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THE ROLE of the Defence Fire Risk Management Organisation (DFRMO) is to deliver cost-effective and sustainable fire risk management to the Ministry of Defence in peace and conflict, and to protect personnel and assets by providing an operational fire and rescue capability in support of British military operations worldwide. It has had fire and rescue service personnel serving in operational theatres, including Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, over a number of years.
Personnel and fleet
DFRMO has some 2,700 personnel, comprising about 1,300 civilian Defence Fire and Rescue Service (DFRS) personnel, 600 military (Royal Air Force and shore-based Royal Navy) staff, 300 locally employed civilian DFRS personnel overseas, 400 contract and 100 civilian support staff. It operates 92 permanently crewed fire stations (78 in the UK and 14 overseas), most of which provide fire cover around the clock.
The vehicle fleet comprises 65 pumping appliances, 84 rapid intervention vehicles, 80 major foam vehicles, and 21 special appliances, which include incident support units, water carriers, environmental protection units and chemical incident units. In addition to the main fleet, the DFRMO DFRS crewed American Air Force fire stations have a combined fleet of over 100 appliances, ranging from pumping appliances to airfield and aerial appliances. Contract-run fire and rescue services add another 20-plus appliances, bringing the total DFRMO fleet to more than 370 vehicles.
Operational estate
The term ‘operational infrastructure’ describes the structures, facilities and services that are required within a Joint Operations Area, such as those parts of Afghanistan involved in the current conflict. Within this, the ‘operational estate’ is those areas that a deployed force has a direct responsibility to provide and maintain – for example, UK camps and military airfields, but not local railways.
A variety of equipment-based systems are deployed from the UK to the operational estate, including:
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operational, medical and technical accommodation
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electrical power, fuel and water
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deployable engineer workshops
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specialist medical equipment
Operational accommodation, in particular, is described as having a ‘tiered capability’. The main consideration in the selection of this accommodation is the capability it delivers (for example, in terms of speed of provision, comfort, durability, maintenance burden, level of protection), not how long the structures themselves will last. For example, a concrete Tier 3 structure may be adopted because it gives a higher level of protection than that afforded by a cabin-based Tier 2 facility.
The following definitions provide further detail:
Tier 1: These are robust and easily erected camps that can be deployed and redeployed by road, sea or rail. They are required to sustain service personnel in a wide range of climatic conditions. The camps can be expected to endure without refurbishment for up to eight months and without major overhaul for 24 months
Tier 2: These camps provide an improved standard of accommodation and utility services compared to Tier 1, offering an expected life of up to five years without major refurbishment
Tier 3: These structures are those built in-situ from traditional building materials, such as concrete, steel and masonry, to site-specific designs. Providing cost-effective accommodation over longer operating periods, these camps may be appropriate for an enduring operation and/or a higher level of inherent protection, commensurate with the longer exposure to risks that such an operation may bring
This kind of accommodation is used widely in operational theatres such as Afghanistan, and both the structures and the personnel who occupy them must be adequately protected from the risk of fire. DFRMO fire safety officers, working with other engineers, have a key role in managing the risks, and innovative fire safety solutions are often required to ensure life safety and property protection.
Camp Bastion
DFRMO provides an airfield crash fire and rescue operational capability that covers the airfield at Camp Bastion – the main British military base in Afghanistan. Constructed in early 2006, the camp is thought to be the largest British overseas military base built since the Second World War.
Camp Bastion fire station is crewed by DFRMO Royal Air Force fire and rescue service personnel, who provide operational fire cover around the clock. These personnel are also trained and equipped to attend immediate response team tasks, and can attend incidents throughout the theatre of operations. Fire crews that are mobilised to immediate response team incidents travel by helicopter with medical teams, enabling a swift response which can significantly reduce early medical and fire and rescue service intervention.
The fire crews located at Camp Bastion also undertake the full spectrum of protection, prevention and operational response for both the UK and Coalition nations based on site. A DFRMO Royal Air Force fire and rescue service sergeant is an integral member of the Camp Bastion team, and undertakes a fire safety inspection programme based on a risk analysis of the individual building construction and uses, taking into account the numbers of personnel and activities being carried out.
Bulk fuel fire
DFRMO’s role in Afghanistan can be illustrated by a major fire at a bulk fuel installation in Kandahar on 23 April 2009. The incident happened at about 4pm at the local Afghan owned and occupied bulk fuel facility, located 3km from the NATO base in the city. The smoke plume rose to a height of about 1,800m, with a visible flame front some 400m in height. The associated vessel explosions could be heard 2km away.
Building structures and fuel vehicles some 150m from the fire area received significant amounts of thermal radiation. Seventeen fuel tankers were completely destroyed in the fire and a further five tankers received up to 80% damage by radiated heat. In addition, about 250,000 litres of fuel was lost in the incident. The subsequent fire investigation concluded that the fire broke out during a fuel tanker to fuel tanker contents transfer.
A number of factors contributed to this seriousness of this incident, and the DFRMO fire investigating officer concluded that the fire and resulting fuel explosions occurred in the following sequence:
- a male employee was working in close proximity to a pumping unit that was being used to transfer contents from one fuel tanker to another, when he noticed smoke coming from the unit. He climbed down the vehicle ladder and was in the process of rectifying a fuel pump issue when his clothing ignited
- as his clothing ignited, the fuel hose line became dislodged and the contents were released, intensifying the initial fire
- a nine-year-old male, who was located on the roof of one of the 10,000 gallon fuel tankers, raised the alarm to his older work colleagues
- due to the lack of early firefighting intervention, the blaze quickly developed, engulfing both fuel tankers
- employees at the facility recovered their injured colleague who, by this time, had received lethal doses of thermal radiation
- at this point, the fire was uncontrollable and led to fire development by radiant heat transfer, and fuel explosions spreading contents to other fuel tankers and building structures in the vicinity
The fire investigating officer produced a number of recommendations that were presented to the local Afghan bulk fuel installation manager that have or are currently being actioned, in order to reduce the occurrence of any further fuel fires at the facility.
Assistant divisional officer Joe Ruane is the Operation HERRICK (Afghanistan) theatre fire officer with DFRMO. Warrant officer Chris Wignall is fire station manager at Camp Bastion
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