Reminds me of the time (back in the day when I was firefighter) that we were dispatched to a house that experienced a lightning strike on the tree in the front yard. When we got there we could see short little flames popping up through the grass all over the yard. Put them out and they would come right back. Turns out the lightning had ruptured the house's gas line and it was seeping up through the soil. For a few minutes we were perplexed as to why the dirt was burning. Got the gas line shut off and the flames stopped. We got to clear the scene and let the gas company get to work.
Thank you so much for your little story of your experience as a firefighter and this crazy scene you had on this unusual day and fire! I love it and I find it so fascinating and astonishing to hear! Lovely greetings from Sarah and have a wonderful day and stay safe out there and take care of you all the time 🙋💖🙋💖🙋💖🙋💖🙋💖
This past summer I saw a fire start on a truck parked over a storm sewer. It sprayed liquid asphalt on driveways to seal them. The tank ruptured, sending hot liquid asphalt in the sewer system. There was fire coming out of three catch basins. The fire dept did a controlled burn to allow all the asphalt to burn off, attempting to reduce the the amount of oil in the water. Three large plumes of smoke for an hour. What a call for the I.C. to make; Protect the air from smoke by extinguishing the fire, OR protect the water by letting the product burn off.
Simultaneous lines attacking both sewers at the same time could have shortened the possibility of flames. The streams just pushed the flammable gases from one sewer drain to another. Great job establishing the supple line from a good distance. The fire was underestimated.
So you had at least the City of Santa Cruz FD and the California Division of Forestry (CalFire) responding. Most of the flames appear to be coming from the storm drain channel next to the substation. Was it transformer oil that boiled out of an over heated transformer? That would account for the flames in the storm drains.
9:17 it flares up again like they did nothing 10:07 you can see it on the other side of the street 10:43 it's flaring up out of another hole behind the bush 12:05 it all flares back up again....If I was there I would have run thinking the whole street was going to explode from underground.....and the firemen are acting like they are supposed to keep the fire down in the holes but it's down there.....??? something like this happened in Long Beach regularly and how did they stop it? They locked down all the man hole covers.....Haven't seen a sewer fire since.
read the incident report, underground plastic culvert caught fire. likely this was due to a power line(s) that crossed the road both poles have underground sheaths covering those lines and you can see the one burning at 4:34 likely the underground heat caught the pipe on fire then the line gave out
James. Milwaukee Wisconsin uses/used a combination system. If the sewer pipe is over 3/4 full it will spill into the storm sewer. Milwaukee claims to have separated the systems in 70's but i did sewer and water in late 80's early 90's and systems still linked. As far as cause I don't know. A lot of thing could be. Leaves, garbage, or contaminates. People pour all kinds of things out. While replacing sewer in industrial area city asked us to watch for contaminated as someone was illegally flushing chemicals.
Lazy speech habit. Firefighters said it smells like gas - translation, it smells like gasoline. Again with the lazy speech. Some tool prepper didn't recycle his 30 gallons of turned rancid 'bug out' fuel stash and just dumped it in one of these holes instead.
???? I don't get it??? Show up pump you tank empty then connect to a hydrant? These boys have to go back for more training! and that can dump as much water and AFFF as they want... without shutting down the power the fire will not be put out!
From experience, Obviously this is an underground High voltage electrical fire, First clue it is in the front of a PG&E substation. Second clue look at the powerpole at the first of this video. The neutral/ground wire is red hot and burning into the pole, Indicating an over current fault in the area. It is venting up through the storm drain because the electrical conduits are under the storm drain system.
Doug Lloyd: Storm Drain? the description comments state it is a sewer line. Although I will agree the sparks and burning insulation make be the cause of the ignition of sewer gases.
David: Storm drains and sewers are 2 separate lines. I have never seen a sewer connect to a storm drain grate. I clearly see the fire crew spraying water into the storm drain grate. If you also read the Santa Cruz fire department report it clearly states that fire was coming out of Storm Drain.
Not only that but when the fires on the other side of the street, this wackjobs spraying the smoke. Also, mind you this is California where they’re “critically low on water.” Like bro there’s quite literally two sides of the street; smoke, and fire. Why would you pick smoke? 😂😂😂
Yes that would be my guess. A transformer leaks hot oil, over runs any bunding and flows to the storm drain, leaves and litter debris in drain combust from heat of the oil and we are off to the races Oil in the drains explains the fire behaviour when doused with water.
I agree with the oil theory. Natural gas doesn't emit such thick black smoke, even when burning with an oxygen deficit. Secondly the fire fighters break the lock to the sub station to get access to the source of the fire, which in this case can only be transformer oil. And indeed, when doused with plain water the fire flares back up when they stop dousing it, after they start to use foam the fire is quickly brought under control. Natural gas would keep on burning even with foam, as it is lighter than the foam blanket the foam will spread underneath.
To all you uneducated guessers. The description states it is a sewer fire there are many things in a sewer and pretty much all of it emits nasty gasses not one of which is natural gas as produced in the oil and gas industry Methane, Hydrogen Sulphide, both are flammable and the fire can cause grease and cooking oil to catch fire and both of these liquids have a lower specific gravity than water. This means they float on water.There are also solid fuels that build up in sewers. So the theory that you purport is only one possible cause. New information has come to me which can also explain the black smoke the sewer pipes had been lined with Polyvinyl Cloride which will produce black smoke while burning.
Not trying to say they did wrong. I have a few question for my own edification. It has been several years since I was a firefight, in a different state, in a rural department. So I really don’t know this. 1) Why is Cal Fire there? 2)In general, why don’t more firefighters use a modified/tight cone instead of straight stream, especially when up close? 3) Once more truckers showed up, why didn’t the establish more line so they could attach drains both sides of the road and the brush? Again, I’m not second guessing these guys, and I know we don’t see the whole scene. I am just trying to learn something new.
@@maxhallman1036 OK, Thank you. This is a little odd but very interesting to me. I don't know the organization structure/logistics of CalFire. Here in Texas, the Forestry Service basically provides mutual aid, typically when asked by the local service, but pretty much exclusively wildland fire and the related exposures. Could you point me towards some information on CalFire's organization.
Stubborn flames! Love how well you caught them trying to knock them down. Bit weird that they're wearing turnout jackets but not pants? Would be concerned myself.
There must’ve been a designated concrete culvert for power cables which crossed the street as fire came up out of that drain. The black smok suggests electrical cable insulation burning. As others have pointed out, surely a call to the power company to shut off the power from and in the sub station should have been made at the outset and their crews should have been there asap, especially as electricity and water is a lethal mix. Once the power was off all that is left is to try to shut off the oxygen getting to the burning plastics.
@@Astinsan they are ALL fire hoses...and one of them is flowing foam. You do realize that all those billions of tiny foam bubbles are filled with WATER, don't you?
Hmm, since it's likely still on fire down in the sewer, would it possibly work to pipe the exhaust from the trucks down into the sewer to rob it of oxygen?
Yeah, like they put plastic in there. It is really not a "sewer" fire at all. There is a culvert under the road. I am guessing it was corrugated HDPE, a highly flammable plastic.
dont know what type of "pipe" it would have been,but its not a sewer manhole,they only have two or so holes(and those holes are two fold,one to vent and two to have a way to lift them,theyre damned heavy,i used my pick to lift em),thats in the gutter and open,as is the one across the street that they keep pushing the smoke out of.ive been out of the plumbing and under ground work for 23 years,fire fighting as well.i dont recall any plastics being run for sewer or storm drains anywhere in california,was always to be clay,or a metal of sometype.laws/rules do change though.
ike fun - The incident report says, "culvert lined in heavy PWC". Since nobody would line a culvert with Personal Water Craft, I think it is safe to assume they meant PVC. So yes it was a plastic pipe. Sorry to disappoint you trying to disappoint me.
Question for any career firefighter - judging from the comments down below it's not appropriate to wear brush gear to a sewer fire or a gas leak. Even with respirators out of the equation, why is this? Just curious.
The location of the fire is on Mission Street Extension at "Arroyo Seco Creek" where the creek crosses under the road. The flames and smoke are emerging from a storm drain along the gutter and from the part of the creek that passes along the side of the PG&E substation. This section of the creek has been converted into a concrete channel where it is squeezed between the PG&E substation and a commercial building. Smoke is also seen on the other side of the road, emerging from the storm drain opening at the curb because the storm drain/creek channel crosses under the road. The City's storm drains in this area, and on Delaware Avenue, are connected to this creek channel -- there is no separate storm drain system in this area -- the creek is used to drain storm water from the streets. The creek eventually flows to the ocean along West Cliff Drive. Parts of the creek are above ground, and parts are underground. The creek runs through Arroyo Seco Canyon, north of Highway 1, and can be seen at the park on Meder Street at the top of the canyon.. localwiki.org/santacruz/Arroyo_Seco_Canyon If this were a "gas leak," wouldn't PG&E vehicles be at the scene? Why would there be a natural gas line in the storm drain/creek? What is burning? Oil? Did someone dump oil into the storm drain and ignite it? Did oil leak out of the substation into the creek? At one point in the video, the fire department is seen breaking into the gates of the substation. It would be interesting to have more information about this incident. goo.gl/maps/nwcUG2xEcaR2
First environmental regulations prohibit draining run off from industrial facilities into storm drains as these do not go through a water treatment facility. Second storm drains can not produce fires like this one, they do not have sewage in them. Third if your theory is correct then please explain the burning of the utility poles from red hot ground wires.
This is not a "sewer fire," it is a storm drain fire, Big difference, each ends up in a different place. Too bad that something toxic and flammable ended up in the storm drain system of a city so close to water.
After a while the fires popping up kinda reminds me of the wacka-mole at the penny arcade. I'lll go listen to some of it, the radio traffic in the video would be nice.
You don't put out gas fires until you stop the source of the gas. The last thing you want it to do is create a ginormous vapor cloud and light back off.
Not trying to monday morning quarterback but I have a few things that I feel need to be said. 1) Mostly for the first arriving Engine, where the hell is your PPE? That should be common sense, protect yourself. 2) Why'd it take so long to decide to establish a water supply? I'm just saying, especially when you ran into that "oh- shit" moment when he yelled that you're out of water. Use this video as a training tool if anything. I expected better, especially being that it's a career department.
I definitely agree with the PPE statement. Even at the end of the video when there's plenty of FF's walking around in bunker. Let someone handle the nozzle and get your shit together.
looks lik they thought it was a 'regular, small' fire at first, why hook up water. Somebody noticed it wasn't and made call, you'll notice that 4 trucks arrived within a minute of each other. Since average response time is 5-10 minutes, means somebody called for backup at least 4 minutes before they ran out of water
Also, with 2 guys, 1 guy holding the hose and other guy running the pump, who's going to run the new hose. I'm not sure what the chief car in back was doing, but note that the cal-fire guy came over to help manhandle everything. When you need mutual aid to run 1 water line...
this looks like a typical underground cable fire.......with the possible effects of methane from the drains, of course i wasnt there but these are really difficult to deal with as you just dont know whats what, have a look at a UK fire service drive to incidents
It's called Complacency, "aww it's just a small fire we can do this with a helmet and brush coat". It will get someone killed or hurt in this job, always "be prepared for the worst and hope for the best"
How about this for complacency....engine responds to investigate a heavy odor of chlorine at the sewage plant. First due, all 3 guys (including driver) walk up to the chlorine tank and, suddenly off the air, ....they just dropped. Ladder arrives - run to the rescue, no total PPE, all hurt, or passed out or burned, in pain. Someone manages to squeak out a Mayday...Responding Deputy chief orders a Full first alarm and I'm on 2nd engine in and finally we all were dressed for success prior to arrival. A senior guy on my engine was thinking of not masking up until he sized things up! One guy had to retire injured. Years later now the senior guys are frequently slacking on PPE again and the Chief wrote them all up. I believe in overkill. The lag in scaling up happens so much I tend to go to a garbage fire fully protected and lay in without charging the supply line just in case. Our Chief and Deputy chiefs do not hesitate as much these days to call for a second alarm and then return the units not needed. Arriving Captains on engines are also encouraged to make the judgement call to escalate assets. they are already on scene and have the best situational awareness. We don't wait until an officer arrives. If you are on tankers, I'd get on rolling asap, there is a water delay there. Why do we lean ladders up against buildings - to eliminate the delay in getting one after you need it.
Actually no it wasn't. If you listen to the scanner recording provided by Santa Cruz Films (their pinned comment), the first dispatch clearly does not say that it was a vegetation fire. It came over as an "other" type fire, with the description of something burning in the gutter, and spreading to a hydro pole.
I found this information on the City of Santa Cruz Website that may be helpful to you. www.cityofsantacruz.com/government/city-departments/human-resources/city-jobs/firefighter-paramedic-career/firefighter-entry-level (I am not affiliated with the fire department in any way, this is only a link to their website)
It's like watching the KeeStone Kops....They have 3 active fires and they have identified it smells of gas...and the fire is on both sides of the road so they park the truck right over it....
Wtf do people eat in that town?
Haha you've got me rolling over the floor laughing.
GSP Fan, Onion soup...
GSP Fan Taco bell
I was looking for a taco bell near by
GSP Fan spicy things lol
Reminds me of the time (back in the day when I was firefighter) that we were dispatched to a house that experienced a lightning strike on the tree in the front yard. When we got there we could see short little flames popping up through the grass all over the yard. Put them out and they would come right back. Turns out the lightning had ruptured the house's gas line and it was seeping up through the soil. For a few minutes we were perplexed as to why the dirt was burning. Got the gas line shut off and the flames stopped. We got to clear the scene and let the gas company get to work.
Thank you so much for your little story of your experience as a firefighter and this crazy scene you had on this unusual day and fire! I love it and I find it so fascinating and astonishing to hear! Lovely greetings from Sarah and have a wonderful day and stay safe out there and take care of you all the time 🙋💖🙋💖🙋💖🙋💖🙋💖
Why is the grass on fire.....smells like rotten egg..............*oh shit run*
Maybe you should write a book about your firefighting part of life
“Johnson, go door to door and tell these people to flush all their toilets!”
“But Chief...”
“Just do it man!”
@Epsilon Productions the gas in the sewer is flammable. That's the scary part.
@Epsilon Productions yes. And the hydrogen sulfide, methane, hydrogen its self. All sorts of poison and flammable gasses.
Won’t the oil from the transformer just keep running down the sewer with all the water there putting down there just wondering
Shout out to Santa Cruz Firefighters and their department - awesome work. 👍
This past summer I saw a fire start on a truck parked over a storm sewer. It sprayed liquid asphalt on driveways to seal them. The tank ruptured, sending hot liquid asphalt in the sewer system. There was fire coming out of three catch basins. The fire dept did a controlled burn to allow all the asphalt to burn off, attempting to reduce the the amount of oil in the water. Three large plumes of smoke for an hour. What a call for the I.C. to make; Protect the air from smoke by extinguishing the fire, OR protect the water by letting the product burn off.
Got Foam?
Simultaneous lines attacking both sewers at the same time could have shortened the possibility of flames. The streams just pushed the flammable gases from one sewer drain to another. Great job establishing the supple line from a good distance. The fire was underestimated.
So you had at least the City of Santa Cruz FD and the California Division of Forestry (CalFire) responding. Most of the flames appear to be coming from the storm drain channel next to the substation. Was it transformer oil that boiled out of an over heated transformer? That would account for the flames in the storm drains.
And water does shit on flaming oil🤣
9:17 it flares up again like they did nothing 10:07 you can see it on the other side of the street 10:43 it's flaring up out of another hole behind the bush 12:05 it all flares back up again....If I was there I would have run thinking the whole street was going to explode from underground.....and the firemen are acting like they are supposed to keep the fire down in the holes but it's down there.....??? something like this happened in Long Beach regularly and how did they stop it? They locked down all the man hole covers.....Haven't seen a sewer fire since.
read the incident report, underground plastic culvert caught fire. likely this was due to a power line(s) that crossed the road both poles have underground sheaths covering those lines and you can see the one burning at 4:34 likely the underground heat caught the pipe on fire then the line gave out
if smoke is coming up out of both sides of the street then the fire is also underneath them... any concern that the road might buckle & cave in????
HMCSWRET USN this may not be true but I do believe that sure lines only one on the edges of the road
Whenever you think you're not very good looking, just think of this firetruck @ 12:03
Can someone explain to me how in the world a sewer catches fire?
so a stack effect (chimney effect) fire - oxygen feed from the storm drain exit some distance away. Oxygen is pumped in because of the stack effect.
How does a sewer fire start? Seems kinda "shitty". Wonder if it smelled like how I imagine that it did?
I'm assuming they are not Level 2 pants that the first crew have on.... Why not??
looking at that smoke the heat in the sewer must be huge.
The Sutphen fire truck at 9:29 has Escalade headlights! How cool
So much for PPE... No SCBA, not even full gear? WTF is this, Keystone FD?
PG&E and underground fire in the same sentence is kind of suspicious, Starting to sound like a coincidence
Anyone care to explain how a Storm Drain became a sewer?
It's the same thing in California
My fault and you are correct. But still why the fire. How come? Rats barbequing or something?
James. Milwaukee Wisconsin uses/used a combination system. If the sewer pipe is over 3/4 full it will spill into the storm sewer. Milwaukee claims to have separated the systems in 70's but i did sewer and water in late 80's early 90's and systems still linked.
As far as cause I don't know. A lot of thing could be. Leaves, garbage, or contaminates. People pour all kinds of things out. While replacing sewer in industrial area city asked us to watch for contaminated as someone was illegally flushing chemicals.
Gayle Jean. You were close. It was a bunch of greasy Demohomcrats.
Lazy speech habit. Firefighters said it smells like gas - translation, it smells like gasoline. Again with the lazy speech. Some tool prepper didn't recycle his 30 gallons of turned rancid 'bug out' fuel stash and just dumped it in one of these holes instead.
Huge fan of the vids keep em coming!
yeah okay Taco
???? I don't get it??? Show up pump you tank empty then connect to a hydrant? These boys have to go back for more training! and that can dump as much water and AFFF as they want... without shutting down the power the fire will not be put out!
These guys dont need more training,its protocal.
From experience, Obviously this is an underground High voltage electrical fire, First clue it is in the front of a PG&E substation. Second clue look at the powerpole at the first of this video. The neutral/ground wire is red hot and burning into the pole, Indicating an over current fault in the area. It is venting up through the storm drain because the electrical conduits are under the storm drain system.
+Doug Lloyd Good catch! Didn't notice the wire until you mentioned it.
Doug Lloyd: Storm Drain? the description comments state it is a sewer line. Although I will agree the sparks and burning insulation make be the cause of the ignition of sewer gases.
David: Storm drains and sewers are 2 separate lines. I have never seen a sewer connect to a storm drain grate. I clearly see the fire crew spraying water into the storm drain grate. If you also read the Santa Cruz fire department report it clearly states that fire was coming out of Storm Drain.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were smoking weed and the discarded match lit up the sewage system. Causing fire to bellow up from the street.
Right-on man 😂
Hellish fire. At 13:13 what ever fuel was feeding this fire was shut off. The flames went away.
BRAVO à tous les pompiers qui risquent leur vie pour nous sauver !!! merci à eux !!!!
My question is..
What have you people been eating, to produce that much gas?
Engine 2 has more ppe and proper gear then engine 1 what is wrong with them down there
Engine 2 comes from a different station than engine one.
Engine one was by the looks of it all calfire guys
My God... its like watching two guys without proper PPE dumping water down a vent hole we just cut.
Not only that but when the fires on the other side of the street, this wackjobs spraying the smoke. Also, mind you this is California where they’re “critically low on water.” Like bro there’s quite literally two sides of the street; smoke, and fire. Why would you pick smoke? 😂😂😂
Looks like a transformer oil fire.
Yes that would be my guess.
A transformer leaks hot oil, over runs any bunding and flows to the storm drain, leaves and litter debris in drain combust from heat of the oil and we are off to the races Oil in the drains explains the fire behaviour when doused with water.
Very logical explanation. Thanks for commenting.
I agree with the oil theory.
Natural gas doesn't emit such thick black smoke, even when burning with an oxygen deficit.
Secondly the fire fighters break the lock to the sub station to get access to the source of the fire, which in this case can only be transformer oil.
And indeed, when doused with plain water the fire flares back up when they stop dousing it, after they start to use foam the fire is quickly brought under control.
Natural gas would keep on burning even with foam, as it is lighter than the foam blanket the foam will spread underneath.
To all you uneducated guessers. The description states it is a sewer fire there are many things in a sewer and pretty much all of it emits nasty gasses not one of which is natural gas as produced in the oil and gas industry Methane, Hydrogen Sulphide, both are flammable and the fire can cause grease and cooking oil to catch fire and both of these liquids have a lower specific gravity than water. This means they float on water.There are also solid fuels that build up in sewers. So the theory that you purport is only one possible cause. New information has come to me which can also explain the black smoke the sewer pipes had been lined with Polyvinyl Cloride which will produce black smoke while burning.
Why don't they use foam to put out the oil fire?
The day after a night at taco Bell?
Underrated comment
MERRY CHRISTMAS! SHITTERS FULL!
Steven Pivornik LOL 😂
stupid remark
Not any more the fire burned up the crap in the sewer.
Perfect!!
That was one spicy meatball!!!!!
Excelente video pero dónde está el equipo de protección en los pioneros
What is that weird truck with the old Escalade headlights???
Not trying to say they did wrong. I have a few question for my own edification. It has been several years since I was a firefight, in a different state, in a rural department. So I really don’t know this.
1) Why is Cal Fire there? 2)In general, why don’t more firefighters use a modified/tight cone instead of straight stream, especially when up close? 3) Once more truckers showed up, why didn’t the establish more line so they could attach drains both sides of the road and the brush?
Again, I’m not second guessing these guys, and I know we don’t see the whole scene. I am just trying to learn something new.
CalFire responds to structural fires from some stations
@@maxhallman1036 OK, Thank you. This is a little odd but very interesting to me. I don't know the organization structure/logistics of CalFire. Here in Texas, the Forestry Service basically provides mutual aid, typically when asked by the local service, but pretty much exclusively wildland fire and the related exposures. Could you point me towards some information on CalFire's organization.
@@Caderic I think CalFire got done with a call went back to station got called out and just grabbed thwy housing department's truck instead of theirs
@@Caderic www.fire.ca.gov/ that's the link to the home page for CalFire
@@maxhallman1036 Ok, so are they perhaps co-located with the local department maybe? Or at least that company or unit?
Stubborn flames! Love how well you caught them trying to knock them down.
Bit weird that they're wearing turnout jackets but not pants? Would be concerned myself.
Im not acaully positive,im probably wrong,those are wildlands turnouts ,I think.
@@bobhudson3588 possibly
How does the sewer catch fire? Grease along with flammables or something?
So where is the “HUGE “ ? Just a small fire what was difficult to get to.
There must’ve been a designated concrete culvert for power cables which crossed the street as fire came up out of that drain. The black smok suggests electrical cable insulation burning. As others have pointed out, surely a call to the power company to shut off the power from and in the sub station should have been made at the outset and their crews should have been there asap, especially as electricity and water is a lethal mix. Once the power was off all that is left is to try to shut off the oxygen getting to the burning plastics.
FOAM needs to be used to smother it. Fire was seen behind the dark green bush. Looks like transformer oil likely the issue
And then Snoop Dogg pops his head out of the sewer, still dabbing wondering what the hell all that water was for.
LMAO I just read that in Snoop Doggs Voice!
Either him or Willie Nelson...
SHUT THE FUCK UP BITCH
Hahah
MusicLover P who shat in your cereal?
Could it be 33000 lost emails??
well if they weren't lost before they certainly lost now
It’s an oil fire.. they will never put it out with water. Should use foam
Jason Brooks a lot of cities don’t allow foam in the sewer
@@jacobhaugen1549 that's a storm drain not a sewer
Foam? You mean like that thick white bubbly stuff they are flowing?
@@kentcarter835 that is a water hose man
@@Astinsan they are ALL fire hoses...and one of them is flowing foam. You do realize that all those billions of tiny foam bubbles are filled with WATER, don't you?
Okay I don't know much about fire Sciences how the heck does a sewer fire start? Any firefighters on here?
@5:27 that fire truck has escalade headlights
There is such a thing called foam to put out oil, and gas fires ?
There such a price such as $6,000/gal. on foam just to mix
Cold they plug the oxygen off to the sewer? By plugging holes just curious.
Greg Walker I don’t think so :(
Is that ladder trucks sutphen?
Yes
Hmm, since it's likely still on fire down in the sewer, would it possibly work to pipe the exhaust from the trucks down into the sewer to rob it of oxygen?
good idea
Was it oil or gas in the sewer? Or something else? Water didn't seem to work on the fire out of the sewer.
Sewers and storm drains don’t normally use the same pipes. Someone would have had to put something flammable in the storm drain.
Yeah, like they put plastic in there. It is really not a "sewer" fire at all. There is a culvert under the road. I am guessing it was corrugated HDPE, a highly flammable plastic.
dont know what type of "pipe" it would have been,but its not a sewer manhole,they only have two or so holes(and those holes are two fold,one to vent and two to have a way to lift them,theyre damned heavy,i used my pick to lift em),thats in the gutter and open,as is the one across the street that they keep pushing the smoke out of.ive been out of the plumbing and under ground work for 23 years,fire fighting as well.i dont recall any plastics being run for sewer or storm drains anywhere in california,was always to be clay,or a metal of sometype.laws/rules do change though.
ike fun - The incident report says, "culvert lined in heavy PWC". Since nobody would line a culvert with Personal Water Craft, I think it is safe to assume they meant PVC. So yes it was a plastic pipe. Sorry to disappoint you trying to disappoint me.
jmdelapp Could PWC mean “public water conduit?”
I will suggest you check out the EPA regulations about drains and sewers vs storm drains near possible sources of water contaminants.
smoke = combustion of something = WEAR THE MASK guys!
Do you even foam line bro?
why was cal fire involved?
Question for any career firefighter - judging from the comments down below it's not appropriate to wear brush gear to a sewer fire or a gas leak. Even with respirators out of the equation, why is this? Just curious.
The location of the fire is on Mission Street Extension at "Arroyo Seco Creek" where the creek crosses under the road. The flames and smoke are emerging from a storm drain along the gutter and from the part of the creek that passes along the side of the PG&E substation. This section of the creek has been converted into a concrete channel where it is squeezed between the PG&E substation and a commercial building. Smoke is also seen on the other side of the road, emerging from the storm drain opening at the curb because the storm drain/creek channel crosses under the road. The City's storm drains in this area, and on Delaware Avenue, are connected to this creek channel -- there is no separate storm drain system in this area -- the creek is used to drain storm water from the streets. The creek eventually flows to the ocean along West Cliff Drive. Parts of the creek are above ground, and parts are underground. The creek runs through Arroyo Seco Canyon, north of Highway 1, and can be seen at the park on Meder Street at the top of the canyon..
localwiki.org/santacruz/Arroyo_Seco_Canyon
If this were a "gas leak," wouldn't PG&E vehicles be at the scene?
Why would there be a natural gas line in the storm drain/creek?
What is burning? Oil?
Did someone dump oil into the storm drain and ignite it?
Did oil leak out of the substation into the creek?
At one point in the video, the fire department is seen breaking into the gates of the substation.
It would be interesting to have more information about this incident.
goo.gl/maps/nwcUG2xEcaR2
First environmental regulations prohibit draining run off from industrial facilities into storm drains as these do not go through a water treatment facility. Second storm drains can not produce fires like this one, they do not have sewage in them. Third if your theory is correct then please explain the burning of the utility poles from red hot ground wires.
Dont they have any foam?
Amazing footage!
Natural gas line?
no sewer
it's all the flammable gases from the sewer line
ok, thanks
in the middle of winter? could also be a fuel or chemical leak, overflow, or spill
no no that flame would be different and coming from more than just that curb drain if that was the case
Did they ever figure out what started the fire?
This is not a "sewer fire," it is a storm drain fire, Big difference, each ends up in a different place. Too bad that something toxic and flammable ended up in the storm drain system of a city so close to water.
After a while the fires popping up kinda reminds me of the wacka-mole at the penny arcade. I'lll go listen to some of it, the radio traffic in the video would be nice.
The engineer should of wrapped the hydrant a long time ago!
You don't put out gas fires until you stop the source of the gas. The last thing you want it to do is create a ginormous vapor cloud and light back off.
I bet the smell was JUST AWESOME
I like that, "Hey, SCE is going to be too slow, BREAK the lock! Charge." Those guys have on the good gear too.
Where is the kanal service?
Ok why won’t u just find a close fire hidden and open multiple of them have the water go down the drain ?
Or call water company to get there water tanks full and let it go down the drain as well should do the job what u think?
Do any of them know what they are doing ?
Yeah
Why does that ladder truck have old Cadillac Escalade headlights from the early 00's???
Good question... lol
Not trying to monday morning quarterback but I have a few things that I feel need to be said. 1) Mostly for the first arriving Engine, where the hell is your PPE? That should be common sense, protect yourself. 2) Why'd it take so long to decide to establish a water supply? I'm just saying, especially when you ran into that "oh- shit" moment when he yelled that you're out of water. Use this video as a training tool if anything. I expected better, especially being that it's a career department.
They also should've been using foam, preferably Class B from the beginning. Water is just going to spread it.
I definitely agree with the PPE statement. Even at the end of the video when there's plenty of FF's walking around in bunker. Let someone handle the nozzle and get your shit together.
looks lik they thought it was a 'regular, small' fire at first, why hook up water. Somebody noticed it wasn't and made call, you'll notice that 4 trucks arrived within a minute of each other. Since average response time is 5-10 minutes, means somebody called for backup at least 4 minutes before they ran out of water
Also, with 2 guys, 1 guy holding the hose and other guy running the pump, who's going to run the new hose. I'm not sure what the chief car in back was doing, but note that the cal-fire guy came over to help manhandle everything. When you need mutual aid to run 1 water line...
ffjsb
The first unit might not have the chemicals for foam. It wasn't till after the other units arrived that we see foam
get the water supply going then bring on one exposure line and one foam(AFFF)line!
this looks like a typical underground cable fire.......with the possible effects of methane from the drains, of course i wasnt there but these are really difficult to deal with as you just dont know whats what, have a look at a UK fire service drive to incidents
Why they did not wear mask to prevent sucking the smokes ?
And why is there a fire in a sewer maybe im being dumb. But I don't understand the dynamics
Why the hell aren't they wearing full turnout with SCBAs?
surprised that guy didn't pass out. not even wearing gloves.
It's called Complacency, "aww it's just a small fire we can do this with a helmet and brush coat". It will get someone killed or hurt in this job, always "be prepared for the worst and hope for the best"
Not complacency. It was dispatched as a vegetation fire.
How about this for complacency....engine responds to investigate a heavy odor of chlorine at the sewage plant. First due, all 3 guys (including driver) walk up to the chlorine tank and, suddenly off the air, ....they just dropped. Ladder arrives - run to the rescue, no total PPE, all hurt, or passed out or burned, in pain. Someone manages to squeak out a Mayday...Responding Deputy chief orders a Full first alarm and I'm on 2nd engine in and finally we all were dressed for success prior to arrival. A senior guy on my engine was thinking of not masking up until he sized things up! One guy had to retire injured. Years later now the senior guys are frequently slacking on PPE again and the Chief wrote them all up. I believe in overkill. The lag in scaling up happens so much I tend to go to a garbage fire fully protected and lay in without charging the supply line just in case. Our Chief and Deputy chiefs do not hesitate as much these days to call for a second alarm and then return the units not needed. Arriving Captains on engines are also encouraged to make the judgement call to escalate assets. they are already on scene and have the best situational awareness. We don't wait until an officer arrives. If you are on tankers, I'd get on rolling asap, there is a water delay there. Why do we lean ladders up against buildings - to eliminate the delay in getting one after you need it.
Actually no it wasn't. If you listen to the scanner recording provided by Santa Cruz Films (their pinned comment), the first dispatch clearly does not say that it was a vegetation fire. It came over as an "other" type fire, with the description of something burning in the gutter, and spreading to a hydro pole.
Why are they not using a foaming spray
Why no Class B foam guys??? PPE??? Water runs out??? WTF???
What was burning in there? It's definitely not a gas, seems much like oil or plastic thrown in the sewer.
PWC or PVC? Some new sewer pipes kave plastic lining made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
+TC Rail videos they said "PWC". last time I checked, I dont think PVC burns.
PVC this is polyvinyl chloride and yes it burns nicely it even produces black smoke like most hydrocarbons.
Referring to the Incident Update, what is PWC? Some kind of plastic I expect, but I have never heard of it and neither has Wikipedia
PVC
ok thanks
Really scared. The fire came from under the ground. Firefighters are amazing people and heroes
No bunker pants or SCBA???
CalFire was on the first due engine they dont have an structural gear
Had to be some kind of liquid maybe diesel or transformer oil ?
Jj How it was a fire in the sewer so methane from decomposing sewage
ike fun: and you're an ass with the brain power of a stromatolite.
A methane fire well impact more then one section of drains at a time . I was thinking transformer oil because it right next to a substation.
How the poop caught fire?
Is that their full bunker gear?
One truck was an actual structural department (the second truck) and the first was all CalFire guys
It's a ratisserie down there.
This is a cluster! An absolute cluster! Little hand lines are worthless. Master streams are needed until foam is accessed. WOW!
bro thats gnarly
iam556 "Bro that's gnarly!" Write in fucking English!!
I'm pretty sure "fucking" comes close to "gnarly" if you're talking about english.
10/4 good buddy
why didn't they use foam?
ike fun: why don't you quit being a TROLL.
Why don't you look at how much foam mixing goes for and come back
did power go off?
Trucks dont have foam?
Nope and its also $6,000 just to mix the foam
Where are their air paks? PCB's?
this is a great video... on what NOT to do! those idiots let the fire spread, they need to protect the exposures!
Great job by all and thanks for sharing !!
what was on fire in the sewer
Some one tossed a lit cig in to the sewer ignighted the methane started it
I never fought a fire like this. This is weird but im watching to learn🤯💯
Don’t learn from these guys, complete idiots.
Where's the rain at?
Pardon my french, but to cause a fire like that.... How do you fuck up that badly?
I'm from India.... And I'm want join fire department ..so what you can get some information for yet.
I found this information on the City of Santa Cruz Website that may be helpful to you.
www.cityofsantacruz.com/government/city-departments/human-resources/city-jobs/firefighter-paramedic-career/firefighter-entry-level
(I am not affiliated with the fire department in any way, this is only a link to their website)
It's like watching the KeeStone Kops....They have 3 active fires and they have identified it smells of gas...and the fire is on both sides of the road so they park the truck right over it....