Nobody knew the burning development automobile may grow to be a bomb.
Not the driving force who tried to douse it with an extinguisher. Not the employees who despatched water gushing onto the engine. And never Andrew Pontious, an L.A. County firefighter dispatched to the Palmdale quarry on June 14.
Pontious had sprayed water close to the automobile for about two minutes when considered one of its almost 7-foot tires exploded, based on a Fireplace Division evaluation accomplished this month.
Hunks of rubber and metal shot the size of a soccer subject. Pontious, 53, died immediately.
“It was like an IED,” David Pontious, Andrew’s brother who labored on the similar Palmdale fireplace station earlier than retiring this spring, mentioned, referring to an improvised explosive system, as a roadside bomb in a conflict zone is thought.
It’s widespread for tires to blow out in a hearth, with stress constructing till the air whooshes out with a loud pop.
However, generally, the tire doesn’t blow — it explodes. The air contained in the tire combines with the warmth, beginning a chemical response highly effective sufficient to create a violent shock wave. The bigger the tire, the larger the blast.
“It’s shrapnel. It’s identical to a bomb. It’s the identical precept,” mentioned Olivier Bellavigna-Ladoux, a mechanical engineer who makes a speciality of automobile security.
Within the area of interest world of auto security engineers, it was a identified danger — uncommon however deadly. To firefighters throughout California, the menace was primarily unprecedented till highlighted by Pontious’ loss of life.
This month, L.A. County fireplace officers issued a security discover instructing firefighters to maintain a distance from burning heavy-equipment autos. Fireplace departments within the metropolis of Los Angeles, Orange County and San Bernardino County, in addition to the California Division of Forestry and Fireplace Safety, despatched the discover to their members, who, mixed, embrace 1000’s of California firefighters.
“There was no information that these sorts of huge tires may blow in such a method that might kill somebody,” mentioned David Pontious, 55. “It was only a freak accident.”
Rescuing folks from burning buildings was maybe the least notable factor about Andrew Pontious.
He was, initially, an outdoorsman.
As a teen, he disappeared for whole weekends, telling his household he deliberate to “soften into the mountains.” He beloved to hunt and cook dinner, generally combining the 2 passions on the fireplace station by serving quail enchiladas, the poultry contemporary from a current hunt. In his spare time, he was a caretaker at a refuge for bighorn sheep, traipsing into the woods in the course of the night time to examine on the water provide.
Pontious had resisted changing into a firefighter like his older brother. However in his early 30s, his job serving to a lumber firm keep away from timber with noticed owls began to really feel like a lifeless finish.
He fought fires out of Rosemead and El Monte for a few decade earlier than his brother satisfied him to come back to Palmdale. Fireplace Station 93 was inconveniently situated, about 70 miles from the Upland house he shared along with his spouse, Kim, and his stepdaughter, together with their searching canine, 4 cats and a desert tortoise. However the station was identified for the depth of its calls — grassland fires, stabbings, a cat caught in a tree that turned out to be a mountain lion.
For 9 years, the brothers labored collectively, David because the captain and Andrew the perennial firefighter, by no means taken with shifting up the ranks.
Andrew simply wished to struggle fires till his deliberate retirement subsequent 12 months. And he was normally the primary to reach.
Pontious and his crew pulled as much as the quarry at 2:06 p.m.
4 minutes earlier, one of many development automobile’s rear tires had exploded, cracking the windshield of a close-by truck and sending quarry staff dashing again.
Within the chaos, no person informed the firefighters on the scene about that first tire explosion, mentioned Dave Gillotte, head of the L.A. County firefighters union. And no person informed them the automobile had been burning since at the very least 1:38 p.m.
“If the information of the tire exploding and the way lengthy it had been burning had been correct and up-front, I do know that our firefighters would have completely altered [the response],” mentioned Gillotte, who interviewed the firefighters on the quarry that day.
The longer a tire is uncovered to warmth, the extra seemingly an explosion turns into, mentioned Bellavigna-Ladoux, the mechanical engineer.
This was science that the fireplace division solely discovered within the aftermath.
“I by no means was taught that there was a shock wave that comes out of a tire explosion,” mentioned L.A. County Fireplace Chief Anthony Marrone. “Had I been the firefighter on Engine 93 that afternoon, I actually imagine I might have been doing the identical factor that firefighter Pontious was doing — and I might have been killed.”
The fireplace division evaluation of the incident famous that officers may discover “little or no data” on the impact of fireside on giant tires.
The security discover the division issued after Pontious’ loss of life instructs firefighters by no means to get inside 15 toes of a burning heavy tools automobile — and to come back inside 50 toes solely to rescue somebody. The division gave comparable steering for tractor and trailer fires.
Patricia Dolez, a scientist whose study on tire explosions is cited within the L.A. County security discover, mentioned few staff who function giant autos — specifically miners and truck drivers — are conscious of the danger. The Palmdale driver’s first response was to attempt to extinguish the fireplace, she famous, even because the sparks unfold.
Dolez mentioned her research was commissioned almost twenty years in the past by a Quebec analysis institute after a number of truck drivers had been killed by exploding tires. Following Pontious’ loss of life, the U.S. Mine Security and Well being Administration advised that if a automobile begins smoking, miners ought to retreat and anticipate emergency responders.
It’s much less clear what these responders are imagined to do, mentioned Stephen Gilman, a vice chairman with the International Association of Fire Fighters.
Gilman mentioned the affiliation, which represents 345,000 firefighters and first responders nationwide, is hoping for some nationwide steering for the individuals who will run towards the fireplace.
Miners are “not going to be placing out their very own fires,” Gilman mentioned. “That leaves the one choice of calling 911.”
This story initially appeared in Los Angeles Times.
