Firstly, what type of training or experience do any of you have to qualify you on commenting on how this incident was handled? I’ve worked as a marshal for over 6 years including a year or so in pit lane and I cannot see why the marshals are being so heavily criticised.
The first rule of handling any incident, no matter how big or small, is look after yourself before anyone else. Secondly, look after your fellow marshals. Third, the driver and finally those expensive metal bits that just visited your sector. In a fire that size, as hard as it might be to do, under no circumstances should anyone be going gung-ho in to the car and be a hero to drag a driver out. One casualty is bad enough without adding to them by some ill-considered rash decision to put your own life at risk.
The AMR guy should be both applauded for his sterling efforts and reprimanded for his stupidity. Anyone having been to a fire that size would known how hot it would have felt from the pit wall let alone the car itself. I’d be amazed if he didn’t sustain injuries himself, but what good would he have been had he not managed to drag the driver clear so quickly? I dread to think how bad his injuries could have been, at least the driver has nomex to help him survive at least a short time in such a fire.
The entire car was covered in flame, including spilt fuel on the circuit that would have hindered getting to the car in the first place. They probably didn’t even know which end of the car the driver was in following the collision so I don’t blame them one minute for trying to put the fire on the car out to start with. Once you can see what you are doing you can have a better chance of getting the driver out. The driver could have been trapped, so putting the whole car out until you at least know where the driver is and making it safe has to be the first priority.
It seemed most of the extinguishers were AFFF (aqueous film forming foam) which can put a fire that big out, but only when a lot is deployed. Powder would have knocked the fire down quicker with just the hand held bottles. Not sure why they didn’t have any powder bottles, might be the circuit doesn’t use them or they simply were not the 1st to hand. Either way they used what they had available and did a good job until backup arrived. Getting thru barriers like that, with various bottles and protective equipment on, is not easy. Likewise you wouldn’t expect people to jump the barrier until the racing had been neutralised – again looking after your safety before trying to help the unfortunate driver.
I don’t expect everyone to agree with this post, but all I ask is that if you feel so strongly against these views then please feel free to volunteer as a marshal so you can experience first hand what its really like to be on the front line. Its not as clear cut and easy as you might think…
http://www.marshals.co.uk/
