MARTIN COUNTY FIRE PROTECTION PART 3

The recent fire at the Viesel biofuels facility in Martin County (brief report) showed the need to consider the synergistic effects of placing incompatible facilities near, next to, or within each other and within a residential neighborhood. The biofuels fire and its aftermath is still being felt. The firefighters were heroic and contained what could have been a catastrophe from spreading. They were aided by the fact that both Dixie Highway and US 1 offered fire trucks good road access to the light industrial center where the fire took place.

The biofuel facility is located in a complex where the surrounding businesses work with and store highly flammable materials, materials that produce noxious fumes. Some of these businesses are boat builders. Was this the right location for a fuels facility? Martin County is now going to consider that question.

County officials reacted quickly to the aftermath of the fire and suggested placing a temporary halt to site plans and building permits for biofuel facilities until the issues surrounding them can be studied (brief news report). The topic was on the agenda for the May 19th meeting of the Board of County Commissioners. This was the same meeting that the cell tower was to be heard. Our cell tower issue was continued until June 23rd as was the hearing on the moratorium on biofuel facilities.

The investigation into the Viesel fire concluded that it was an accident. According to an article in the TCPalm, a county official said it could cost as much as $500,000 to remove the biodiesel, water and dirt from the county's drainage system and other areas following the fire.

A cell tower with associated electrical equipment and generators is just as incompatible a facility to place immediately adjacent to and within a boat storage shed. The tower design standards say it is designed to have a 100 ft fall zone (see previous post). This tower proposal has no fall zone. Debris falling from the tower or water borne or wind borne debris at the Marina during a hurricane could cause the tower's equipment to generate a fire, a fire that could ignite scores of boats stored in the building.

However, the actual cause of this fire would not be an accident. The cause would be the fact that the County bypassed its own regulations as well as the design standards for the tower to place the tower at this location; that the County came up with a new type of zoning called "Postage Stamp" zoning to accommodate just this one tower;  that the County is determined to put the lives of thousands of residents and visitors round the Manatee Pocket at risk from explosion, fire, and noxious fumes; that the fragility of the Manatee Pocket is not a consideration if a cell tower and boat shed fire has to be fought;  that the County thinks a 10 lb fire extinguisher is sufficient to fight such a fire.

We applaud the County firefighters for risking their lives for us. They are heroes in every sense of the word. We sincerely hope that they do not have to save our lives and put their own lives at risk because of such an ill conceived project.

The next posting will take a look at the Fire Codes that apply to this project.  Stay tuned.