Willoughby Hills Fire Rescue demonstrates new fire blankets

Jul 11, 2023

The Willoughby Hills Fire Rescue team, alongside Gates Mills Fire Department and MidWest Safety Products, recently hosted a testing, training and demonstration of new fire blankets.

According to Willoughby Hills Fire Department Chief Robert Gandee, the blankets were recently purchased by both departments. The blankets are intended to give firefighters yet another tool to fight vehicle fires and more specifically, combat electric vehicle fires.

The Willoughby Hills Fire Rescue team, alongside Gates Mills Fire Department and MidWest Safety Products, hosted a testing, training and demonstration of new fire blankets. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)

The Willoughby Hills Fire Rescue team, alongside Gates Mills Fire Department and MidWest Safety Products, hosted a testing, training and demonstration of new fire blankets. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)

The Willoughby Hills Fire Rescue team, alongside Gates Mills Fire Department and MidWest Safety Products, hosted a testing, training and demonstration of new fire blankets. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)

The Willoughby Hills Fire Rescue team, alongside Gates Mills Fire Department and MidWest Safety Products, hosted a testing, training and demonstration of new fire blankets. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)

The Willoughby Hills Fire Rescue team, alongside Gates Mills Fire Department and MidWest Safety Products, hosted a testing, training and demonstration of new fire blankets. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)

The Willoughby Hills Fire Rescue team, alongside Gates Mills Fire Department and MidWest Safety Products, hosted a testing, training and demonstration of new fire blankets. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)

Other area fire departments were invited to participate or send members to observe the tool. The training was also open to the community.

As part of the training, two vehicles were placed approximately 100 to 150 feet from each other. To demonstrate how the fire blanket is used, firefighters proceeded to light a vehicle on fire and in groups of four, pull the blanket over top of the vehicle to extinguish the fire.

A ladder truck with a 300-gallon tank, as well as a 2,000-gallon pump were both onsite with a line already stretched to establish a water supply.

The Willoughby Hills Fire Rescue team, alongside Gates Mills Fire Department and MidWest Safety Products, hosted a testing, training and demonstration of new fire blankets. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)

The Willoughby Hills Fire Rescue team, alongside Gates Mills Fire Department and MidWest Safety Products, hosted a testing, training and demonstration of new fire blankets. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)

The Willoughby Hills Fire Rescue team, alongside Gates Mills Fire Department and MidWest Safety Products, hosted a testing, training and demonstration of new fire blankets. (Marah Morrison -- The News-Herald)

“The water’s coming from the Community Center here,” said Zachari Martin, firefighter and training officer for Willoughby Hills Fire Rescue.

“We have a five mile an hour wind, so we’re not too concerned about that,” Martin said. “We do have a high humidity today. With the humidity high, we’re not going to operate over 90 degrees.”

According to DJ Green, of MidWest Safety, the current fire blankets are new technology in the United States. When fire blankets first started being used by firefighters, they were wool.

“These blankets are triple-layered and reusable,” Green said. “The big thing with fire blankets is suffocation. We’re going to take it the same way you put a blanket on.”

At all four corners of the blanket were handles for the firefighters to grab to pull the blanket up and over the burning vehicle.

“On freeways or parking garages, we may not have the water available to us,” Green said, noting his excitement about the new tool.

“This is another tool in our toolbox to help combat our ever-changing challenges of protecting the community,” Gandee said. “Electric vehicle fires historically take thousands of gallons of water to extinguish, and fire blankets give us another piece of equipment in our arsenal to fight these type of fires.”

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