Shortly after the busy morning of flight activity, crews were dispatched to a vegetation fire outside of 3-10 gate on the north side of the plant.  Engine 79-1 and Ambulance 79-7 responded and arrived on scene with smoke and fire showing. Chief 79-9 had the command and called for the crew to place the bumper line in service to suppress the fire. With the fire extinguished, crews performed overhaul, clean up, and topped off the booster tank before returning to service. 

This afternoon at 1248, the tones rang out for a dust collector fire at the 3-12 building. The Engine and Ambulance along with the Special ops truck and Command 79 made the response. Crews arrived quickly to find the dust collector on fire and the front handline was pulled for extinguishment. Crews had to disassemble some parts of the unit to bring the fire under control, as well as checking inside the building. The duct work that carries the dust to the collector was opened up and checked along with the sanding machine. With the fire out and the duct work clear, crew picked up, filled the tank and returned to service.

Work is accelerating at the Philadelphia site to include doubling of Chinook production rates for US  government and foreign customers, as well as a major 140 million dollar face lift to the Chinook factory complex. 6 new firefighters have been hired to assist with the increased workload and site population. Work is also occurring at several off site locations. At Summit aviation in Middletown Delaware, a 3 phase flight training and test program is being conducted for the United Arab Emirates. The Boeing firefighters make a daily road trip back and forth to the airport to support this ongoing effort. Due to facility constraints and the need to be on alert, the 3 man crew spends nearly an entire 12 hour shift in a vehicle. The crew is on stand by with a T1500 in support of the 4 Chinook aircraft at the site. Due to the lack of available water supply at the facility, the site provides a tanker truck as a back-up water supply for the crew.At the New Castle County Airport in Delaware, preparations are under way for foreign and domestic Chinook flight operations. Boeing Firefighters will support this flight testing and operate a fire station there. There is also another aerospace company leasing space from Boeing, which conducts its own modification and flight testing there.Recently, fire and security management assisted with the commissioning of a brand new Boeing GS&S facility at the Millville Regional airport in New Jersey. The 80,000 square foot facility plans to make modifications to over 100 Chinook aircraft for the US Army and may create up to 100 new jobs in the area.

http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20100120/NEWS01/1200335

While crews were standing by at Summit Aviation they were flagged down by Summit employees and notified of a fire in the engine of Summit's water tanker that is on site to support Boeing Fire. Crews were immediately on scene and quickly extinguished the small fire in the engine with a halon extinguisher while a dry chem was pulled as back up. The air filter was removed and fully extinguished and truck was checked for any further fire and turned back over to Summit employee's. This was the second incident for the Boeing firefighters at Summit, while traveling to Summit they were involved in a minor MVA, luckily no one was hurt and minimal damage was done to the traveling office.

This afternoon at 1300 while on station watch, the crew was alerted by an explosion in the engine bay. The crew rushed out to find debris falling from the ceiling and medium smoke filling up the overhead. The crew found a heater fan motor burning and immediately moved the Amb. 79-7 outside and pulled up the Engine. The Engine was used as a platform to allow us to knock the fire down via Co2 Ext. With the motor shut down and the fire knocked, the crew began the clean up and called  Maintenance for repairs.

Shortly before 21:00, Station 79 was alerted for an “over-flow alarm” in Bldg 3-18 (Hazardous Materials Building). Engine 79 arrived, confirmed the alarm on the panel, and proceeded to investigate the cause of the activation. While clearing the building, the crew found that the one of the oil/water separator tanks was overflowing. The crew continued to take precautions of confirming the area to be clear of any employees and ventilating through the use of the structures natural openings. The building is designed to contain such incidents internally; the spill was located within a containment area with no external environmental hazards present. Maintenance was contacted along with the building’s lead representative to assist with remedying the situation.  Through the investigation of the piping system, the over-flow was not caused by a system failure in another part of the plant, but an improperly partially opened valve, which allowed the oil/water to back-flow into the smaller separator tank. Engine 79 returned to service, allowing maintenance to handle the clean-up. Approximately 10,000 gallons was spilled, with the entire product cleaned up by 06:00. 

This afternoon at 1500, the crew was summoned to the flight ramp for a large fuel spill on the fuel pad. ARFF 79-2, who was on ramp stand by for an operating CH-47, made the short trip across the ramp and called for SO79-8. The crew arrived to find a large fuel spill pooling and in close proximity to the Chinook. The call was made to pull the handline from 79-2 and apply a blanket of foam, all the while covering the Chinook hovering on the ramp. After all the hazards were secured and the Chinook hovering took off, the fuel was washed down the near by fuel water separator sump.

This morning at 1100, ARFF 79-2 was requested to assist Company 51 (South Media) and other local fire companies, for a truck fire on the blue route (I-476). ARFF 79-2 (Capt. Signora, F/I Hine and F/F Bierman) made the response up to the fire grounds. After battling unimaginable traffic, the rig arrived and was ordered to assist crews with final extinguished via foam handline. 79-2's crew attacked the fire and applied foam to some hard to reach spots and along with the other assisting companies had the hot spots under control in no time. The crews from all agencies worked extremely well together and after about two hours ARFF 79-2 was available.

This weekend, I-17 got a special treat with the arrival and flights of 6 V-22 Ospreys. The "THUNDER CHICKENS" (Marine Squadron VMM 263) were in town for the Army Navy game. Local I-17 members staffed ARFF 79-2 and 79-3 for most of the day on Friday and Saturday, at one time we had 10 aircraft operating (6 V-22's and 4 CH-47's). The team also put in hours on the ramp covering both aircraft on Sunday and Monday as well, it was a busy weekend. The crew also performed our routine work mixed in with numerous emergency calls and one water main break. On Friday, Sunday and Monday we had a crew at Summit covering the flight ops down there as well!

This morning at around 0630, Special Ops 79 was requested to assist Co. 62 (Vauclain) with and MVA and fuel leak on I-95. Two tractor trailers had collided and one had a ruptured saddle tank leaking 150gal of Diesel fuel. Special Ops 79 assisted 62 with large amounts of oil dry and our drain cover mat. Crews worked to keep the fuel from entering a near by storm drain. The crew from 79 house worked closely with the "outside" to mitigate the hazards and protect the environment. Our crew was in service for just over 30min with our drain cover mat staying behind protecting the drain for about an hour. 62-9 returned the valuable mat to the 79 house later that morning.

This afternoon at around 1430, to tones dropped for a Nitrogen tank leaking in the 3-31 building. The crew arrived to find a large mobile Nitrogen tank venting liquid out one of the valves, turning to a gas upon hitting the floor. The tank was inside a confined area so the team used our atmospheric multi-gas meter to check the o2 levels. The tank was wheeled outside and the valve in question was found to be partially open and thus closed. The leak stopped and the tank was left out side for two hours with the crew returning to check its status. The valve held and was not faulty so the tank was returned to its original place.

This afternoon while on flight ramp stand by, the crew of 79-2 (Signora, Byrne, Bierman) noticed a large oil spill at the rear of the aircraft. 79-2 positioned off the nose and pulled a Co2 ext., while FF Bierman walked over to the station and responded back with Special ops 79-8. The three man team used oil dry and spill pads to contain and clean up the oily mess and then turned the incident over to flight test employees. With the rear of the aircraft and ramp clean, 79-2 and SO 78-8 returned.

This afternoon the crew got an opportunity for a hands on drill in an acquired structure. The team headed over to our 3-01 building to work on forcible entry and wall breach skills. The team worked in an area that is under renovation and put in 3 good hours of training. A good time was had by all, I-17 members are looking forward to going back!