How safe are you at night in the pits!

[Wade Mahaffey]

Being safe "on" the racetrack shouldn't be your only concern...
When you go racing, your car must pass tech before you can make a pass on the track. The tech inspection is done for our safety, and to make sure rules and regulations are followed. It is easy to see that organizations like NHRA and IHRA take their safety very seriously. Not only for the drivers and teams, but for the spectators as well. Take the NHRA for example, they have so many officials that if you park in the wrong place you will be getting a knock on your door. The "parking police" are a great group of people and they do their job well.

But what happens when all of these officials go to dinner and then to their motels? Who is there to deal with safety issues and emergencies? There are guards inside the fence who do a good job (to the level of their training). Are these officials (guards) trained in CPR, FIRST AID, BASIC LIFE SUPPORT, ADVANCED LIFE SUPPORT, or FIRE FIGHTING? Probably not and that can cost a life if you have an incident in the middle of the night!

Most drag strips are located just outside of town in the "corn belt." Most fire stations are located in the middle of town. Sometimes the difference between the two can be five to ten miles or more. Many of these fire departments are staffed by volunteers and are not staffed twenty-four hours a day. That means these folks must respond to the station, get the equipment, and then respond to your emergency! That could easily take twenty to thirty minutes, if you’re lucky!

If you're not breathing, permanent brain damage can occur within four to six minutes. All racers know the value of a second, a tenth, a hundredth, and even a thousandth. We know about giving up the finish line and driving home thirteen hours for one or two thousandths. It's the same in emergency situations. When someone dies in a fire, there is a time frame of one or two thousandths of a second where that person will either live or die!

I do not know why we have not had a major fire in the pits at a multi day event. We live in motor homes, trailers, tents, and other strange living quarters. These rigs are so big, and parked within twelve to fifteen feet of each other. If one rig was to catch fire in the middle of the night, it could easily take the entire row. Radiant heat is the method of heat transfer that would heat the exposure (your rig) to its ignition temperature. At that time it would become part of the fire and that could take as little as five minutes. The bigger the fire becomes, the faster it spreads. After the 911 call is received, it could be twenty minutes before help arrives.

When you place the 911 call you must "paint a picture" for the call taker. This ensures the proper complement of equipment will roll on the call.

EXAMPLE #1: "There’s a trailer on fire at the speedway!"

The call taker probably thinks it’s a utility trailer -- they don't know the nationals are in town, so they send one engine. Flowing a normal sized hand line, the engine will be out of water in about five minutes! That will put out only about half of the first trailer on fire.

EXAMPLE #2: "There is a fire at (give the name of the track). The fire is in a trailer. There are other trailers and motor homes within fifteen feet. There are people in the motor homes sleeping."

Now the fire dispatcher can start a full assignment and EMS. The most you could do is alert everyone to the fire.

There are a few things that could be done to minimize damage to persons and property. As always, education is the key to success in this area. Handout material and/or a column in one of our papers or magazines would help. Many of our racers possess skills that could be called upon when needed. They could park the rigs of racers with skills in EMS, FIRE, and POLICE at the end of a row. The trailers could be marked or flagged to identify help. This way, help could be on site for early intervention. Early intervention is key in the mitigation of emergency situations. Another thing I would like to see is a liaison with the local fire departments. This would bring important issues to light for racers, officials, and fire officials -- things like maps of the racetrack layout, hydrant location, fuel storage, parking layout, means of egress, etc.

Racing safety after hours part 2

In the interest of safety while at any event where trailers, motorhomes etc. are parked together over night, I would like to offer a few points for consideration . These are a few simple actions that could provide a more favorable outcome in the event of a emergency. Event pre-planing for specific situations ie. fires (fuel, structure, brush/trash, motorhomes, trailers, auto etc.), medical emergencys (heart attack, stroke, diabetes, etc.), trauma (open and closed injuries, fractures, blood showing, etc) and then training the event staff on procedures and/or tactics to mitigate the emergency. At the very least begin operations and request additional resources as needed and provide onscene information to incoming units. A chain of command for track or event operations is probably already in place. The chain of command should be different for emergency situations, with a span of control of 5-7 persons per group leader/officer/supervisor. An event liason person should be in place to interface with local Fire/Police/EMS officals. They would coordinate planning (site layout/grounds, location of water sources, EMS and Firefighting equitment and supplies etc.), assignments (who does what) and training (this is how you do it).

The problem with all of this, is that the people I just talked about are not available "Right Now" if your situation happens at night! Now I'm sure anyone around would come running to help. But, it would be nice if one of those running actually knew what to do (first aid, CPR, use of the extinguisher etc.) or the correct action to take (go in and get them out, alert and evacuate etc.). Chances are that some of the events participants have such training, and could and should be used to take immediate life saving actions when needed. You may not get a second chance!

Event applications should have an area that would identify an individuals abilities in Fire,Police,EMS incidents. These folks should be parked in strategic areas on the grounds ie. (end of the row). And identified with a small marking on the trailer for rapid intervention when needed. Track personnel and/or event participants could gather these folks in the event of an emergency (during off hours at night, MCI mass casualty incidents,etc.). Medical emergencies happen regularly, but my biggest fear is a fire in a rig (motorhome and/or trailer at night)! The rigs are parked so close together and they are so big. They need to be parked at a 45 degree angle instead of straight in. It would be so much easier to move other rigs in danger out of their spot and away if a fire were to breakout. This would contain the fire to the area of origin (one rig). Parking them straight in and that close together will cause them to become a part of the fire by way of the "radiant heat transfer". Well, I think that's it for now folks. There will be a part three, stand by!

Wade Mahaffey

[Ed Fernandez]

Not that it means a hill of beans,but I was a CPR instructor for 15 years when I worked for Con Edison.If anyone in Div 1 has a problem and I'm there bang on the door of my trailer, I might be able to help.
While I was still working one of my co workers aided someone having a heart attack.He revived him but unfortunately didn't survive at the hospital.
I did have better results after retirement.Me and my wife were in a restaurant when an older man was choking on food.Surprisingly everyone stood around with their finger up their *****.I gave the poor guy the Heimlich Maneuver and dislodged the food.Anyone at the track wants to know how to help someone stop by.

[Lee Valentine]

Ed, I knew there was a reason I ussualy parked near you I just didn't know what it was. Hope all is well,Lee.

[Bob Bender]

Originally Posted by Ed Fernandez

Not that it means a hill of beans,but I was a CPR instructor for 15 years when I worked for Con Edison.If anyone in Div 1 has a problem and I'm there bang on the door of my trailer, I might be able to help.
While I was still working one of my co workers aided someone having a heart attack.He revived him but unfortunately didn't survive at the hospital.
I did have better results after retirement.Me and my wife were in a restaurant when an older man was choking on food.Surprisingly everyone stood around with their finger up their *****.I gave the poor guy the Heimlich Maneuver and dislodged the food.Anyone at the track wants to know how to help someone stop by.

ED, You did the Heimlich on my wife at the Dutch and she was not even choking.....whats up with that ??

[Tom Meyer]

We all see the local cops rubbernecking in the pits but have you ever seen the local fire dept driving in the pits, maybe they just need to be asked, would the track gods let them in to look for free I do not think so. How big is your fire extinguisher, face it that 10lb will not cut it on a major fire but a 20lb might buy you a little more time untill bigger stuff shows up. Myself I am a 25 year vet to my local fire dept and have almost have that many years as a EMT and hope nobody needs my help at the races. God bless to all the others out there and have a safe day. Tom

[Chris "drooze" Wertman]

Originally Posted by Ed Fernandez

Not that it means a hill of beans,but I was a CPR instructor for 15 years when I worked for Con Edison.If anyone in Div 1 has a problem and I'm there bang on the door of my trailer, I might be able to help.
While I was still working one of my co workers aided someone having a heart attack.He revived him but unfortunately didn't survive at the hospital.
I did have better results after retirement.Me and my wife were in a restaurant when an older man was choking on food.Surprisingly everyone stood around with their finger up their *****.I gave the poor guy the Heimlich Maneuver and dislodged the food.Anyone at the track wants to know how to help someone stop by.

The way I heard the story was you and some friends were at lunch, when he started choking you told one of you friends, quick stand up and pull yer pants down, he did, then you told the other friend to start licking the other guys rear......

The guy choking was so disgusted he gaked up the piece of chicken and said "My GOD thats disgusting !!!"

You smiled and said to your friends, "See I told you that Hindlicker manuver works every time"

(Sorry if that was "Too Much" that was one of my Grandfathers favorite jokes ?)

Cheers

Chris

[Michael Pliska]

I've had the misfortune of dealing with two fires at the races, both at WDRS (LODRS predecessor) events. One was a good friend and fellow S/G racer, during the day (after our last qualifying pass on Saturday afternoon). He was changing carb jets and spilled gas onto his headers which ignited, catching him and the car on fire. He was worried about the car and trying to put it out. I was able to help put the main fire out, but had a hard time getting more help when my extinguisher was exhausted and the grass was still burning (someone eventually showed up with a big agricultural sprayer with water).

The other occasion was much worse. It was late at night (this was in the early 90's when few people stayed at the track). I was there late along with my friend Steve Federlin, as we were both working on our cars (and pitted close together). We heard a big boom and saw the flash of an explosion from the top alcohol pits. It was at Jay Payne's trailer (back when he was driving TAD), and a crew member had apparently knocked over a drop light into a puddle of fuel, which ignited and caused the fuel cell to blow. By the time Steve and I got there (running with our large fire extinguishers), the side of the trailer was engulfed as well. We managed to put it out with handheld fire extinguishers. Every time I exhausted an extinguisher I looked back at the crowd (who was smart enough to stand back from the flames, unlike me and Steve ), and someone tossed me a fresh extinguisher. Apparently they were grabbing every extinguisher they could find, even those from unlocked but unattended trailers. When we had the fire out, Steve pointed at what I was wearing (an old pair of oil-soaked sweats, from working on the car) and said "are you nuts?". Only then did I realize he was wearing his SFI/5 firesuit (just like mine that was sitting in my truck). We also learned that the inside wall of the trailer wall on fire was line with fuel jugs, so it would have been ugly if it had made it inside the trailer. Jay was extremely grateful, and held a big pizza party in our honor the next night (ironically, Steve and I were both too busy working on our cars still to make it over there until the end). They managed to re-wire and re-plumb the race car and won the race.

I guess the moral of the story is to stop and think a moment, possibly use your racing firesuit for protection if fighting a fire in the pits. And ask more questions while trying to put out a fire (like if there are fuel jugs nearby that you cannot see). I had received basic fire suppression training at work, but those were items they did not cover.

[Wade Mahaffey]

I realize what this forum is about, and I know the mind set of the readers is about going fast. I also know that racers normally have very good common sense. The problem is that common sense is not enough in life threatning situations. It takes knowledge, experience, and training to win, just like racing. If you take the average racer and put him/her in a stressful emergency situation, it would be like taking someone from the grandstands and puting them in your car on race day! Sure they could win, (opponent red light, mechanical issue, break out, etc) but I don't like my chances. I'm not saying, lets start training all racers in emergency procedures. My point is that race officals need to be aware of the lack of protection, when the protection has gone home for the day. If you have ever had a need for emergency assistance, it seems like it takes along time. If you're out in the country at a race track, it will take a longggggg time! Would that be acceptable if it was your mama that needed help! Like I said, there are many folks like Mr. Fernandaz that have skills and could be called upon. But I guarrentee you there are people who have parked right next to Ed and have no idea.

Here's a senario for ya:
Joe Quick is racing at the nationals. He brought is 10 year old son, and his neighbor (Bill)who helps him around the garage. Joe's car has been acting up all day, causing bill to run back and forth to the trailer for tools/parts etc. They get back to the trailer (after winning 3rd round and going to the show on sunday) now it's time to celebrate with Uncle Buck and George Donhauser (in other words eat real good!, drink, and smoke them big ones). Now bill has just takin his insulin shot for (Diabetes) because he knows he's getting ready to eat. It starts to rain a little (Div 1), so Joe and Bill hustle up to get the car put away in the trailer and button up around the pit area. First of all, Bill has been running all day, his body using more sugar than usual. Now he has injected himself with Insulin to use even more sugar. Now you have the recipe for disaster! Bill tells Joe to go ahead to Georges without him, he's gonna rest a while (Bills sugar, now dangerously low is affecting his ability to function/reason and he forgets to eat at all! Bill will soon be unconcious and this will be life threatning) After dark Joe's son finds Bill lying on the floor in the motor home. He cannot wake Bill, he is scared and starts running through the pits
looking for an offical for help.(their all on the gates). It would have been nice for the child to have known of a marker on John Racers trailer next door , identifying him as a racer with emergency skills. Now John can do a quick assesment and maybe find a medical braclett or necklace with Diabetic markings. Now he can call 911 and provide some good information on the patient. While waiting for rescue, John interviews Joe and learns of probable low blood sugar situation. Now john can rub a little mashed up sugar paste type substance (candy bar, cake icing) between the cheek and gum to provide some sugar for Bill's body while waiting for rescue to arrive. He my very well have just saved Bill's life right there! All because of "EARLY INTERVENTION" and just a little planning from the racing community.

Thank you
Wade Mahaffey

[Rick Bailey]

Wade,
Good post and I all for the special idenifacation of those folks that are trained in medical or other safey talents.

When people are pitted the fire risk is at one level............but the one thing that has always made me nervous was the stacking at national events. I say Joliet is probly the safest, but the US Nats has to be the most dangerous. Just one fire in the middle of the 10 rows of rigs. ????? total loss of.....

And what about a medical emergency.............a cell phone call from a person in their MH and what do you tell the 911 folks. ? I'm rig # 225, or the 32nd rig in the 6th row but the purple trailer...........

No! I don't know the correct senario but what Wade is sugesting in spot on !

Thanks Wade.

Rick Bailey

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by Rick Bailey

Wade,
Good post and I all for the special idenifacation of those folks that are trained in medical or other safey talents.

When people are pitted the fire risk is at one level............but the one thing that has always made me nervous was the stacking at national events. I say Joliet is probly the safest, but the US Nats has to be the most dangerous. Just one fire in the middle of the 10 rows of rigs. ????? total loss of.....

And what about a medical emergency.............a cell phone call from a person in their MH and what do you tell the 911 folks. ? I'm rig # 225, or the 32nd rig in the 6th row but the purple trailer...........

No! I don't know the correct senario but what Wade is sugesting in spot on !

Thanks Wade.

Rick Bailey

If an emergengy condition happens someone can be put at the main gate with a pit vehicle and others with flashlights can guide the emergency vehicles to the location.That's the theory,hopefully it can be carried out under pressure.

Drooze,are you sniffing the C-12 fumes again??????????????????