I went through over five years of laboratory classes in college, and before the start of each course, we’d be given a comprehensive lecture on proper lab behavior, safety rules, and what to do in case of emergency.
For example, what should you do when some chemical accidentally gets into your eyes? Or how do you dispense acids when you need to handle them? And a pretty common concern: what do you do when something nearby catches fire from your Bunsen burner?
Well, for the third question, it actually depends on the class of fire you’re dealing with. These types of fires are classified based on what material is burning, and as a result, also require different firefighting agents in order to put them out. But when you’re in a huge hurry, then often you might just rush off to grab a bucket of water or hose it down with the chemical extinguisher without taking some time to identify what type of fire it is and what it needs to be put out completely.
Something that can definitely be of use is the FireFormula, which is a handy and portable firefighting device that contains both CO2 and H2O firefighting agents in different compartments. All you have to do is identify the fire, identify what it needs to be put out, and push the button.
The FireFormula extinguisher is a pretty neat concept design by Sheng-Hung Lee and Chen-Hua Wang, but not without some complications. First and foremost, the amount of each agent will be available in limited quantities because of the size. Second of all, the agents are usually pressurized so they’re able to extinguish the fire in a shorter amount of time.
That said, the FireFormula is a good idea, but it just needs to sort out some of the kinks in order to become a really, really good idea.
[via Yanko Design]
