Fire Safety in the Lab

[charlie1218]

Posting in here, Safety Captain and Local Volunteer Firefighter. Thought Id post a thread where people could ask me questions about fire safety in the lab and pit. Trust me, this is overlooked more than you would think (alarms, extinguishers, etc...) If you have questions, I will answer. BTW. Don't place any item in front of the access or, blocking the visibility of fire extinguishers or exits, no matter how temporary

[jakflyer]

hi, i was wondering something....today we were in the lab after school and i decided to hang my blazer and tie on the fire extinguisher on the wall.....our safety captain took it off and told me not to put it there for safety reasons....now what would you do in that situation? would you consider that a fire hazard or would you just let it be

[jakflyer]

i have another question.....what if we were to maybe somehow, accidentally, leave the soldering iron on all weekend in its stand (not saying we did....maybe). how much of a fire hazard would that be?? because i dont want to burn our school down

[Pavan Dave]

Originally Posted by jakflyer

i have another question.....what if we were to maybe somehow, accidentally, leave the soldering iron on all weekend in its stand (not saying we did....maybe). how much of a fire hazard would that be?? because i dont want to burn our school down

It is a fire hazard. Both cases.

Just FYI:

At the bottom right corner of your post you will see an edit button. Many "vets" get annoyed with double posting and stuff so this is just a warning/tip. Also you may want to limit your use of smiley faces. A few is okay but if you use a lot folks have a tendency to overlook your post because it doesn't look "serious". EDIT: Finally, CD threads should not be individual "chat-like" conversations that you have on AIM/GTALK/etc., that is against the rules and really annoying.

Good luck and welcome to the forums!

Pavan

[charlie1218]

Jack, I am your safety Cpt. So dont do either of those things again, lets be serious here.

[ervtech]

ooooo Jack.... im bringing my touch in tomorow

[Kyle]

Hanging a jacket over the fire extinguisher is a fire hazard because in the event of an emergency things get hectic and people might not be able to find that fire extinguisher because it is covered in you jacket.

The soldering iron is just common sense, its something that is hot and left unattended, it can heat up things that are close to it and cause them to catch fire, its just like leaving a burning candle unattended its just not smart many fires have started that way and caused millions in damages and loss of life.

Although I am not the safety caption for my team I am a Fire Fighter and take Fire safety very seriously. Any questions feel free to ask.

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by ervtech

ooooo Jack.... im bringing my touch in tomorow

I don't think a touch is a fire hazard. On the other hand, a torch might be, if handled improperly. I know you are being facetious, but a torch might actually come in handy in a robotics lab. We use my lighter to help strip 24AWG wire all the time, but of course you have to be careful while doing it. (especially since my lighter is not a safety lighter, which makes it especially good for this application, but significantly more hazardous. You drop it, and it stays lit... not good if flammable stuff is on the table/floor)

[charlie1218]

Guys and Gals, I would like to reitterate what I have stated previously and say that a fire can ruin your season. When we come in to extinguish a fire there will be alot of water, everywhere. If your sprinklers go off because of a fire, there will be water everywhere. The smoke can take weeks of proffessional service to remove. Use common sense, and post questions here for me and any other FFs in FRC to answer, and stay safe!

[charlie1218]

Originally Posted by lukevanoort

I don't think a touch is a fire hazard. On the other hand, a torch might be, if handled improperly. I know you are being facetious, but a torch might actually come in handy in a robotics lab. We use my lighter to help strip 24AWG wire all the time, but of course you have to be careful while doing it. (especially since my lighter is not a safety lighter, which makes it especially good for this application, but significantly more hazardous. You drop it, and it stays lit... not good if flammable stuff is on the table/floor)

I would stop doing this ASAP, this is not only not fire safe, but you are compromising the copper wiring by heating it rapidly, this can lead to failures, shorts and fires.

[ebarker]

Another safety hazard is the things things that are commonly lit with a lighter, in other words ditch the lighter and the things that go with it....

After all, if you need a jiffy campfire, just rub some sticks together.

[sanddrag]

The biggest fire hazard I've seen is in the way teams charge their batteries. - sticking the alligator clips into the Anderson connectors. DON'T DO THIS! They come very near to shorting and the battery is capable of putting out several hundreds of amps for a short period of time. A shorted battery (by means of touching charger clips or otherwise) can produce significant sparks and tremendous heat, possibly resulting in a fire depending on the surroundings.

[fimmel]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

The biggest fire hazard I've seen is in the way teams charge their batteries. - sticking the alligator clips into the Anderson connectors. DON'T DO THIS! They come very near to shorting and the battery is capable of putting out several hundreds of amps for a short period of time. A shorted battery (by means of touching charger clips or otherwise) can produce significant sparks and tremendous heat, possibly resulting in a fire depending on the surroundings.

last year my team bypassed this by taking an extra Anderson connector and completely removing the alligator clips and connecting the connector to the charger with crimp connectors, solder, and heat shrinking it worked great.

just a tip for other teams.

...forest

[charlie1218]

Originally Posted by fimmel

last year my team bypassed this by taking an extra Anderson connector and completely removing the alligator clips and connecting the connector to the charger with crimp connectors, solder, and heat shrinking it worked great.

just a tip for other teams.


...forest

Use the same connector as on the battery, solder it on where the clips would be and heatshrink it.

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by charlie1218

I would stop doing this ASAP, this is not only not fire safe, but you are compromising the copper wiring by heating it rapidly, this can lead to failures, shorts and fires.

This is news to me. I'm curious why that is? I can see why it might be an issue with some kinds of insulation (like paper... ugh). However, I don't understand why the temporary heat would be affecting the copper in that manner, except for possibly adding energy that could speed up the oxidation reaction.

Originally Posted by ebarker

Another safety hazard is the things things that are commonly lit with a lighter, in other words ditch the lighter and the things that go with it....

Just to be clear, I don't smoke and I never intend to start. Being near smoking actually causes me to cough incessantly (which is really annoying... I have to hold my breath while walking through certain areas of my school). My family has a long history of cancer, so that is a strong motivator away from smoking; in addition, I just don't see the draw of essentially committing delayed suicide in order to inhale the smoke from burning some random plant. I purchased my lighter shortly after a 4th of July when I burned on my thumb several times on a safety lighter. That wouldn't be so bad, except the little wheel thing shredded my skin over a night of using it and so the burn (while not severe) was extremely annoying. I have yet to either burn my thumb, or shred my skin with my Zippo, and it makes lighting a charcoal grill a breeze, even in a strong breeze. Plus, it makes that cool clicking sound when you open/close it.