Fire response teams need more training.

Improvements always need to be made...

although I do think the IRL deal was more equipment failure than anything else. Didn't see enough of the GrandAm deal to know what all went wrong, but Keystone Cops does come to mind...

 

The Tom pryce affair was due to a marshal crossing the track to reach the burning car of Zorzi. Do you mean the Williamson Dutch GP?

 

I think the problem is that the track marshals are taught only basic firefighting measures. When a major fire breaks out they are out of the league.

The promoters need to hire some off duty firefighters and have a couple of true firefighting trucks at the ready on race weekend that way if a major fire breaks out you have pros with all of the proper gear to attack and contain a major fire quickly and safely.

 

Always seems at Indy these past years, you have a group show up and all have extinguishers. At Texas, it was a group with a hose and all staring at the one person trying to get the hose working. Why didn't the others have extinguishers so they could get started on knocking down the fire while the hose guy(s) did their thing to come finish off the job with the hose?

Thanks to the guy, at risk to himself, that started to drag her out of the car. She burned her right hand when she put it down the burning collar while trying help the guy drag her out.

She was in good spirits when she left the infield care unit. Little finger, hand and wrist were bandaged. She said she hoped the blisters would be gone by the next race.

 

The IRL fire response was Keystone Kops. Truly pathetic.

 

Wasn't that long ago that Indy let Ralf Schumacher sit in a car for quite a long time after a heavy crash.

 

It looked to me like the driver made things worse for herself by panicking and getting tangled up in her belts. Not that I blame her. That was a pretty heavy fire.

 

He probably means the Williamson one, Pryce was killed when he hit a marshall running across a track with an extinguisher, and the extringuisher hit him in the head.

I remember that vividly - Ralf sat in his car alone for 92 seconds before aid arrived. SAD.

Most folks here know I had a good friend die from burns in a racing accident, that is a topic I am VERY familiar with and could talk all day long on. When something hits close to home, you become very knowledgeable about it.

 

she didn't panic and get tangled, she couldn't unfasten the cockpit surround. you need to undo it to get out of the car yourself. everyone is focused on the fire team but if the cockpit surround actually released correctly she would have been out in a jiffy. lucky for her team no one is criticizing them for that.

 

They can use water - on methanol - but that was replaced with ethanol a few years ago, unless I am wrong.

Sure - you can use AAA Foam - but here's the problem: you have to mix it, it takes a long time to deploy, and if it 'zippers' open - and it might - you can forget it.

The best thing to use on racing gas - which burns a helluva lot hotter than pump gas - is 'Purple K', or even Co2. Nobody seems to carry Purple K, for some dumb-ass reason folks think 'ABC Dry chemical' will work. It won't.

Google 'Purple K', and if you race, or if you work on cars, buy yourself a 20lb self-contained unit.