Breaking My Habit, Day 17: Fire Fghting

I extinguished flame twice today!

Imagine something like this, times 2

Well, before you get any wrong ideas, perhaps I should tell you that it was all part of our fire training. Wooho, 2 hours of no work! 


The fire department staff that trained us, Mr. Cholid, explained that there are 2 ways to putting off a fire: using everyday object or small fire extinguisher. 

Because we don't have much time, the only everyday object that we use to extinguish fire was wet sack. This method requires you to move very close to the fire while protecting your face then carefully covering the flame using the sack. If done correctly, it will block oxygen from getting to the flame, thus make it go off.


It's really a cool technique, because it's basically analogues to a melee attack: instead of shooting at the fire from afar, you have to get really close to the fire source. Small mistakes and you could get yourself burned!

After wet sack, Mr. Cholid demonstrated how to use the small fire extinguisher apparatus. He explained that there are several types of fire extinguisher based on their content: water, foam, chemical powder, and carbon dioxide. Turns out each type of fire extinguisher has its own plus and minus. For example, Carbon dioxide tank was heavier than others, but it packs a strong punch in short range. Chemical powder is generally good (and the tank's lighter), but it will leave residues on the surfaces. And so on and so on.

We only tried chemical powder and carbon dioxide today, as they are the ones we have in our lab. It was a rare experience, getting to extinguish fire yourself. It's an important skill to have, I just hope I won't need to use it on real life situation.

See you tomorrow!