Tim Olk visited the large mulch fire which has been burning since Saturday (12-28-13) at 5300 Lawndale in McCook. Tim reports that companies were there again today and that a private contractor has been hired to mitigate the fire.
Tim Olk photo
Tim Olk photo
Tim Olk photo
Tim Olk photo
Tim Olk photo
Tim Olk photo
#1 by Mark Cummins on January 13, 2014 - 10:09 AM
The contractor needs to know how to use the CAFS foam to cover and seal the toxic smoke under the dense blanket of foam. The fire underneath the blanket burns all of the available oxygen and suffocates while soaking the mulch with penetrating chemicals to cool the fuel. You can see some examples a FBook Full Force CAFS
#2 by Bill Post on January 13, 2014 - 9:35 AM
That CAFS system sounds good I wonder if the private contractor uses it in extinguishing the blaze?
#3 by Jacqueline Werle on January 12, 2014 - 5:47 PM
The smoke is still very bad from this fire in McCook. Something has to be done to stop it. it is sickening.
#4 by Mark Cummins on December 31, 2013 - 12:02 PM
These mulch fires can be a serious health issue, the smoke won’t seem to hurt you when you smell it but it can kill you in later with cancer. Trying to flood the fire with millions of gallons of the scarce city water supply won’t extinguish the deep seated smoldering fire but it will percolate through the pile of toxic ash and pollute the water-shed with millions of gallons of toxic water run-off. Some cities use their CAFS engines to pump a vapor-smoke sealing foam blanket over the pile to smother the fire with the fires own oxygen depleted gases. They can use deep piercing pipes to inject the high pressure foam into the mulch pile to reach the fire from inside and cool and soak the smoldering ash covered fuel. There is no toxic run-off from using the dense CAFS foam and it stops the smoke as soon as the fire fighters apply the foam blanket.