The approach to training St Mary’s Hospital staff to fight fires has now embraced the digital age, with an on-screen system claimed to be superior to the traditional approach of just pointing an extinguisher at a real fire.
Purchased by the Friends at a cost of £7,075, the system enables the user to aim a laser-driven extinguisher on dynamically varying LED flames.
Martin Keightley, Deputy Head of Health Safety and Security, explained:
“The enhancement of staff extinguisher training demonstrates to them just how a fire can spread if not dealt with in the early stages.”
David Bower, who as well as being a Back Care Technician is a former RAF firefighter; he is now using the equipment to train the thousands of NHS staff on the Island.
Martin says:
“The ‘fire’ has four strength settings and members of each group being trained can get quite competitive in seeing how effective they are in putting out a fire, ensuring it does not flare up again”.
