PASSing it on: CERT teams practice suppressing fires

On September 20th, I attended my first Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training, which I posted about here. My goal is to PASS on what I learn each week by posting about it.

Last Thursday the second session focused on fire safety. This was as exciting and fun as it looks:

This is what we practiced: (Click on it to enlarge)
We also learned about this sign means:
I’ve seen them on buildings and never really bothered to find out what the colors and numbers mean. This sign is known as the National Fire Protection Association 704 Diamond:

1. The red quadrant describes the material’s flammability
2. The blue quadrant indicates health hazard
3. The yellow quadrant indicates reactivity.
4. The number in each of the colored quadrants indicates the degree of risk associated with the material. The higher the number, the higher the risk.
5. The white quadrant will include a symbol, such as the W with a line through it, which means that the material should never be mixed with water.

As emergency response team members, our task is to alert professional firefighters about what the diamond says and evacuate persons who are downwind to an uphill and upwind location.

(CERT logo from CERT website, PASS and 402 Diamond - National Fire Protection Association)