Extinguish

It was all about extinguishers today. Do you know the different classes of fires? Classes A, B, C, D, and K. Yes, class K. It's a relatively new one for cooking oil fires. Dry chemical, dry powder (there is a difference), wet chemical, water, CO2, halon... You name it, there's a fire for each one.

But, we got to do more than that... Yes, today I properly extinguished my first fire. We have two big burn pans: one for a "two dimensional" fire and one for three dimensions. We first had to load our fire extinguisher with dry chemical, charge it with a CO2 cylinder, then wait our turn to have a go at the burning diesel fuel set alight for our benefit. It's not easy to put out a controlled diesel fire.

In fact quite a lot happened today. I'm not sure what the collective noun is for a large amount of emergency services training happening at one place at one time is, but I'm going to go with a "carnage" of training. There was a squad in live fire, a squad spraying water, us putting out diesel fuel fires, and a mock riot for another agency. There were intermittent flash bangs going off behind us, tear gas at one point, police training on bicycles, black diesel smoke rising into the sky, and pallets and hay burning for the live fire squad. What a rush!

I got the all clear today from my training officer. Blipping resumed. I finished off last week's blips - see Thursday and Friday.