Great Message

The following post (and few more to come) are published by the MN State Fire Marshal Office and more specifically, fellow fire fighter, LT 7 and now Deputy Fire Marshal Public Educator...Becki W.

Becki publishes a newsletters with some great content.

Children Playing with Fire

NFPA just rereleased their latest study on Children Playing with Fire. The report summary stated that in 2006, an estimated 14,500 child-playing structure fires were reported to U.S. municipal fire departments, with associated losses of 130 civilian deaths, 810 civilian injuries, and $328 million in direct damage. Fifty-eight percent of these structure fires took place in the home. Most child-playing home fires begin with lighters or matches. The items ignited by home fire-play are principally mattresses, bedding, or clothing followed by magazines, newspaper, or writing paper, and upholstered furniture or vehicle seats. Nineteen percent of people who start reported fires by playing are four year olds. Nearly two thirds (63%) of all fatal victims of fires by play are children five years old and younger. There is a fact sheet available at nfpa.org.
Source: Children Playing with Fire, by Jennifer Flynn, NFPA, Quincy, MA, January 2009

A downloadable factsheet is available at: www.nfpa.org/assets/files//PDF/ChildrenFactSheet.pdf

One video worth watching.

Fire + Oil + Water = Explosive Fireball This is a great example that was demonstrated at the EPFD Open House this weekend. The ingredients are simple…..heat (stove top) a pan of hot oil (think deep frying) and water. Stove top cooking oil can easily catch fire and sustain a flame. When this happens the best way to extinguish the fire is to remove the oxygen by placing a lid on pan. Pouring water into the oil fire will …..well cause a giant fire ball. I may not get this exactly right but water vaporizes (steam) around 212 degrees. The oil is likely at 500 degrees. When the water hits the 500 degree oil it quickly converts to gas. As it expands into gas the oil droplets adhere to the water molecules and as the steam rises (water), so does the fire-based oil and there you have it…..a huge and dangerous fire ball.

EPFD Open House

EPFD (and EPPD) hosted their annual Open House yesterday. Besides a the weather (blanket of snow, wind and 30 degrees) we still had a few thousand people come through! The event would not have been as successful if it were not for all different organizations that provided volunteers (above and beyond EPFD) including CenterPoint Energy, LifeLink Helicopter, HCMC ambulance service, CERT (community emergency response team); MN State Fire Marshall for Sprinkler and Kitchen Fire Demo’s and many more.

I think one of the most exciting parts to the day was for the crowd to see how quickly we actually respond to real incident. During the middle of the day we had a (real) kitchen fire that took half the department (T41, E41 & E21) to respond. It was ‘cool’ for the group to see how quickly we transitioned from public educators to public service. (The good news it the responding squads knocked down the fire before it extended beyond the kitchen.

Great Demonstrations including two car fires & extrications, what happens in a kitchen grease fire when you add water (not good) plus EPPD showing how to properly secure car seats.

Pre Open House plan...

Going into the open house tomorrow morning I thought I would take a stab a setting the plan to see how well it actually come to fruition. I guess being out of the country four consecutive days prior and not attending the final staff meeting did not help but I think it is come together.

11:00 New Crash/Engine 12 – we have a brand spanking new engine that is ‘officially’ going into service at 11:00 as our Mayor cuts the ribbon.
11:15 we’ll demo auto extrication
11:45 we’ll begin to prepare for a vehicle fire. The thick black smoke usually gets the attention of the crowd.
12:30 the EPPD will demo their police dogs
1:30 will be the second auto extrication
2:00 being the final vehicle fire

In between the events there are a number of other demonstrations and things to see & do including:
Kid Photo in gear
Kitchen Fire Demo—what can happen with hot oil/grease fires
Safety Trailer – how smoke behaves in a room
Sprinkler Trailer – How sprinkler systems can help suppress room/content fires.
Technical Rescue – Demo of neighboring technical rescue
Show/Tell:
• LifeLink Helicopter
• HCMC Ambulance
• Technical Rescue Trailer
• Engine
• Tower
• Crash
• Rescue
• Police Car
Plus free treats & goodies including cookies, bars, hotdogs, popcorn, t-shirts and more……

Hopefully it goes like clockwork. Although the weather forecast is calling for high 30’s and snow the crowd might not be as large as years past.