate number of police being present. Much rather go in with someone watching our backs than dealing with a bunch of drunks who have had too many :beerglass::beerglass:, if I were to take my crew in at all.

Stay safe !!


LTPVFD

[takethewheel]

Fire in a pit is not worth Crew Risk...Wait for the cop's...

[firefighter26]

We did a simular call last summer. First time I have ever personally came across it.

Kids were having a party at their place while their parents were away (probably not the greatest choice). During the party, a bon fire was sparked up. The police were called, maninly because of the 150+ kids at the party (again, not the greatest choice to invite half the school).

Our chief gets paged to investage as well. With the help of the police, they manage to track down the kids that live there and the chief basically tells them they have 15 minutes to put the fire out, or he is calling in a truck and crew to do it for him, for the tune of $400. Sure enough, 15 minutes pass and the fire is still going. We're paged out and roll in. The cops, who've been there most the night (and got wind of the pending parting on facebook, again, not the greatest idea to have a parents are away party, invite half the school, and then post the date and location on facebook).

Luckily the cops were kind of enough to form a perimetre around us while we layed our lines and took care of the fire. It add insult to unjury, they also ticketed and towed a few cars that were blocking hydrants up and down the road in both directions.

Last I heard, the home owners got did get their $400 bill in the mail, but I am not sure if it was ever paid!

If it wasn't for all the police on scene we probably would have just waiting around the corner for them to show up; and if they didn't, called it a night. All in all, it wasn't to bad. A few rocks were thrown, mostly at the police and not us, but I certainly didn't want to be there without the good ol' boys in blue!

[itsnotahobby]

WAIT FOR THE 5-0! Why is it that whenever we get called out we feel the need to jump in right away and do something? If you are talking a fire close to a house or impinging on an exposure then more aggressive tactics may be in order, but for this our crew wouldn't get off until the po-po had the situation under control.

What's the first thing we always talk about and have to make sure of as first responders? Scene safety. As soon as you are threatened like that by a mob, back in the big ol' red truck.

By the way down our way when the fuzz gets on scene and someones given us a hard time, let alone threatened any of us, its a great show to watch and sometimes get involved in! Nothing like watching a group of mouthy punks basically crying for mommy 'cause they weren't being as polite as they should've to the firefighters!

BTW: I tried to use as many different references for the boys in blue as I could!:)

[nocomment]

If police response time is an average of 20 minutes away - would you wait for them ?

Easy answer. YES.

[Whitewater_419]

Excellent, guys - That's pretty much what I thought, though I've heard a couple of anectotal stories where the FF's attacked the fire anyway and some of the rowdies got "accidentally splashed". Luckily (and I don't know if this story was true/accurate or not) that was all that happened (i.e. no retaliation).

Seems to me that we're supposed to be the good guys - If we're faced with a situation where out hoses and fire axes are suddenly tools for personal protection over fire suppression, that situation should be vacated post-haste. (And I give a heart-felt tip of the helmet to the boys in blue who do indeed take on the role of dispersing/dealing with this type of situation!)

[Inspir]

Master Stream ;)

[RugbyCanada]

Wait for the coppers for sure. Why antogonise a bunch of drunk kids? You'd be asking for damage to the apparatus, a loss of "respect" by the brats, and worse, the possibility of FF's being injured.

If it was me, I would position the appartus close to the most likely place for a flare up to start in the woods, and be prepared to hose down that particular area. The original fire in the gravel pit surrounded by drunken brats would take second fiddle untill the cops arrived.

Good question, by the way.

Cheers,

RC

[Ruckus]

Wait for the Mounties, then pump our 600 Gallon tank dry on the bonfire.

[Nagrom]

Deck gun...

[ndvfd_ff33]

Whenever we faced this sort of situation we just called for the RCMP to come out. Anybody in rural Nova Scotia knows how long this can take sometimes so we were often waiting a good little while for them. No sense in getting involved with idiots like that.

[futureFF]

Master Stream ;)


lol I agree.

Nothing like the good'ol deck gun

[QWEST6]

We ran into this last weekend at a party in a backyard. Flames were 20-25 feet in the air. OPP called us in to put fire out. We did not respond until we had enough manpower to man all the trucks - safety in numbers:D

Coal bed was 5 feet high and 12 feet across. We heard a lot of name calling, pulled two lines and used foam. Had fire out in less then 5 minutes, packed up and went back to the hall. While packing up the party gowers were trying to put more wood on the fire. I guess all that foam made it hard to light, they never did get it going again. ;)

We always let the OPP handle the drunk and rowdy.

There had to have been 100-150 very drunk people there.

Q.

[wearitwell]

i wouldnt even bother with it wait for the cops, but its also sad that people like that have no respect for a department. Ive been to a couple calls like that but everyone is usually pretty good not to mention girls hitting on you left and right hahah.

[Inspir]

Stage far away, get a set of binos, and call in the water bombers

[WFD999]

Stage far away, get a set of binos, and call in the water bombers

I Like.... Party goers turned pink

[AKSFD08]

lol I agree.

Nothing like the good'ol deck gun

Exactly! I'd unleash "The Crippler" (aka Deck Gun)...scatter em' real good.

Just kidding. I'd wait for the cops.