On Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:37:42 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:54:00 +0000, David Billington
wrote:

Gunner wrote:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...icle900459.ece

Well an initial comment is that I have a friend that is a fire scene
investigator and we have discussed this sort of thing before. She has
seen the aftermath of people that don't know when to give up trying to
fight a fire with the extinguishers and other items they have and end up
as statistics (dead). IIRC from her professional point of view best to
get out and let the professionals sort the fire if an initial attempt
doesn't squash to fire quickly in it infancy.

This is why you put all the fire extinguishers deliberately closer
to the exit door than the appliance or tool it is to be used on - that
way you have the exit path at your back, and at that time you can
better decide between fight or flight.

Two or more people available: one calls the FD or 911 and then works
on evacuation. The other grabs a hose or extinguisher, and then
surveys the scene again and thinks about fighting back.

One person - grab the phone, dial 911, put it down with the receiver
aimed toward where you'll be fighting from. Give them five seconds
and then start yelling what the problem is, and the address, and that
you're trying to put it out and you'll pick up the phone in a few
seconds...

There is a logic to calling the FD first and waiting for a response
before going back to trying to fight it yourself - but then the fire
has had two minutes or more to get ahead of you. And it might well be
too far gone to handle yourself, write off the house.

And, on the other hand I have put out two fires, using an
extinguisher, that could have burned down my house or workshop.

And I had the muffler guy laugh and make snide remarks at me when he
lit the cutting torch, and I grabbed his garden hose 'just in case'.

That is, till he lit the firewall sound insulation on fire. The
silence spoke volumes, because he didn't say a single word after I
walked over and put it right back out...

But then again, I recently bought a bicycle and on both the front and
rear forks was an arrow shaped decal point at the axal and stating
"failure to tighten this nut not may result in loss of the wheel", so
perhaps I'm one of the more intelligent members of the human
race???????
Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)

Oh, that one's courtesy of the liability lawyers. The same reason
they print on the back of sunshields "Remove from windshield before
driving vehicle." There are people who think there's a nice million-
dollar settlement in it because 'they didn't say not to.'

-- Bruce --