Seattle firefighters demonstrated its latest endeavor Thursday -- the Energy Response Unit.
The department and Seattle City Light teamed up obtain equipment and train crews to tackle electrical fires, King 5 reported.
The unit includes 44 firefighters specifically trained to fight energy-related fires, a new rig with 11,000 pounds of carbon dioxide and 600 feet of hose line. The aim is to put out fires safely and quickly to minimize destruction to expensive equipment and the power outages that would follow.
"These fires are rare but can cause catastrophic impacts to infrastructure, possibly causing widespread power outages, and none of us want to see that," SFD Chief Harold Scoggins told reporters. "[This is] the most capable apparatus in the nation for extinguishing these types of powers."
They pour carbon dioxide into a vault while covering the opening with a tarp, and it robs the fire of oxygen. Then, power crews can deenergize electrical equipment to make the area safe for repairs.
SCL assistant general manager Mike Haynes said of the venture: "When we embarked on this partnership with the fire department ... the goal was to enhance safety, efficiently fight these energy-based fires in vaults and substations, and there's very few technologies that can do that.
The unveiling was a bittersweet moment for Capt. Chris Green as he is retiring after a longtime career.
He's been working on the project with light officials since 2014.
"For a long time there's been an ethos that you just let them burn, and this is incredibly expensive, but it's an ethos adopted and accepted by the fire service at large for over 50-60 years and it's cost us a lot of money. There's not a utility space fire in this city we can't handle right now. We've got the reach, we've got the capacity," he said adding that if he had any doubts about the readiness, he wouldn't be retiring.
