Myer Fire

[JC]

A mate from Tassie sent me some pics of the very early stages of the Myer fire in Hobart, its amazing to see how out of control it got.

[JC]

another

[JC]

and another

[JC]

more

[JC]

and more

[JC]

yep more

[JC]

This pic is just a random pic i found of the job that shows the difference between the early stages and it absolutly going off. What an amazing difference.

[rescue5271]

Tassie fire brigade's have had some large building fires over the last few months but that myer fire was a once in a life time job for some of the crews and from what i have read and seen on TV a job well done by both the staff and volunteers. hope some of their new pumpers got a run to it and worked..I am sure there next mag will have some happy photos and a good story or two.....

[country kid]

unfortunate about the store, (one of the better ones.)
but WELL DONE to all involved.

[6739264]

Pity about the shitload of fuel sitting in the basement, that didn't really help firefighting efforts.

[CFS_Firey]

Any idea where in the building the fire started?

[country kid]

i heard that the fire started on the ground floor, next to highly flamable makeup.
not sure how correct it is, as i heard that on the t.v.

anyone heard how it started??

[Pipster]

Info I had was it appeared to be an electrical fault, within a floor cavity somewhere on the ground floor level....a spot where the sprinklers weren't....

By the time it was realised there was a fire, it had been burning for a while....so when crews attended, they had some difficulty in finding the seat of the fire...

Pip

[country kid]

darn, spose that will teach them to put sprinklers all through the building next time, considering the value.
 ahwell once again well done to those involved.

[rescue5271]

From friend in tassie they have been unable to find a cause as the building was so unstable they could not send in fire investigator's and they may never know the cause.

[rescue5271]

You have to remember that you can put in sprinklers but they may not stop a fire all the time.....

[boredmatrix]

or..in the case of the recent Myer centre fire in Adel - the water damage far outstrips the dollar value caused by the fire! 

mmm....while a well involved big one like that would be fun - I'd prefer water damage anyday!

...and no..I'm not a pyro!

[mattb]

Here is the Coronial report from this fire

http://www.magistratescourt.tas.gov.au/decisions/coronial_findings/m/myer_fire_-_2009_tas_cd_239

To say the Tassie Fire Service coppped a bollocking about this job would be an understatement. The Coroner ripped into them big time for turning off the sprinklers early into the job, not following established SOP's and not having suitable pre-plans for high risk premises .

The short of it is that the Station Officer was worried about the potential of electrocution from the water from the sprinklers and the electrical hazard, but then removed all fire fighters from the area anyway and ceased any fire-fighting operations, it wasn't until the fire was beyond the size of the sprinkler system that they turned them back on - by then she was well on the way to becoming a carpark. It seems that there were a number of fundamental mistakes made on the day, with SOP's not being followed and an S.O. that was out of his depth (as we probably all would be at the 'big one')

It is interesting to see how the coroner looked at this job and how the incompetence of certain individuals was publically highlighted. Certainly a career limiting report for some you would think.

It is worth having a look at this, especially if you ever expect to have anything to do with sprinklers, boosters or any type of high rise fire. It makes you wonder how differently things would be done here.

[Darren]

Yes, it could happen here, especially with the complete lack of training the CFS provides crews, its only that some of us take it upon ourselves to learn it that we know, as they say "its more donkey than class" that has got us through so far.....
I guess we can put a rakehoe line around the building to stop the spread..

[Zippy]

its only that some of us take it upon ourselves to learn it that we know

Hear Hear.

[RescueHazmat]

Maybe it shouldn't have been up to the S.O to make that kind of a decision, at such a large incident?.. Might need to be looking into their hirachy and checkout what plans are in place for large scale incidents..


- The response would need to be right for the CFS to even get to a job where boosters are required.. - "Respond Assist Resident, boosting operation required" ... Hehe..

[Darren]

The thing is, it is up to the officer on the pump, as what made the fire worse is what happened in the first few mins. The DO normally wouldn't be there for a while, as being an alarm call you would only add them in the upgrade. What surprised me (amongst a million other things) is A, they only have 1 pump on alarm calls B, the upgrade only got him 1 pump.

[ftstn]

Most calls in Hobart only get 1 pump, nursing homes/hospitals etc get 2, pretty much everything else is special call, also remember that in hobart the career guys have 5 heavy pumpers, 2 in station 1 , 1 at station 2 and 1 at station 3, the 2 composite stations run a Urban Heavy Tanker 3.1P and they have 1 Heavy pumper in ready to go reserve at Station 1, after that the three nearest urban pumpers are all medium pumpers 1 at Fern Tree, 1 at Kingston and the other I think is Lauderdale, Hbt staion also runs the HP for southern tas, and the Special equipment/Rescue Vehicle for Hobart,

Crew for either the HP or special equipment is pulled from 1 of the 2 hobart heavy pumpers, in the case of a RAR call in hobart they send 1 heavy pumper and the rescue, then bring one of the other station in for coverage.

Maffu

[Zippy]

If you had a fire like that in Adelaide, you'd expect at least 8 pumps, 2 brontos, BA/Hazmat appliance, a ICV & a gazzlion District Officer's Cars.

[Alan J]

I guess we can put a rakehoe line around the building to stop the spread..

Or back-burn from the third floor.

A bit risky CFS CoQ to Wakefield St