Bravo Company Combat Engineers Fight Fires

Anyone who watches the news is familiar with pictures of burning military vehicles on the side of the road. This is the unfortunate result of any war, in this case the anti-insurgency fight in Iraq. Most of these vehicles are damaged by roadside bombs, or IEDs, Improvised Explosive Devices.

In all mechanized wars re-building damaged vehicles has been a priority. During World War II damaged Sherman tanks were repaired and placed back in service. The same thing happens today with all kinds of military vehicles. Some of them are refurbished in Kuwait, while others are shipped back to the United States to be rebuilt and reused by the Army.

The first step in this process is putting out the fire after the initial attack. Bravo Co. of the 526^th Brigade Support Battalion has been trained in this vital task by going through a firefighting certification course. The unit is in Iraq and is fighting fires.

It got new equipment to help with this task, a flatbed truck capable of carrying many, many gallons of water and firefighting foam.

The unit is not used to fighting fires. It is designed for a support role, in other words to repair trucks and other vehicles damaged or worn out while in use. However, the more quickly a fire can be put out the more quickly the vehicle can be repaired and returned to the unit. Therefore, the 526th underwent this training. A Humvee can burn for as long as four hours, and a Stryker can burn for 15 hours or more. Leaving a burning vehicle on the side of the road is dangerous to the local population as well as to other passing troops because it may contain ordinance that could explode.

It is important to protect the local population because in an anti-insurgency campaign one must win over the locals. Protecting their lives and giving them security helps to prevent the growth of the insurgency. Insurgencies have traditionally relied on local populations for food, shelter, and intelligence. Creating a friendly population denies the insurgents this kind of support.

Another important reason to quickly put out these fires is that the number of man-hours providing security for the firefighting team is reduced if the fire is put out more quickly, and the risk to those soldiers is thereby reduced also if the fire is quickly extinguished.. Two soldiers handle the hose and two stay on top of the flat bed, mixing the fluids correctly and keeping an eye out for danger. Such intense flames can flare up and actually create local weather conditions. The soldiers are specially trained in rescue operations, also, in case that is necessary at the fire site.

Training this unit to put out fires as well as pick up damaged vehicles for repair is just one more step in the complicated and difficult task of fighting an anti-insurgency war in Iraq.

Fighting Fires, US Army