PORT TOWNSEND — East Jefferson Fire Rescue provided fire preparedness training earlier this summer for employees at the Rose Theater in Port Townsend.
The next day, a popcorn machine caught on fire.
“They showed the bravery and understanding of how to address that issue, but I feel like some of the information we exposed them to the day before helped them with that process,” said Robert Wittenberg, EJFR community risk manager. “They were able to grab a fire extinguisher and extinguish the fire.
“The Starlight Room in downtown Port Townsend has a very long stairway and one basic way to get out. As we all know, the population here tends to be an older group, so to evacuate that theater, because smoke had filled the concession area during one of the shows, was kind of a challenge for them, but they were able to do that after our conversation the day before.”
EJFR will host a free fire extinguisher training today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Henery Hardware & Building Supply in Port Hadlock, 901 Ness’ Corner Road.
The July 2 staff training at the Rose Theater covered fire extinguishers, evacuation, CPR awareness and choking awareness. It was attended by 20-30 members of the theater’s staff, Wittenberg said.
A full audience was evacuated from the historic building by one employee, while the other extinguished the fire, Wittenberg said. The only injury was a small burn on the employee who put out the fire, he said.
“What could have been pretty devastating to the downtown area just turned out to be one little cleanup and missing one later show that evening,” Wittenberg said. “The Rose Theater was open the next day.”
Today’s training will be an open house-style event, Wittenberg said. People can stop by at any point and spend about 15 minutes being walked through the training.
“A lot of people are kind of intimidated by fire extinguishers,” he said. “They don’t really know how to use them or what they are. So we give them an opportunity to actually handle one and learn the basic steps of operating a fire extinguisher, which is the acronym PASS.”
PASS stands for pull, aim, squeeze and sweep. A user should start by pulling the extinguisher pin then aiming at the base of the fire.
Then they should squeeze the extinguisher’s handle and sweep the flow from side to side, maintaining aim at the base of the fire until the fire goes out. If the fire reignites, users should repeat steps two through four.
“We feel like people, when they go through that process and get a little bit of muscle memory, they become less intimidated by it and a little more aware,” Wittenberg said.
“We also feel that it’s important to feel the heat of an actual fire. So while there are virtual demonstrations where they can learn that process, it’s also something really good to feel the heat of an actual fire so they can understand how close they should be able to get and what it will take to actually extinguish a fire.”
Members of the public will receive hands-on training involving real controlled flames.
Fire extinguishers have a lifespan of about 10 years, Wittenberg said. There will be an opportunity to dispose of old extinguishers at today’s event.
Tarboo Fire Extinguishers, a partner for the event, will offer recharges on eligible fire extinguishers at their normal rate, and Henery Hardware & Building Supply will offer a 10 percent discount to customers who have gone through the training, Wittenberg said.
He added that his job is primarily focused on public education on basic fire risk prevention like making sure extinguishers work and ensuring that people have working smoke alarms. The fire district is currently working on offering more compression-only CPR training, which can have a dramatic impact on survival rates, Wittenberg said.
For more information about upcoming EJFR programming, visit their social media pages on Facebook or Instagram.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
