EMCARE's Fire Fighting Course Teaches You How To Classify Fires and More

Keeping South Africans Safe with Health and Safety Training

South Africa has suffered from a massive array of different kinds of fires, and the destruction that they left in their wake can still be seen today. While we can do our best to ensure prevention and mitigation by sharing educational resources on fire safety and more, there is also immense value in training and accrediting volunteers and aspiring health and safety professionals in a fire fighting course that will give them the resources they need to respond to fire outbreaks of all kinds quickly and efficiently. If you’d like to know more about how EMCARE helps students respond to fire outbreaks by educating them on fire classification and more, then read this article about EMCARE’s fire fighting course and the importance of fire classification.

From wildfires to domestic fires, these disasters are happening more and more frequently. For example, in 2021 and 2022 in the Western Cape alone, we have seen wildfires break out on table mountain and destroy parts of the University of Cape Town’s campus buildings, as well as the manmade fire that burnt down millions of Rands worth of infrastructure at Parliament. Fortunately, training institutes such as EMCARE are dedicated to providing civilians with life-saving Health and Safety training. Emergency and medical professionals come to EMCARE to learn all there is to know about managing disaster wherever it may break out, and through training such as the fire fighting course, they can become qualified first responders who save lives.

By training these first responders, EMCARE actively contributes to community safety and well-being. With the best instructors, twenty-three years of experience and over one hundred clients, they have been able to provide invaluable, affordable and high-quality training to all who wish to expand their knowledge and understanding of administering emergency care and support to victims. EMCARE has offices in Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, Port Elizabeth in Eastern Cape, Polokwane in Limpopo, and Johannesburg in Gauteng. EMCARE is also completely accredited by the Department of Labour, the Department of Mineral Resources, the Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority (HWSETA) and the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (LGSETA).

The Importance of Fire Classification

One of the most important aspects of the syllabus in a fire fighting course is the consideration of the fire’s cause and the classification of the fire. By identifying the cause of the fire, students in a fire fighting course will be able to better understand the behaviour of the flame, gauge how far its effects will spread, and which means to use to put it out. Furthermore, identification also helps firefighters to educate civilians about the dangers of certain materials and activities so as to prevent further disasters from reoccurring in the future.

While most of us civilians tend to only think about the fire from a survival standpoint, there is a lot more nuance to putting out fires than you might think. For example, there are many different classes of fire, and each of them describes a different kind of incident. The different classes of fire are described below, and students of EMCARE’s fire fighting course will learn how to differentiate between these classes theoretically and practically.

• Class A fires refer to fires involving solid materials such as textiles, paper or wood. Some other examples of these materials are clothes, plastic, trash or rubber. Class A fires have low ignition temperatures and can burn out quickly once oxygen depletes, leaving ash behind. To combat Class A fires, foam agents and water agents are generally the most effective.
• Class B fires refer to fires involving flammable liquids like gas, oil, petrol or diesel. Other examples include alcohols, lacquers, tars, oil-based products and solvents. These fires spread faster than Class A fires, they are most common in industrial settings, and they burn easily at low temperatures. Class B fires leave trails of thick black smoke, and they are often resolved with carbon dioxide or dry chemical agents.
• Class C fires refer to fires that involve electrical apparatus, where electrical currents fuel the flames. For example, these fires might be caused by faulty wires, transformers, computers, electrical panels or controls. These types of fires often break out in industrial settings where energy is produced, or even in commercial and residential settings as a result of faulty wiring. Instead of fighting class C fires with water, non-conductive chemical agents and clean agents are used for stopping the flames.
• Class D fires refer to fires that involve combustible metals like lithium, potassium, sodium, zirconium, titanium and magnesium which are commonly helpful in factories and laboratories. Hence, these fires are common in industrial settings. Qualified firefighters who have received training in a fire fighting course will know that using water in these situations will only make them worse, and dry powders should be used instead to smother the flames.
• Class K fires refer to grease fires and cooking fires that involve vegetable and or animal fats and grease. These fires happen uniquely in domestic kitchens, commercial restaurant kitchens and other spaces frequented within the food service industry. These fires are technically the same as liquid fires, but because they are specific to the activity of cooking, they are classified as their own kind of fire. Class K Fires are resolved with wet chemical agents.

Depending on where you live, some countries might refer to Class K as Class F, or Class E. Regardless, this list shows you that the causes, effects and mitigation strategies of fires are not as simplistic as you might think. Fire is an unpredictable chemical reaction that can cause severe injuries and even fatalities if they are not extinguished properly. Students participating in EMCARE’s fire fighting course will quickly learn that, depending on the type of fire that they have identified, they will need to use different equipment and carry out different protocols for each class of fire they come into contact with.

However, it must be noted that EMCARE offers a variety of fire fighting courses that are specific to each student’s particular needs. Some students will only be attempting to gain a Basic Fire fighting Course because their employers make it mandatory, while volunteers might want to take an Intermediate Fire fighting Course because they're concerned about wildfires breaking out frequently in their area. Each of these courses has a unique syllabus with specific requirements and obligations. But regardless of which course you choose to take, you will definitely come out of the course with a better understanding of fire classification, fire behaviour and how to respond in the event of a fire outbreak.