How many thousands of gallons of fresh water are being wasted on the current Cary gas line fire? And for what? The drilling truck involved has long ago burned off its fuel, the truck (and road) is a total loss anyway, there is nothing around it that can catch fire (or that hasn’t already caught fire), and firefighters aren’t trying to extinguish the fire but are letting it burn out. Can some of my firefighter buddies tell me what these guys hope to accomplish by aiming hoses at it, other than practicing their aim?
On a related note, is there a reason firefighters must use fresh water to fight fires? Can’t they use reuse water just as easily and safely?
Bonus link: Check out the fire from the perspective of the N.C. DOT traffic camera on the scene.
I think that one danger is that the if it is allowed to heat up continuously without check, something else will catch fire…. The time to think about using something else is before the fire.
Actually, what they reported this morning on the news was that the water kept the temperature down enough so that the road didn’t buckle. So, the road was _not_ a total loss after all.
To answer my own question, two trucks poured 80,000 gallons of water per hour for four hours. That equals 640,000 gallons of water for the fire.
Oh, and they had good reason: they were keeping the drilling truck’s diesel and hydraulic tanks cool, preventing an explosion.