Fire Reveals Illegal Activity
Written by Sun Country/AM1140/The Eagle
Friday, 27 November 2009
Crews dealing with a fire near Langdon early Friday morning uncovered more than just smoke and flames.
Strathmore RCMP and the Rockyview fire department were called out to the site approximately five kilometres north west of the town shortly before 4am and after extinguishing the fire, searched the building for possible victims. That's when they uncovered a large-scale marijuana grow-op. RCMP say they found approximately two to three thousand plants in various stages of production. The Southern Alberta Marijuana investigation team along with the Calgary RCMP forensic team have joined the investigation. There are no suspects at this time.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Compost fires
Compost fires suck.
I woke up at sunrise to a grass fire call, and was still tending the compost pile fire at sunset.
There was a small amount of smoke and flame showing on the surface of the pile, and we quickly extinguished it. As we began overhaul, we found the the deeper we dug, the hotter the material was.
We started to pull the pile apart with a small tractor and eventually decided that larger equipment was going to be needed.
We found many parts of the leeward side of the pile to have tempuratures between 130 degree's F and 170 degree's F.
When the backhoe dug into the center of the pile, we found temperatures in excess of 300 degree's F.
The backhoe leveled the pile to about 15' high but we found that the heat was not dissipating. Eventually, we brought in a heavy front end loader and spread the pile at a depth of about 3' - 4' and cooled the surface with massive amounts of water.
I investigated the problem and found some references on the internet.
We have several large scale compost operations in our area, but this is the first compost fire caused by spontaneous combustion I have attended in my years.
http://www.jgpress.com/archives/_free/000326.html
RULES FOR FIRE PREVENTION
Rule #1. Set up a meeting with your local fire department. Discuss compost fires, and agree on guidelines on how to handle compost fires once they begin. Have the correct fire fighting gear on site. If your site is remote, a runoff pond can serve as source of water for the composting process as well as for fire fighting. (Editor's Note: An article in BioCycle - “Preventing Fires In Grinding Equipment,” November 2003 - had a number of valuable fire prevention tips.)
Rule #2. Assure adequate ventilation of the pile to release heat and increase evaporation of water, a heat absorbing process. Ventilation can be achieved by turning the pile or using a mechanical aeration system. Ventilation can also be improved by constructing narrower, shallower windrows or piles, generally less than 6-feet deep.
Rule #3. Avoid pile depths greater than 12-feet, and watch for vents in deep piles. Use these vents to monitor internal pile temperatures.
Rule #4. Locate the hot spot before it turns into a fire. Monitor temperature of all piles on a weekly basis, seeking out the hottest spot in the pile. For this proactive monitoring, we are totally uninterested in the average pile temperature (a useless bit of information at this point). We need to know the hottest spot in the pile.
Rule #5. If you have a fire, it needs to be located in the pile. That is usually accomplished by very carefully using a large wheel loader to open up the pile. A fire hose should be available as the loader removes material to spray directly onto burning embers - or a burning loader. The fire department or an in-house fire brigade should be on stand-by as the pile is opened. Don't underestimate the damage - physical or political - a smokey fire can do.
Rule #6. As Smokey the Bear knows best, only you can prevent [compost] fires. Prevention is the only adequate solution to avoiding dangerous and expensive fires at compost facilities.
Lew Naylor is an environmental scientist with Black & Veatch in Gaithersburg, Maryland.He has worked with compost and organic residuals for 30 years. This Compost Operators Forum is based on his presentation at the Texas Recycling & Sustainability Summit in September 2004 in San Antonio, Texas.
I woke up at sunrise to a grass fire call, and was still tending the compost pile fire at sunset.
There was a small amount of smoke and flame showing on the surface of the pile, and we quickly extinguished it. As we began overhaul, we found the the deeper we dug, the hotter the material was.
We started to pull the pile apart with a small tractor and eventually decided that larger equipment was going to be needed.
We found many parts of the leeward side of the pile to have tempuratures between 130 degree's F and 170 degree's F.
When the backhoe dug into the center of the pile, we found temperatures in excess of 300 degree's F.
The backhoe leveled the pile to about 15' high but we found that the heat was not dissipating. Eventually, we brought in a heavy front end loader and spread the pile at a depth of about 3' - 4' and cooled the surface with massive amounts of water.
I investigated the problem and found some references on the internet.
We have several large scale compost operations in our area, but this is the first compost fire caused by spontaneous combustion I have attended in my years.
http://www.jgpress.com/archives/_free/000326.html
RULES FOR FIRE PREVENTION
Rule #1. Set up a meeting with your local fire department. Discuss compost fires, and agree on guidelines on how to handle compost fires once they begin. Have the correct fire fighting gear on site. If your site is remote, a runoff pond can serve as source of water for the composting process as well as for fire fighting. (Editor's Note: An article in BioCycle - “Preventing Fires In Grinding Equipment,” November 2003 - had a number of valuable fire prevention tips.)
Rule #2. Assure adequate ventilation of the pile to release heat and increase evaporation of water, a heat absorbing process. Ventilation can be achieved by turning the pile or using a mechanical aeration system. Ventilation can also be improved by constructing narrower, shallower windrows or piles, generally less than 6-feet deep.
Rule #3. Avoid pile depths greater than 12-feet, and watch for vents in deep piles. Use these vents to monitor internal pile temperatures.
Rule #4. Locate the hot spot before it turns into a fire. Monitor temperature of all piles on a weekly basis, seeking out the hottest spot in the pile. For this proactive monitoring, we are totally uninterested in the average pile temperature (a useless bit of information at this point). We need to know the hottest spot in the pile.
Rule #5. If you have a fire, it needs to be located in the pile. That is usually accomplished by very carefully using a large wheel loader to open up the pile. A fire hose should be available as the loader removes material to spray directly onto burning embers - or a burning loader. The fire department or an in-house fire brigade should be on stand-by as the pile is opened. Don't underestimate the damage - physical or political - a smokey fire can do.
Rule #6. As Smokey the Bear knows best, only you can prevent [compost] fires. Prevention is the only adequate solution to avoiding dangerous and expensive fires at compost facilities.
Lew Naylor is an environmental scientist with Black & Veatch in Gaithersburg, Maryland.He has worked with compost and organic residuals for 30 years. This Compost Operators Forum is based on his presentation at the Texas Recycling & Sustainability Summit in September 2004 in San Antonio, Texas.
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