Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue
Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue are using Cobra to tackle peat fires. A service can spend days trying to locate and extinguish the deep seated hotspots which cause moorland/peat fire to keep reappearing.
Here, the Incident Commander (IC) is using a Thermal Imaging Camera (TIC) to locate the heat, and then the Cobra is injected into the ground. It has been very effective in reducing the temperature from 272 C to 36 C. The Cobra hose is easy to manoeuvre over ground as it is lightweight and can be extended to over 300 m with minor loss of performance. The penetrative effects of Cobra are easily sufficient to permeate through the soil as well as directly down into it. Lincolnshire have their Cobra units permanently installed in their standard fleet of Type B appliances, with new units being delivered this year from Angloco (2020).
The Cobra has been proven to penetrate peat to over 220 cm (7ft) down in 30 seconds.
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The Incident Commander is using the Thermal Imaging Camera (TIC) to identify hot spots underground and then marking them
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Thermal Imaging Camera (TIC) image of the effect
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The COBRA operator manoeuvres to the identified spot.
Denny fire station in Scotland
Denny fire station in Scotland were called to a fire which had spread into the ground. Crews had tried to extinguish the fire using a low-pressure hose for over 12 hours without success. By using the Cobra, they were able to penetrate much deeper, and the incident was over within a few hours of arrival.
Benefits of using Cobra
- Reduce the potential for fires to restart
- Penetrate to up to 2 m in peat
- Access fire at a distance from the vehicle >240 m
- 4 x 4 and 6 x 6 vehicles can use the Skid Mounted Cobra unit
- Water use is very low, i.e. 30 to 60 lpm
- Long reach, effective spray pattern >15 m
- Lightweight hose which is easy to work with
