4 months ago
WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- Usually the biggest worry for a fire chief who has gathered the public and the press together for a sprinkler demonstration is whether the sprinkler head is going to activate as promised. Livingston Fire Protection Inc. made sure that wasn't a problem during Wednesday's demonstration using two side by side mock dorm rooms at Gallaudet University in the District of Columbia. It operated at just 12 seconds into the fire.
It was the fire on the unsprinklered side that occurred minutes earlier that caused a little excitement and had Chief Dennis Rubin asking for someone to put out the firefighters. As firefighters moved in to extinguish the blaze, a plastic barrier melted and dripped down in a large flaming clump on the three firefighters.
It was much more obvious to the audience than to the firefighters themselves that something was amiss. All three had plastic burning on their coats and other gear. It took a little more than 30 seconds before the fires were put out.
DC Fire & EMS officials tell STATter911 a sergeant from Engine 6, seen on the left in the video, was burned on the cheek and hand. He spent Wednesday night to Thursday morning in the burn unit of the Washington Hospital Center.
9NEWS NOW & wusa9.com
