I had a similar experience with a 20# dry chem. We were at the academy, and my partner from the neighboring dept hadn't been able to bring an extinguisher, so we shared mine. We each put out 2 or 3 different naptha training fires- and when we were done, I still had to stand there for 2-3 minutes spraying powder to empty it. I couldn't believe how far #20 of dry chem will go- you can put out a lot of fire with that, or cover a big area of fluid.

Do you have any numbers as far as how much to mix in? I've heard soap being used many times but I have yet to find a percentage.

Yeah I think I did read some where there was retired refill technician he said he figured out how to put out some liquid fires using dawn

Great to hear from you John!! - I hope you are doing well my friend and still writing awesome novels!!

@@DALEGPEKEL Mostly short stories in an urban fantasy series, the novellas of which I couldn't find publishers for. If you go to "archiveofourown[dot]org" you'll find my short stories under John_Steiner. There's a firefighter story among them. :D

Christopher Young what, are you batman or something?. Leave it to the professionals, you wouldn't have any PPE so you would be burned and have severe smoke inhalation, and you would probably die. 7:20 it's 700 degrees, you wouldn't be able to go in without PPE.

Keep it for yourself. They have many uses.

Res1cue 2021 - I'm curious, what FD do you or did you work for? You talk like you were FDNY. I've rode along with companies from Brooklyn and Queens in the 90's, early 2000 and back in 2012. Regardless of your reference, I'm sure you realize that most FDs do not operate like the FDNY does. My former Career FD and Volley FD are significantly different even though they're only one county apart from one another. (Milwaukee vs Waukesha county). A water extinguisher may not be able to completely extinguish a modern day furnished room fire, but it can definitely help you control and isolate it until an appropriate line can be deployed - Even with today's modern furnishings! I can tell you this without sounding or being "disingenuous" because I've done it! I've been first in alone at a few fires for my volley FD in my POV and have knocked down or controlled them with just an extinguisher until our Engines arrived - One resulted in a grab that I made before the room she was in flashed over. Yeah you could say it was "Cowboy Stuff", but I'll do what I have to save someone's life. You should know that I always appreciate constructive comments and feedback to my videos, but I have no respect for those that patronize and you are walking a fine line bro! In the end this video isn't advocating a fire extinguisher attack for a standard structure fire or to go rogue and break department SOPs/SOGs. Its purpose was to demonstrate the capability of a water extinguisher and some setup options to enhance it's effectiveness. It's a tool like anything else, and to use it properly one needs to understand its capabilties as well as it's limitations - Which is also influenced by a user users knowledge and experience. For those reading this - Don't take anything on face value - Practice using a "Can" and even multipupose dry chems to extinguish fires when you have "actual" acquired structures to burn in - and use realistic furnishings, not just pallets hay or straw. Then and only then will you be able to use your extinguishers intelligently within their capability.

@@DALEGPEKEL I appreciate your stance to this. I purposely do not identify what rescue or other companies prior to that I ve worked for two reasons, one I don’t speak for that company and don’t want others to mistake my comments for official comments. Secondly I don’t want to qualify my statements based solely on the size of department I have worked. I have worked both volunteer, suburban and inner city. All of the above have done things well and done things poorly all at the same time. It seems the largest organizations with the most fire experience learn and implement good training and solid science far slower than other groups. It’s hard to turn the titanic and so often it will keep heading towards the iceberg. I state my opinions based on my work and studies with scientific based research and some fairly active real world expertise combined. The risk to videos like what you have posted here is that many with less knowledge will misunderstand where and how to utilize this tool. I have watched the effectiveness of this tool in “holding the fire” drop drastically in light of modern combustibles and would say that technique is foolhardy at best, as the combust ability is not about the fire but more so the massive amounts of fuel surrounding you. Should your can technique fail, the survivability of the situation for rescuers becomes precarious at best. That is why in agencies that routinely employ a can position or at least have a member with one, often drop the can on the landing on determining the fire is more than a trash fire or food on the stove. The suburban and volunteer departments are far far better employing manpower to solid hose management and rapid water on fire at realistic flow rates, than assigning a person to a can position. They just don’t have the manpower or have a large line coming up the stairs behind them if they aren’t there to pull it. I’m glad you were able to employ your personal can to good effect, I’m sure given the near flash conditions you describe that you were also in gear and with personal SCBA to survive the environment yourself? My biggest statement here is to be responsible. Don’t simply share a technique for cool ratings, it identify your audience and what should they actually do on a fire. Stay safe.

That's for non professional users on smaller fires with no PPE or SCBA. Professional users with full PPE & SCBA can get right up close - in fact the Class A fire ratings you see on extinguishers involve the test extinguisher operator (fully kitted up) getting up close and personal with the test fire crib.