Yesterday I completed my two-day Basic Fire Fighting course. This basically means that I am now certified in the sense that I understand the basics of fire safety and I have demonstrated that I can use a fire extinguisher. Yay me, I sound so cool 😊. It was actually a really exciting experience and one that I probably would never have experienced if I’d never left my previous job. It also made me feel so good that I had accomplished something and can say that I did something a little different this week.
The point I’m trying to make here is that we should all celebrate the little accomplishments too. We should also strive to experience new things as often as possible. Can you imagine how boring our lives would be if we just continued doing much of the same all the time? Sounds like a boring circle of boring. I’m sure that you would not feel very happy being stuck in that boring washing cycle.
"If you do not experience anything, it's impossible to gain knowledge." - Chinese Proverb
This experience brought me happiness for a variety of reasons, but I think the main one is that it was so out of comfort zone. I mean, I’ve seen fire extinguishers before but I’ve never held one nor have I sprayed white foam all over a classroom carpet before haha. The feeling was amazing and now at least I know if I am ever in a situation where I need to make use of one, I will know what to do.
Another thing I picked up from this whole experience is how truly frightening a fire actually is. We all know a fire is dangerous but the time it takes for things to go from manageable to unmanageable is minutes, not hours, minutes! Some of the video footage really scared me. Our instructor mentioned that a small flame can fan into an uncontrollable fire within minutes. Crazy how quickly it can happen and if you think about how short a time frame that actually is, it blows your mind. At one stage I was considering flame retarding everything in our house.
So, in closing here are some interesting things I learnt while on the course:
- A 5kg Fire Extinguisher will only yield around 30 seconds of firefighting time
- If it’s bigger than a chair, don’t bother with a fire extinguisher. Evacuate and call the Fire Department.
- In Cape Town, South Africa, if you call the Fire Department to extinguish a fire you will be billed for it. It is no longer a free service.
- Walk don’t run. Most people are trampled to death during the panic.
- DCP (Dry Chemical Powder) Fire Extinguishers are effective on all classes of fires but will ruin electrical equipment.
Hopefully you found some of these as interesting as I did. Remember fires are dangerous and should never be under estimated.
Sources: Nosa Basic Firefighter Participant Manual and lectures.
Thank you for reading and remember to keep smiling 😊.
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