Dealing with a bed and a resident on fire

[Guest KathleenTr]

Can you please provide me with evidence based guidance on extinguishing a fire in a bed with a resident on fire

Thanks

Kathleen

[Tom Sutton]

I am not aware of any evidence based guidance on the extinguishing a fire in a bed with a resident on fire it would be a case of considering all the alternatives and deciding which would be the most successful and best.

The generally considered method for extinguishing a person on fire is to wrap the casualty in a blanket followed by the application of water spray. For a person in bed on fire this would be very difficult but the use of water in the form of spray extinguisher could be successful. I would use copious quantities of water not only to extinguish the fire but to cool the burns and with that in mind you could consider buckets of water.

Once you are able to move the casualty you could consider placing in a bath of cool water depending on the degree of burns and how quickly the ambulance arrives.

I think the best extinguishing medium would be water and applied in copious quantities as quickly as possible but not on the form of a jet of water.

[AnthonyB]

In lieu of a fire blanket the water spray and foam spray extinguishers provided to the circulation areas of the nursing home will perform adequately.

Water jet will (but not as speedily) but ideally the 9 litre water jet should be consigned to the graveyard in most premises with 6 litre water spray being a common replacement - lighter, easier to use, safe near electrics and a quicker action with the spray