Everyone should know and follow the techniques and rules of fire safety, because life can depend on this in an extreme situation, and both of one person and many people. When a tragedy strikes, those who know the rules of conduct, evacuation and extinguishing a fire, as a rule, act quickly, clearly and do not give in to panic.
A fire is one of the most terrible disasters, an almost uncontrolled process of burning some material. It causes enormous material harm, often causes death of a person, or can lead to poor health or disability.
A fire can be caused by a person's careless handling of open flames or heating devices, a lightning strike, or during prolonged periods of extreme heat. All fires are divided into two main types - open and closed. Open ones are those in which an object burns with an open flame and emits a large amount of smoke. Closed fires are combustion without a visible flame, with the release of any amount of smoke or just a pungent smell of burning; they occur, as a rule, in peat bogs, in underground mines.
What to do if a fire is detected
Immediately after the detection of the source of fire, and regardless of the intensity and area of combustion, it is necessary to call firefighters or rescuers. This can be done by calling 01 or the single number of the rescue service 112, from any phone, whether it be a landline city number or a mobile one. During a conversation with the operator, you should not shout and worry, you need to calmly talk about what exactly is burning, how much, give the exact address and your name. It is desirable, of course, to clarify the time that the rescuers will need to get to the object.
Evacuation of people in case of fire
In the event of a fire in a residential area, it is necessary to evacuate everyone in the room, including pets, as soon as possible. If there is no access to the door, you can try to get out through the window openings. When there is no such possibility, you need to wet the rugs, bedspreads or just scarves, wrap them around and try to get out into the opening where the flame is not yet too intense. The safest way is to walk on the floor, or at least bend over.
In the event of a fire in a store, club or cinema, in no case should you give in to panic; if possible, you need to reassure those who are very frightened and do not give an account of their actions. The staff of the institution will promptly provide an exit route from the building and call the rescue services, but visitors must clearly comply with their requirements and evacuate calmly, without panic, without creating a crush in fire exits and on stairs.
In case of forest fires of any intensity, it is necessary to leave the smoke zone as soon as possible into an open area, in a field or on the edge of a forest, and only from there call firefighters or rescuers.
How to put out a fire
It is impossible to extinguish a strong focus of the flame on your own, without special means, and sometimes it is simply dangerous to do it. If the flame is small and takes up a small area, you can try to flood it with water or cover it with sand. It is important to note that fires resulting from a short circuit of electrical wiring and fires of household appliances cannot be extinguished with water in any case.
It is even more difficult to extinguish a fire in a forest. If the flame is not intense, you can try to knock it down with rags or spruce branches, cover it with wet soil. But calling the firefighters is in any case necessary to eliminate the risk of re-ignition.
