Cops are always happy when they get to play firefighter!

Anytime there is a photo of a police officer with a fire extinguisher someone jokes how the cop is finally realizing the dream of being a firefighter. For some officers in Cedar Falls, Iowa, that joke rings a little more true.

Some of the city squad cars now have a Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS) to provide rapid fire suppression. I have family who went to college at the University Iowa in Cedar Falls. It is a nice typical college town.

After watching the video I could not help but to think about some calls I was on at the first city I worked in. A college town like Cedar Falls. More than once I was at fires caused by grills, car malfunctions, and dumpster fires. We had fire extinguishers in the patrol cars but they did very little help the fires. A CAFS system like this might have helped.

With only 50 feet of hose the PD will not be making an interior attack. This will be for small nuisance fires. At the same time I do hope there is good policy and training going on to keep officers from burns and also from breathing in some gasses.