lenny7 wrote:jshuberg wrote:If the backstop were on fire it would be a class Bravo, with dense heavy black smoke. From the photos posted earlier in the thread the smoke appears to be dark gray, indicating a class Alpha fire. It doesn't appear the backstop was burning, at least at the time the photo was taken.
That's a good point, but the smoke definitely had a burned rubber smell to it.
If the air handler was burning it would not be a 3 alarm fire. There is just not enough material to burn in a roof top the size of the ones at the range. They smoke like hell, smell bad once power would be cut and suppresant applied a rooftop is just a metal box that would be fairly contained.
The berms in the south pistol and rifle bay are really a steel framework much like a set of stairs with the chunked rubber piled on top. There is something like 10,000+ lbs of rubber chunks piled in the steel framework. So there is a large air void in the back of the berm. So if a fire started deep in the berm and smoldered it would seem to be a nightmare. With any of the rubber assisted berms/backstops there is maintenance required. The old rubber block type would develop hotspots where many bullets built up and these would get hot enough to start a fire, which is why they are not built anymore. I know Rodger frequently did maintenance on the berm, piling more rubber on as it got shot up, and have the rubber sifted (bullets removed and crumbs removed). It will be interesting to see what the cause of the fire is determined to be.
