Firefighters working for the Singapore Civil Defense Force (SCDF) managed to successfully extinguish an oil tank fire at a storage facility and to contain the fire to a single tank. The blaze started on April 20th, and was extinguished after a five-hour long operation, with only 60 minutes of active firefighting.

The facility is located on Jurong Island – a large industrial complex housing several hydrocarbon and petrochemical processing, manufacturing and storage facilities. When the tank ignited, SCDF’s team went into action to isolate and contain the fire, preventing it from spreading to nearby tanks.

The tank, which contained light crude, measured about 131 feet (40 meters) in diameter and 65 feet (20 meters) in height, and was built with an open floating roof tank with a geodesic dome. Fires involving tanks with geodesic domes are extremely rare.

SCDF’s trained personnel responded to the blaze with a new, customized rapid intervention mobile package produced by Tyco, including the Williams Fire & Hazard Control (WFHC) brand big gun Ambassador monitor which can shoot 6,000 gpm of foam onto the fire, the WFHC’s Dependapump, and large diameter hose.

Since 1994, the SCDF has received training from the WFHC team. In more recent years, the team has been trained to use the patented WFHC Footprint Method which is taught at the WFDC Xtreme Fire School.

“The SCDF have done a lot to ensure their team members are well prepared for events like this, as shown by their success in responding to the fire on April 20th,” said Michael Sorensen, sales leader for Tyco Fire Protection Products. “We’ve worked with SCDF for more than 20 years to ensure they have the right products and the right training. About twelve months ago their teams were retrained to ensure the responders could respond quickly and efficiently using the fundamentals of the WFHC Footprint Method.”

The region has seen several significant fire tank events since the start of April: a single tank fire in Samoa that burned for two days, a two tank fire that burned in China for 1½ days, eight storage tanks that burned in Southeastern India at a biodiesel facility, and this single tank event in Singapore.

For the Singapore event, of the 150 personnel called to the scene, only a handful were needed to actively manage the big gun foam monitors. The majority of the team’s time was spent preparing for the application on the tank. The fire was extinguished within five hours.

As a part of Tyco, WFHC boasts a successful history of responding to over 200 flammable liquid, gas, and pressure-fed fires throughout the world. Such success inspired a full line of specialized response equipment including specialty foam nozzles, high-flow transportable firewater pumps, foam concentrates, monitor trailers, apparatus and portable foam proportioning systems, dry chemical extinguishing packages and engineered systems.

From storage tanks and pipeline emergencies to marine vessels at sea, response personnel and specialized equipment stand ready around the globe to overcome the industry’s worst fire emergencies.

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