Basic fire fighting training usually conducted by local fire department. Mostly by the fireman. Not thing wrong with that. The one who know the best is the one who fight the fire for their living. What went wrong was that, not all the fire man, especially in Thailand know and understand what they are doing.
Long times ago, I stopped a group of fire man who was facilitating fire fighting training for my staffs in a gas company. They put an LPG cylinder in a gasoline pan. (big metal box filled with gasoline). Then opened the LPG valve to let the gas flow. Then, they lit the fire in the pan, and the LPG cylinder valve. Then they called the participants to come and close the valve one by one. The fire has been setup repeatedly. The fireman was so entertaining doing these.
I stopped them because afraid of BLEVE. One of them asked me what is BLEVE?? “I never heard of it!”
That is why this kind of stunt show was designed.
The other cases in Thailand, few days ago. A fire man died because of a cylinder exploded while demonstrating fire fighting. According to one of my friend, that cylinder was a home made. It filled with gasoline. The cylinder is pressurized with nitrogen to make the spraying of gasoline. In what situation that we put someone at risk to fight the fire with bare hand or a portable fire extinguisher like that???
It is a wrong concept of running basic fire fighting with series of stunt action. Fire Fighting Trainers must know what is appropriate to do for basic fire fighting. We teach people how to safely react to an incipient stage of fire not a stunt show.
