At 8:18 AM -0400 6/16/00, Kat Bryce wrote:
>As someone who has had exactly 0 lessons or experience in using a fire
>extinguisher. How exactly should one put out an engine that is on fire?
The best way is to contact the road racing part of your region, or
the region next to you, or next to that and ask when the next fire
safety school is being put on. Attend that. Practice with live
fires is always the best. A decent region will let anyone in who is
a member of SCCA. The last time I attended a NER fire school they
contacted the solo II and rally programs and explicitly invited
interested people to attend.
With that in mind, remember these rules (which are for powders, the
others are probably similar)
1) pull the pin (and impress the fire rescue people by putting it in
your pocket so it can be reused!) and hold the extinguisher upright
2) shoot bursts not a continuous stream. This lets you evaluate the
effectiveness of your efforts
3) Shoot at the base of the fire
4) shoot through the grill, fender holes, etc, before popping the hood
5) have the driver (who is wearing nomex) pop the hood, cover the
driver while they do this in case it suddenly flares up. (I had a
driver REFUSE to pop the hood on his car, he wanted me to do it, I
told him no way.)
6) if you are caught with fire all around you, point it at your feet
and shoot some bursts and get away from there
7) Know your surroundings, a lot a smoke can happen and drop visibility to zero
8) backup your co workers, if one has a fire bottle on th scene, RUN
and get another one, don't sit around watching. If the bottle fails
or runs out, you'll be glad you did. Practice running with a bottle
before your first fire. I like the football carry, others like the 2
handed baby carry.
9) if it is a big one, rescue the driver, not the car, see #6
10) wear nomex gloves, cotton clothing, leather or canvas shoes
--
pZ -- Paul Cezanne (formerly Czarnecki)
Please consider buying my wife's new book, The Illusionist,
(http://www.JeannetteAngell.com) and then help the UN feed the world
for free @ http://www.TheHungerSite.com
|