Wisconsin’s Jefferson Fire Department stockpiling Class B foam for ‘immediate life safety’ scenarios
It smothers the most fearsome flames, and it provides the breath of life.
It’s Class ‘B’ firefighting foam, and it’s the ultimate weapon for firefighters in mission-critical mode.
“In our immediate region, we’re by far the leading fire department in terms of delivery appliances, training and stockpiling of foam,” says Ron Wegner, chief of the Jefferson Fire Department in Jefferson, Wisconsin.
“The focus with our foam initiatives is really to address immediate life safety issues—to be able to go into fire attack mode and bring someone out alive,” he adds. “That’s what we’re equipping and preparing ourselves for.”
Class ‘B’ firefighting foam is used for fuel or hydrocarbon-based fires—cooling the fire, coating the fuel and starving the fire of oxygen.
Jefferson Fire Department, which serves about 15,000 people across 50 square miles of southern Wisconsin, began honing its expertise in battling fuel-based blazes in 2010 with the assistance of Valero Renewables, which had just begun operating an ethanol plant in Jefferson County.
Wegner and a colleague took special training at the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) fire and rescue training facility at College Station, TX. The Jefferson FD arsenal now includes a fully equipped trailer, with twin 300-gallon reservoirs to dispense an alcohol-resistant version of Class ‘B’ foam, in case of fires involving ethanol-based fuels.
“The Valero plant in Jefferson County moves their ethanol by semi-trailer truck, rather than rail, so we can have up to a couple of hundred tractor trailers a month in and out of that facility,” says Wegner, whose department includes 45 volunteers.
Enbridge’s Safe Community program, launched in 2002, provides grants to local emergency response organizations, including fire departments, near our projects and operations.
These grants are used to provide equipment, training and education—and the Jefferson Fire Department recently used a $2,000 Safe Community grant from Enbridge to purchase 60 gallons of Class ‘B’ foam, bringing the department to within 140 gallons of Wegner’s 600-gallon target.
“We’re constantly looking for additional sources of revenue to complete our mission to reach that 600-gallon mark,” says Wegner, who also oversees the county’s participation in the Wisconsin MABAS (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System).
“The money from Enbridge is huge for us,” he adds. “It gets us more prepared, and better resourced, for a response.”
(TOP PHOTO: Jefferson FD firefighter/EMT Matt Hay demonstrates the Wisconsin-based department's chemical foam capabilities.)
