Education in Fire Fighting

Halon 1301 flooding can also be used in place of C02 in enclosed areas where the proper concentration of the Halon can be maintained. In the proper concentration, Halon has the advantage of enabling human entry into the area.

The disadvantages of Halon is that; it is costlier than C02, can no longer be produced and there is no way of disposing of it. However, recycled Halon is available and is legal to use as an alternative to C02 where it is necessary to have human entry into an affected area.

It is much better to educate people on standard products and using new product requires lot more to know the side effects. I did use some of these fire retardent agents but found only one time buy.

I still prefer my good old trusty C02 fire extinguishers, which got a lot of use in a previous job in an electrical safety testing laboratory (every 2nd or 3rd day in fact). Good general purpose extinguisher for the electrical engineering field. Ahh those were the days, wall sockets melting of the walls (on more than a few occations), toasters set on fire. It's not often you get to yell the phrase "Main switchboard's on fire, I'm killing the power". Now days I play with things a little larger than a toaster (and with a lot more bite and high MVA fault current levels). Things you dont try and attack with a fire extinguisher, you just kill the power (if you can) and run away really fast if they catch on fire (they have a tendency to self-disassemble, disappear and emit dangerous quantities of radiation during arc flashovers).

Ahh, the memories of a simpler (and slightly safer) time. I would not use sodawater unless I knew the power was off (i.e.- I turned it off myself and checked), and even then I would go for the nearest C02 extinguisher if one was available.

How many people would be realistically expected to know how use a Halon or foam extinguisher system without proper on-the-job training?

In general Halon is not utilized in hand held extinguishers. It's usually employed in automatic fire protection systems. No training or thinking involved. It automatically deploys upon detection of products of combustion, during the incipient stages of a fire.

I agree that CO2 is very good. Halon which was CFC did some fast isolation and cooling effect was banned. I used it 30 years ago and gifted a small cylinfer of it to my wife for her kitchen. It was never used and was leaked out. This was refill type extinguiser but was never refilled. I think it slowly leaked in 3 years.

CO2 removes O2 concentration but can not cool. It also isolates fire for short duration. Hence, is good only for very small fires. It can suffocate if used too muc in small room.

For oil fires foam is the best.

for gas cylinder fires, cooling the gas cylinder is much better idea and then close the flow of gas. Hot cylinder can burst out.

Isolation is best way to fight fire. Have some gap between material that can catch fire.

Loss of oxygen can make person unconscious. Human body is fat that burns or is a fuel. Hence, some amount of air flow or oxygen is essential for one to think and find way to survice.

Water sprinklers are good as water can cool and resist fire.

Electrical wiring often gets heated when there is lose connection or corrosion. Sort circuit is real bad thing. Most of the electronics ballasts are prone to short circuit. If they do not oscillate then they draw heavy current. I have also noticed that Lead Acid battery that I use in inverter often eat away the copper wire. Yesterday our power failed as battery wire snapped out as it was totally eaten by the H2SO4. I think the boy who filled the battery spilled the acid out by dumping extra distilled water in the battery cavity.

My son keeps lots of lose wires as he plugs many instruments and it is never ending process. He keeps lots of wiring under the bed over the bed, on the table and wherever he can. The lady who cleans the room sure finds it lot difficult to do her job. Right now I can see one scanner, one printer, one model, one laptop adopter and one mosquito repeller on his bed. There are 72 numbers A4 size hand written notes on the wall for his GRE preparation and Laptop and and head phone on the table, I am using his net on another table, and he is watching movie in another room on TV. I think there are big speakers under his bed, I can see UPS, few adopter and three extension boards under the bed. There is one table lamp one 40W tube light and one 15W low power lamp. I missed one phone which is on the bed. I sure will find some more things if I look a bit seriously. My son Akash (21) is a fresh electronics engineer. I am not sure this engineering works. He will not let me touch any thing around.

I need to keep some big fire safety plan ready for his room.

My wife does lots of worship so has her good in one of the almirah. She places God on nice cloth and also puts oil lamp on that. I keep telling her that she has everything that takes fire but her logic is God will take care.

I have small 16 room house and we are only three of us here now. Me, my wife and son Akash. My two daughters are away. When we become five it gets worst. I have almost have developed God senses for smell. I start shouting something is burning somewhere. All will sit cool. When I keep telling then my son hunts for it and finds something that was innovative electronics idea is on smoke.

I have all those MCBs and perhaps for all rooms. But they come into action when something is deadly short circuited and not when something is burning. Our electricity department has no serious problem of voltages and they some time send 500V in 220V line in a cery cool way. They act only when few people say that their house in on fire. All they do is cut power and sit cool. Hence, I am not waiting for fire to take place, but I am keeping fit and ready daily for it to happen.

Pretty good materials are available from the American N.F.P.A.

Google their catalogue.