Man, it's been a bad year for BD fires...

http://www.oregonlive.com/news...601982850.xml&coll=6

Tuesday, November 03, 2009
By Nick Christensen
The Hillsboro Argus

The Argus

Four Forest Grove residents barely escaped an explosive blaze, fueled by a home-brew of biodiesel, that caused more than $250,000 in damages Thursday night.

Forest Grove firefighters were called to a house on the 3300 block of Valley Crest Way just before 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

The home's occupant was cooking dinner when she smelled smoke and discovered it was coming from heating vents. When the occupant went to the garage, she found flames.

She then rushed from the home with her three children and called 911. Neighbors, hearing large explosions, also called firefighters. A male occupant of the home was at work at the time of the blaze.

When crews from Forest Grove Fire and Rescue arrived, they saw flames pouring from the garage and from second-story windows. Their efforts were hampered by the biodiesel manufacturing operation, which used vegetable oil and a chemical to manufacture the fuel at home.

Forest Grove Fire Inspector Dave Nemeyer said about 170 gallons of vegetable oil, and another 10 gallons of methanol, were in the garage at the time.

"But he had potentially seven drums of methanol that were just empty," Nemeyer said.

It took 40 firefighters, including units from the Cornelius, Banks, Hillsboro, Gaston, Tualatin Valley and Washington County fire departments, about two hours to extinguish the blaze.

Damage was preliminarily estimated at $280,000.

Nemeyer said he doesn't think there's anything in the Forest Grove fire code preventing homeowners from making their own biodiesel at home.

But, he said, people should consider what their insurance policies cover before starting a project like a home biodiesel refinery.

quote:

Originally posted by mankypro:

It took 40 firefighters, including units from the Cornelius, Banks, Hillsboro, Gaston, Tualatin Valley and Washington County fire departments, about two hours to extinguish the blaze.

40 Firefighters from 7 stations 2 hours to put out 1 Double story house fire????
What were they fighting the fire with?
Wet Blankets?? Were they passing buckets in a line from the next block???

After 2 hours I think the house would have gone out itself from having burnt all the available fuel.
Even if there was a full tote of oil ( which there wasn't) I can't possibly see how it would take that long to put the fire out. They could have pumped that much water on the place in that time it would have been washed away.

I have seen a couple of house fires up close and I just can't imagine how it would take that kind of resources that long to put out one single house, oil or not.

DCS, do you know anything about fighting fire? I've definitely heard of small fires requiring large units before.

Also, 7 "empty" drums of methanol = far bigger danger, in some ways, than 1 full drum.

I was a firefighter for 15 years and there are many factors witch we don’t have. Type of building construction, square footage of the house, location of water source, time of day, staffing of equipment and location of nearby fire stations, weather conditions and there are more factors that I could list just listed the top 7. Without all the facts we don’t know so lets note assume.