SEATTLE — The Seattle Fire Department (SFD) and Seattle City Light are rolling out a new Energy Response Unit to address electrical fires in substations and underground faults.
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 said. "[This is] the most capable apparatus in the nation for extinguishing these types of powers."
SFD and City Light began partnering together in 2014 to train firefighters on using carbon dioxide to extinguish electrical fires in substations and underground vaults. They pour carbon dioxide into a vault while covering the opening with a tarp, and it robs the fire of oxygen. Then, City Light can deenergize electrical equipment to make the area safe for repairs.
"We're leading with safety," SCL assistant general manager Mike Haynes said. "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. This is the latest and greatest and we're glad to be part of this partnership."
Captain Chris Greene has been working on the partnership and has extensive experience at SFD Station 25, where the unit will be stationed.
"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," Captain Greene said. "Not here in Seattle ...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."