SJAFB closes out Fire Prevention Week with safety demonstration
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on October 16, 2017 5:50 AM
Every second counts, plan two ways out.
That was the motto Friday as the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base fire department held a fire safety event in recognition of fire prevention week. Gathered in front of the commissary, several members of the fire department set up a demonstration on how to put out a kitchen grease fire.
Eric Harper, assistant fire chief, filled a pan with oil and grease, then lit a piece of paper he had placed in the liquid. After a moment, the pan caught fire, and Harper began explaining how to handle it.
"First, don't throw water on it," he said to the people who had stopped to watch. "Second, don't pick it up and move the pan, because you can have hot grease pop on you. If that happens, you're going to drop it, and that's how a lot of house fires start."
Instead, Harper picked up the lid of the pan and carefully closed it over the fire, smothering it. Having cut off the fire's oxygen, the fire died immediately.
The firefighters also demonstrated how to use an extinguisher to handle a larger fire. They used a piece of training equipment which produced flames around a foot tall as a target, and then flagged down a passing jogger to take part.
Sherika Morse, the jogger, said she had never used a fire extinguisher before and did not know how to do it. That did not last long, as the firefighters showed her how to pull the pin and aim the nozzle at the fire's base.
Within moments, Morse had put out the fire and was back on her way.
Fire prevention week is an annual event on base, and Harper said people should not stop paying attention when it finishes.
"Yes, this is fire prevention week, but fire prevention and safety should be on everybody's mind all year-round," he said.