As my department moved to the new building, I was appointed as one of fire suppressor in the floor. My responsibility for this role is to ensure the fire alarm has been turned on and to try to extinguish small fire accident so it won’t escalate when fire occurred. In order to bear such a critical responsibility, I had to be a certified fire suppressor who has received fire awareness training.
To obtain the fire suppressor certificate, I did the basic fire awareness training at Jakarta Offshore Training Center (JOTC) atDepok,Indonesia. The JOTC has been certified to give several training for oil and gas safety related operation which one of them is fire awareness training. The training was a combination of classroom session and field practice session which took almost a whole day to complete the training.
The classroom session gave a fundamental understanding on how the fire occurs, how to use basic protecting equipment in extinguishing a fire incident and lastly how to extinguish a fire depending on their type. The classroom session was really interesting because it makes me understand how to do best practices in surviving fire incident and why there are many types of fire extinguisher on market.
After completing the classroom session, come the practice session which was very fun and “hot”. Fun because I could apply my basic fire fighting theory obtained in the class room. Hot because it did involve real fire to be extinguished. The practice session was opened by introduction to fire extinguisher tool which were the CO2 type, Chemical powder type, and foam type. Those three extinguishers had different suitability in extinguishing a fire. In addition, the function of fire blanket and its practical use was also introduced in this session. After the introduction, the class participants were given the chance to try each type of fire extinguisher one by one.
A very important message on using a pressurized type Fire Extinguisher (FirEx) was learned that day. Anytime a pressurized type FirEx is used, the tube should be directed outward direction from user’s body. The simple explanation is that CO2, powder and foam FirEx are based on pressurized vessel which the weakest point is the neck between edge of tube and its connection to nozzle hose. Without proper maintenance, this weakest point can break off from its tube and thrusting its hose connection towards the FirEx user. This is very dangerous and can impose a very fatal injury which would lead to fatality as what was happened somewhere in an oil rig inIndonesia.
After all practice on fire extinguisher completed, the training was closed by practice in using emergency breathing device. Class participants were taught to use the device and did simulation on escaping a building full of smoke (although there was not any smoke used during the simulation, the room environment was kept dark so the sensation was almost the same – told the instructor). A class evaluation test was conducted and finally the day was ended by me receiving the fire awareness training certificate.
