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Bodstrup

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  1. The biggest problem with solar panels seen from a firefighter perspective, is the inability to turn off the electricity. Only darkness will do the trick. Foam has been tried, but on a bright day, plenty of light gets through to generate dangerous voltages. If you have an electric fire in the panels, before the first circuit breaker, you may be able to extinguish it briefly, but it is likely to re-ignite as soon as oxygen returns. I think fire prevention is the first priority here, working with vendors that can provide the safest products.
  2. I had a chance to test the 1L Water Mist extinguisher at an event at my fire station, the results were very impressive and the unit did get a lot of attention after the demonstration. We set up a cooking oil fire demonstration in an approximately 120cm wide tray. Fire was fuelled by plant oil (called rape (!) in English I believe) with a bit of gasoline to boost ignition. Fire was allowed to burn for about 20 minutes, oil was boiling when we started testing. I used the following extinguishers: Fire Blanket CO2 unit 9L Water Spray (non-Safelincs, older unit with fairly large droplets) 9L Amerex 272 'WaterMist' extinguisher 1L WaterMist unit from SafeLincs 9L Foam extinguisher loaded with 3% Sthamex AFFF F15 solution. The fire blanket worked, took some time to get rid of smaller flames under the blanket, quite a bit of smoke released for some time after use. Removing the blanket even after 1 minute resulted in re-ignition CO2 unit failed, causing flames to shoot around The 9L water spray was dangerous to use, the spray pattern caused flames to shoot out in random direction, I would not have used it if I were not in protective clothing including hud and helmet. After using about 50% of the content I did manage to put out the fire. We also did a short squirt from a water jet unit. Result was the expected eruption of burning oil. Neither units are recommended. 9L Amerex 272 did work, but required some time, distributing the spray around the tray. Smaller flames were spreading from the tray during application. The long metal lance did help me keep distance to the fire. The drop size of this unit, while smaller than water spray units, are far bigger than the SafeLincs units, making it much less effective. 1L SafeLincs unit extinguished the fire almost immediately, within 2-3 seconds, with no side effect and no re-ignition. Had plenty of water for 3 rounds, which means i used less than 1/3 of a liter for extinguishment 9L Foam worked very fast, no side effects, difficult re-ignition. This is not the ideal product for oil fires, but still worked very well. A very hot and full pot of oil boiling violently might be a problem here, needing an F class unit. After the demonstration, several of the firefighters asked about how that tiny unit was able to put out the fire faster than the others and with such a small size. I could only point to SafeLincs and their nozzle technology. My only suggestion for SafeLincs is: Produce a 9L unit and add a lance like the Amerex 272, it is really good for reaching through a car window or other hot, restricted places. Regards Michael
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