I wrote this artical(part 1) and it appeared in the June 2000 issue of Drag Racing USA magazine. It is worth your time to read it if you still travel and stay at the track/show over night.
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 youre 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: "Theres a trailer on fire at the speedway!"
The call taker probably thinks its 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!
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 youre 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: "Theres a trailer on fire at the speedway!"
The call taker probably thinks its 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!
There are some additional safety tips at my web site www.mahaffeymotorsports.com under the "Wade's blog" tab
Wade Mahaffey
Wade Mahaffey
updated by @wade-mahaffey: 12/05/16 08:51:04AM