Sanibel Fire Rescue District training to fight natural gas fires

Learning how to take care of the intense fires on our roads!

Today the Sanibel Fire Rescue District did training to fight natural gas fires.

With more natural gas cars on the road, this training is crucial. When on the road, you never know what could happen.

With more cars and trucks containing natural gases, things can quickly turn for drivers and firefighters.

“Compressed natural gas vehicles are safe until they’re not when they’re not the fire department is called. At that point, the fire department has to be well trained to handle that emergency,” said Larry Stone, Business Development Manager.

Stone, a retired firefighter familiar with these fires, is sharing his knowledge with this group of Sanibel firefighters.

One of the critical things he emphasized is having a plan involving these four steps when dealing with a car fire.

“Number one, identifying a fuel source; number two, identifying the exposures; number three, water supply, and number four attack plan, how are they going to attack the fire,” said Stone.

Long-time Sanibel firefighter Arian Moore said lessons like these are vital when dealing with car fires. 

“After the hurricane, we had Tesla’s going up left and right. And it has its own issue. I mean, there are certain wires that you cannot cut on a test. So we have our jaws of life, you decide to cut those, that can shock you or kill you. And this I see is the same thing except a different type of hazard,” said Moore, Firefighter Paramedic.

Due to several types of natural gas fires out there, Stone said the best way to identify them is by looking for a specific decal which helps firefighters get a plan of attack.

“The physical awareness of what these things look like different from normal fueled vehicles is very important that they gain that knowledge before the alarm goes off,” said Stone.