Maybe it was these guys...
Posted on 07/29/2004 10:06:31 PM PDT by SeattleNeedsHelp
FERNDALE -- Talk about fighting fire with fire. Crews fighting a smoky, stinky blaze in the dried crust of a 3-acre manure lagoon on a dairy farm finished smothering the flames yesterday with more of the same -- a blanket of wet cow poop.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, said Assistant Fire Chief Larry Hoffman with Whatcom County Fire District No. 7.
Hoffman received an earful of complaints about the smoke and odor as the fire burned for four days on the farm outside Ferndale, northwest of Bellingham.
"We're not the most popular department in town," he said. "It's offensive, the smell is. It stinks."
How bad?
"In your worst nightmare, if you can imagine burning manure combined with a brush fire -- this sort of woody undertone."
The fire "changes the smell of the manure, intensifies it. ... I go home at night, and I'm not allowed in the house until I hose off," he said.
The cause of the fire was not known.
It started in brush growing on the dry 3- to 14-foot crust of manure, wood chips and barn shavings on the surface of the 24-foot-deep lagoon.
About 90 percent of the crust had burned away by yesterday, he said.
"We're investigating the possibility it was an errant cigarette butt or it could be spontaneous combustion from composting," Hoffman said, describing the lagoon as "basically a big compost pile."
"I've been doing this for 20 years and never dealt with anything like this. ... It's not quite as simple as a normal brush fire. We're expending resources we didn't even know existed to try to put this out."
A fire break had been dug around the pond, so the flames "can't go anywhere" on the 1,200-acre, 700-head dairy farm, Hoffman said.
All jokes aside, it was hazardous work for fire crews, he said.
"Our hoses only go so far. We can't go out on it." Below the crust of varying depths, "it's like quicksand. If they went down, we'd never find them."
After working with water and foam, firefighters began spraying the wet manure Tuesday, which squelched flames on the leading edge of the fire.
Yesterday, a giant pump applied another layer of wet manure -- and that seemed to do the trick.
"It's out!" Hoffman said last evening, at least "about 98-99 percent out. There's some small pockets burning in the crust, but nothing that's going to affect anything."
Hoffman declared himself "extremely, extremely pleased," adding, "Hopefully residents of the area will be pleased, too."
The battle required construction of several roads to enable fire trucks to reach the lagoon and accommodate a big excavator, all paid for by the farm's owners.
Hoffman declined to identify the owners.
"They're being extremely cooperative," he said. "They are doing absolutely everything that I have asked them to do ... putting their people on it and expending resources and spending money. I'm trying to keep it on that level ... and not asking them to deal with the media."
There could be health concerns for people with breathing difficulties, though it helps that the fire is limited to organic material, Hoffman said.
Most complaints to the Northwest Air Pollution Authority in Mount Vernon, which monitors pollution concerns in Skagit and Whatcom counties, have been about the smoke, staff engineer Annie Naismith said.
"It's not causing any particular concern above what you would have with a grass fire," she said.
Is this where they took all the bull$hit from the Boston Convention?
Maybe it was these guys...
Is this where they took all the bull$hit from the Boston Convention?
No, most of that will arrive in Metro Seattle next week.
You mean the smoldering, stinking manure WASN'T coming from the Fleet Center in Boston?
Crews extinguish manure fire with more of the same
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