By Sarah Gooding
Pittsburg Morning Sun – October 9, 2013
Firefighter Will Holt demonstrates what happens when two tablespoons of water are added to a cup of burning oil for students at Meadowlark Elementary as part of Fire Prevention Week activities, which focus this year on kitchen fire safety.
Fire Pup gives hugs and handshakes to students at Meadowlark Elementary following a timed fire drill and a kitchen fire demonstration Tuesday morning.
Flames shot high in the sky, singeing the cabinets above in an out of control kitchen fire after a small amount of water was used to try to put out a grease fire on the stove.
Everything was OK, though, because the fire was in the hands of the Pittsburg Fire Department and was a demonstration for Meadowlark Elementary School students following a timed fire drill.
“We are showing them what happens if you use an unattended pot,” said Bob Gardullo, a firefighter with the Pittsburg Fire Department.
He said the department has built a prop kitchen that they set up outside the area’s schools throughout the day Tuesday. In the prop kitchen, firefighters catch a pot with one cup of oil on fire, then show how to slide a lid across the pot to cover the fire and turn off the burner.
“We show them the proper way,” he said.
However, a firefighter in full gear then demonstrates what happens to the fire if the lid is taken off of the oil.
As students watched, the lid was taken off, and the fire flared back up.
Firefighters in full gear then added two Tablespoons of water to the fire and flames roared up.
“Everybody associates water with the fire department,” Gardullo said.
However, he said water is not the proper tool for fighting all fires, and in a grease fire it becomes downright dangerous.
Fire Chief Mike Simons said the department does emphasize that the firefighters are trained professionals and that the same experiment should not be tried at home.
“Please don’t go home and try this,” Gardullo reiterated to students. “You’ll get hurt really bad.”
However, Simons said the demonstrations give students and parents the opportunity to learn.
“You show this to the kids and they’re going to mention this to their parents,” Simons said.
And, parents can attend similar demonstrations with their children.
The grease fire demonstration was done at Meadowbrook Mall Tuesday evening and will take place again on Saturday. This evening, firefighters will give children the opportunity to spray the fire hose and Thursday they will use a roof prop to demonstrate how they ventilate a house during a fire.
Tuesday’s demonstrations also coincided with a fire drill at each school timed by the fire departments.
“When they do the drills, they’ve been timing them to see how quickly they can get out,” said USD 250’s public information officer, Zach Fletcher.
Simons said he had been impressed by the results, with building wings cleared out in as little as less than a minute and no more than two. On average, each building was empty in less than a minute and a half.
“The times are doing great,” Simons said.
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