How in the world does something like this happen:
The Washington State Patrol is investigating a serious mishap that occurred Oct. 25th at its fire training academy in North Bend.
During a training exercise, firefighters mistakenly pumped jet fuel instead of water onto a flaming mock-up of an airplane crash.
KING 5 obtained video that shows an enormous fireball erupted when the fuel hit the flames at the training site.
“When the firefighters put water on a fire that had been deliberately developed for training the fire got bigger instead of smaller,” said Bob Calkins of the State Patrol, which is investigating the incident.
Well, yes, that’s what tends to happen when you pour jet fuel onto a burning fire.
As for how this might have happened:
Calkins said investigators believe that the academy’s oil/water separator – which recycles the water used for fire training exercises – did not correctly filter the jet fuel used for the exercise from the reclaimed water.
So crews filled their tanks with water tainted with jet fuel — a combustible combination.
Unlike chocolate and Peanut Butter, these are not two great things that work great together.
