Field Closed |
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REMINDER |
| Fire
in Field Saturday July 21, 2012 Incident report: At approximately 12:55pm we had an electric plane powered by two Turnigy lipo batteries (bought within the last 12 months & inspected prior to flight) crashed 150 yards northwest of the club house. The crash resulted in a fire. I am very conscious of the possibility of fire due to a Lipo battery so I watched the area for approx 20 seconds before I noticed heat coming up from the crash site. No flames were visible. I called fire and ran for the extinguishers as Shola (guest) and Marty Wittman ran towards the area with a towel. It took approx 90 seconds to reach the area that had erupted into a full blown fire reaching 4 feet high stretching to an approximate width of 7 feet. We concentrated putting out the outside rows of hay first hitting each side with the extinguishers and pushing anything on fire to the middle of the two rows with our feet while trying to create a fire barrier around the fire. The 5 pound extinguishers where quickly emptied and put out the side rows for the most part. While Shola and Marty continued to try and keep the remaining hay that was on fire contained I called Mike Burgess reporting we had a fire and to come out. I ran back to the shed and grabbed the 5 gallon bucket of water. That bucket is very heavy especially when your exhausted and lugging it 150 yards. We used all of the water and some additional water brought to the scene by Mike Burgesses dad Mark. WE WERE VERY LUCKY TO GET THIS VERY FAST FIRE UNDER CONTROL. Brad brought his personal brand new 10 pounder to replace the used extinguishers and keep the field open to fly. Thanks Brad!  Observations - it was exhausting for myself, Marty and new comer Shola to run the 150 yards with extinguishers and 5 gallon jug of water. - if we did not keep an eye on the spot it could have taken us a while to see we had a fire. - If it would have taken us another 30 seconds to get to the fire we would NOT have gotten it under control. - two 5 lbs extinguishers were barely enough to get this fire under control. - hay was very dry and extremely flammable! Areas of opportunity: - additional fire extinguishers needed. Brad has increased our 2 x 5lbs extinguishers to 1 x 10lbs and 2 x 5lbs (when the get refilled) - We should never operate any plane or helicopter, gas or electric without having fully charged extinguishers on hand. - proximity of extinguishers to fire. I believe during high risk fire dangers we should keep the extinguishers on the flight line during flying. - we should put on the back side of our new id cards the gps coordinates as field address for emergencies such as this. - we need to post the field address and gps coordinates in the outside of the shack or in the flight line - we need to develop a procedure for fires - we need a policy and probably additional education on the dangers of Lipo batteries. - POSSIBLY routine safety checks on airplanes (during high risk fire season) regardless if it uses Lipo's or not. I believe additional safety policies and procedures must be written and adopted. We must be safe not just for ourselves but the community. This is another opportunity to show the Burgess family and community that we are responsible, safe and considerate. Looking back at this situation I should have given direction to one of them to call 911 then run out and try to address the fire. I can't express this enough, we are very lucky we got this under control. The whole field could have gone up in a matter of minutes.
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| Work
Party Graveling
project. I placed the order with Conser Quarry to have 3 loads of 3/8" minus crushed quarry gravel delivered to the field on Friday, June, 22nd at 10:00 am. We planned a work party for 8:00 am to allow a couple hours to move obstacles from the area before the first truck arrives. Helpers should bring gear for safety and to aid in spreading the gravel once it is dropped off. I plan to fire up the grill about noon for an after work party potluck BBQ lunch. Please reply to give me an idea of how many people we will have and what dish you may be able to contribute. We're looking forward to making this a good time. Thanks to everyone in advance. AL 06-09-12
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Fire at Field I just wanted to let
you know the lawn mower caught on fire
yesterday. (May 6) Pat and his son Theo
were helping Doug mow the field when all
of a sudden smoke started billowing out
from the right side of the mower.
It appears as if the blade pulley
bearing got really hot and caught the
cut grass that had accumulated inside
the blade housing on fire. We were
quick to grab the fire extinguisher and
water bucket (although, the water bucket
is a 5 gallon gas container marked
water! Lol). We did not want to
extinguish the flames with the
extinguisher and have to pay for a new
one so we tested the “water” by smelling
it then doused the flames. It
looked really funny and we were all
laughing but it got the job done.
There is no burn mark on the field and
the flames were small and contained so
there was really no concern. I am very proud of
our volunteer fire department (Myself,
Pat Willis, Chris McVey, Mike Lee and
Khoi) had it under control very quickly…
approx. 90 seconds. What did we learn?
2.
We need to clean out the
blade housing from old grass prior or
after mowing. 3. We need to replace the gas can marked with water with a real water jug. J Theo was really
bummed his mowing experience was cut
short but handled it like a champ!
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| FYI Subject:
RE: powermasterfuels.com: Oil content
in fuels |
ERCA Club fundraising RAFFLE
$200 Gift certificate for Trumps
Hobbies ( See Flyer ) $2 per ticket
$2
each or 3 for $5 Members selling tickets: Brad Werneth, Doug McWha, Jayne Krenz Drawing
to be held at first meeting or
event after $200 worth of
tickets sold.
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In case of
an EMERGENCY Call 911 Is at GPS Lat 44°10'44.90"N Lon 123°15'53.87"W |