Fire Water?

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Do you realize, that if there is no water pressure in your house, that there is also no pressure in the fire hydrant in the street? They are both on the same main, which is fed by pumps, which run on electricity. A fire engine has a 500 gallon water tank, which is only good for a car fire or mattress fire. That tank has to be replenished from the city water mains. Do you smell smoke?

-- earl (earl.shuholm@worldnet.att.net), October 21, 1999

Answers

this is certainly one of THE biggest risk factors for larger urban areas (like nyc, chicage, etc).

if nyc lacked water pressure for a week - especially in winter time - a fire could level the place very quickly. not a place i'd want to be the first quarter of 2000.

-- lou (lanny1@ix.netcom.com), October 21, 1999.


Oh man, I thought we were doing shots here...

But seriously, another nice thing about country living. We've got a big pond, almost a small lake, about 100 yards from the house. Plenty full since Floyd went thru. Lots of water for the nice firemen... <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), October 21, 1999.


Fire safety should be large part of your preparedness considerations.

Extinguishers can be as simple and cheap as a ready bucket of wet sand, a bag of old flour. Escape plans should be practiced.

I never did much thinking about fire safety until once, many years years ago, my truck caught fire in a mall parking lot. I was panicked. No extinguisher. No way to deal with the fire other than to let it burn. Out of nowhere a gentlemen appear with a large extinguisher and quite literally saved my truck. I was extremely grateful and offered to compensate him. He refused payment and said "If you really want to thank me, invest in a good extinguisher and keep it in your vehicle. Someday you may be able to provide the same service to someone else."

I took his words to heart and have carried an extinguisher in my vehicle ever since. I've never had the opportunity to use it and, hopefully, never will. But I've always appreciated the fact that a stranger, because he was prepared, was able to save me a great deal of money. But his most important contribution was in causing me to re- evaluate my way of thinking.

Preps don't ensure success, neither do they imply that the worst is certain to happen. But they can make a difference.

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), October 21, 1999.


Yup, good point Arnie.

And, just a reminder, daylight saving time ends in 10 days. We all know what to do when we change the clock, don't we?

CHECK YOUR SMOKE DETECTORS! <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), October 21, 1999.


.............a bag of old flour.

:-< How about some TNT instead. Although the flour is hardly flammable, it might explode when you will try to dust it on fire. I would think twice before trying to use flour to extinguish a fire.

-- Boris (MSIS@cyberdude.com), October 21, 1999.



>Old flour

Ummmm. We used to use flour in Civil War re-enacting to simulate shells exploding - the flour burns fabulously, making a huge fireball and smoke.

Try baking soda.

JZ

-- Jeff Zurschmeide (zursch@cyberhighway.net), October 21, 1999.


With regard to flour, the above comments are correct. Grain dust can indeed explode - rather forcefully given the right circumstances. I made the comment thinking above how my mother and grandmother used to deal with small grease fires in the kitchen. It was quite effective at smothering the flames. But it was used in relatively small quantities on relatively small fires.

Just as water is inappropriate when dealing with grease or electrical fires, flour would be inappropriate when dealing with large structural fires or where large amounts of dust would result.

Thanks for the reminder and also the alternative baking soda suggestion.

The point I was not making very well is that fire safety does not need to be prohibitively expensive.

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), October 21, 1999.


One of the best "field expedient" fire extinguishers I ever saw demonstrated was a couple of cans of soda. Shake VERY well, aim towards fire (buring car engine in my case) and pull tab. Having a second can available for larger fires gives you two doses to smother the flames.

And you don't even have to use big-name, major brand, canned soft drinks. You can buy the store-brand stuff you would never drink for this use.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), October 21, 1999.


Sysman!!! Thanks for reminding me of the smoke detectors. Our detectors run on electricity, not batteries. I'm heading to WalMart tomorrow to get me a couple of detectors. WalMart also has reasonably priced fire extinguishers, no doubt with the power out accidents will happen with candles, etc.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), October 21, 1999.

And for thought, If you lost water pressure you are probably also at risk for other utility probems such as power surges

-- PD (PaulDMaher@worldnet.att.com), October 21, 1999.


Having a pond close to your home certainly is a bonus...whether in or out of town. I do not understand why some people insist on believing that if they are out in the boonies they are somehow safe from fire. Living in Texas...we regularly watch rural homes destroyed by wild fires driven by high winds fueled by dry grass and shrubs. In California and Florida we see the forests fires. It may seem less innocuous because so little damage is done to homes but if your home is in one of these areas it will matter to you. Those gas pipelines running all over this country explode regularly in rural Texas ... seems I noticed a lot of it when I lived in Houston.

So, I don't see less probable fire damage in the rural areas vs. the city. Just less homes to burn and less people having to outrun the flames...also less people to haul water.

-- Shelia (Shelia@active-stream.com), October 21, 1999.


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