By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
Cheney's Fire Department put its high-rise firefighting capabilities to the test on Monday by battling a fire atop the CoAg, formerly Cheney Graingrowers, elevator located at 11 G St.
CoAg employees moving grain in order to begin cleaning up for the coming harvest reported the fire at 10:13 a.m. Cheney fire crews arriving at the site saw smoke oozing out of the top of the conveyor belt system that carries grain to the top of the elevator for distribution.
Firefighters determined that the fire was in one of the “legs” of the belt system, ascertained it was a working fire to ensure adequate manpower and that the fire area was completely enclosed, limiting its spread. Cheney Fire Department Lt. Tim Steiner said because there was no immediate threat from the fire they consulted with CoAg officials and decided the best way to extinguish it was an assault from top and bottom of the conveyor leg.
The department deployed its 109-foot ladder to initially get one firefighter, Mike Alt, onto the 100-foot tall conveyor's ladder system to apply water with what Steiner called a “dorm pack.” The pack is 100-feet of hose and nozzle bundled together so that firefighters don't have to haul long lengths of hose up flights of stairs should a fire occur in Eastern Washington University dorms. Instead a firefighter grabs the pack, and once they reach the fire floor, removes the straps from the pack and connects it to existing water standpipes on the floor.
“We just grab the pack and go,” Steiner said. “Once we get to the top we unbundled the pack straps. The hose is folded in such a way that it will pretty much feed itself out to the stand pipe.”
Steiner said they adapted the hose end on the ladder to accommodate the dorm pack. With Alt and three others on top, and a crew on the bottom they extinguished the fire, using about 500 gallons of water.
CoAg employees estimated there were roughly 300 pounds of grain on the conveyor belt at the time, and were able to remove the 212-foot belt system once the fire was out. The cause of the fire is still pending investigation. Preliminary estimates put damage to the elevator at approximately $12,000.
Firefighters from Spokane County Fire District 3 assisted Cheney personnel in the early portion of the incident.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)