David I never saw or heard of “Duo Mix” it was probably an early foaming agent with water base, just a guess.
We were shown which type of fire appliance to use on each type of fire during the day of fire training and then shown a fire and had to quickly choose the correct procedure at the same time raising the alarm and organising people into the fire fighting crew, speed and clear thinking was needed to stop fire spreading.
Being well known to the fire crews I usually got a surprise sprung on me during this section, I would be busy fighting a fuel fire with the CO2 and they would light a bundle of straw behind me which you would fight with water, make your mind up time which was the most dangerous and a sweaty few minutes because you had to complete the task.
Gas under pressure could only be cooled whilst valves were turned off, you had to know where they were. Fuel under pressure had to be contained as well as using CO2 not water, normal waste fires which were common when welders were involved you used water. As with any fire it was a case of weighing up the danger sounding the alarm in time and deciding if you had any chance of stopping it in its tracks.
ICI was a very dangerous place to work and in my time lives were lost, myself it was an explosion that sent a two and a half tonne vessel end sailing over my head, the blast knocked me over but I was unhurt and did not know about the flying steel until told by some one who saw it. We also had a fire where all access was cut off so I walked the lads out along a pipe to the pipebridge and safely down.
We tended to take it all in our stride.
Sorry to disagree ICI was formed officially in 1928 when they moved into Millbank House London, it was the coming together of several large chemical concerns around 1926 including Brune Mond at Billingham.
Billingham had several fires and explosions in the 1930s including one bad one which would be why they formed a small fire group but by the time war came they had their own machine pumps as supplied to the AFS wartime fire service. By the time I started working for them they had proper fire engines plus pumps, also a gas safety team with all the gear. Nearly every man and woman working for ICI in my time had fire and gas training once a year, this included going through the gas hut with the masks on and real fires to fight.
A couple of fires we were involved in, the ICI fire team were first on the scene followed by a couple of units from the local fire service just in case, it was a dangerous place to work at times.
The ICI firemen had nearly all been in the local fire service, did the same training and worked the 24-7 shift system. The remit was from the river to North Tees works and everything in between so they were quite busy. They also checked out all fire appliances in workshops and offices and did safety checks on flamable materials. They stood by as we dismantled plants during shut downs, a time leakages and fires could happen we were working with some very hazardous materials and gases. They also trained our own standby firemen who went on the job with teams that included welders burners and boilersmiths, they would set up spark catching sheets and have fire appliances ready in case of a flash fire, on a big job the fire dept would then check it all out. The fire safety department was run on the same lines as the local fire service and apart from a couple of massive fires managed to contain most alone. They did a cracking job for which they did not always get the acclaim.
Look at the collar on the man second from left, that was a 1930’s collar and tie.
When working in the Police Force at Billingham we had to go to the ICI for gas tests. In an emergency along with the Gov’t fire brigade we would be involved.
Thanks for that comprehensive reply Frank , brilliant and good local gen. too . Do you think ‘Duo-Mixer’ could be foam and water or some other chemical combination ?
ICI was not formed until 1926 and from the style of dress and uniform here I would suggest the photo was taken in the 1950’s . Can the ‘team’ tell what the sign on the building says as it might give a clue ?
David I never saw or heard of “Duo Mix” it was probably an early foaming agent with water base, just a guess.
We were shown which type of fire appliance to use on each type of fire during the day of fire training and then shown a fire and had to quickly choose the correct procedure at the same time raising the alarm and organising people into the fire fighting crew, speed and clear thinking was needed to stop fire spreading.
Being well known to the fire crews I usually got a surprise sprung on me during this section, I would be busy fighting a fuel fire with the CO2 and they would light a bundle of straw behind me which you would fight with water, make your mind up time which was the most dangerous and a sweaty few minutes because you had to complete the task.
Gas under pressure could only be cooled whilst valves were turned off, you had to know where they were. Fuel under pressure had to be contained as well as using CO2 not water, normal waste fires which were common when welders were involved you used water. As with any fire it was a case of weighing up the danger sounding the alarm in time and deciding if you had any chance of stopping it in its tracks.
ICI was a very dangerous place to work and in my time lives were lost, myself it was an explosion that sent a two and a half tonne vessel end sailing over my head, the blast knocked me over but I was unhurt and did not know about the flying steel until told by some one who saw it. We also had a fire where all access was cut off so I walked the lads out along a pipe to the pipebridge and safely down.
We tended to take it all in our stride.
Sorry to disagree ICI was formed officially in 1928 when they moved into Millbank House London, it was the coming together of several large chemical concerns around 1926 including Brune Mond at Billingham.
Billingham had several fires and explosions in the 1930s including one bad one which would be why they formed a small fire group but by the time war came they had their own machine pumps as supplied to the AFS wartime fire service. By the time I started working for them they had proper fire engines plus pumps, also a gas safety team with all the gear. Nearly every man and woman working for ICI in my time had fire and gas training once a year, this included going through the gas hut with the masks on and real fires to fight.
A couple of fires we were involved in, the ICI fire team were first on the scene followed by a couple of units from the local fire service just in case, it was a dangerous place to work at times.
The ICI firemen had nearly all been in the local fire service, did the same training and worked the 24-7 shift system. The remit was from the river to North Tees works and everything in between so they were quite busy. They also checked out all fire appliances in workshops and offices and did safety checks on flamable materials. They stood by as we dismantled plants during shut downs, a time leakages and fires could happen we were working with some very hazardous materials and gases. They also trained our own standby firemen who went on the job with teams that included welders burners and boilersmiths, they would set up spark catching sheets and have fire appliances ready in case of a flash fire, on a big job the fire dept would then check it all out. The fire safety department was run on the same lines as the local fire service and apart from a couple of massive fires managed to contain most alone. They did a cracking job for which they did not always get the acclaim.
Look at the collar on the man second from left, that was a 1930’s collar and tie.
When working in the Police Force at Billingham we had to go to the ICI for gas tests. In an emergency along with the Gov’t fire brigade we would be involved.
Thanks for that comprehensive reply Frank , brilliant and good local gen. too . Do you think ‘Duo-Mixer’ could be foam and water or some other chemical combination ?
ICI was not formed until 1926 and from the style of dress and uniform here I would suggest the photo was taken in the 1950’s . Can the ‘team’ tell what the sign on the building says as it might give a clue ?