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DC Fire & EMS officials now say a sergeant from Engine 6 (on the left with his helmet on fire) was burned on the cheek and hand during the sprinkler demonstration. He spent Wednesday night in the MedStar Burn Unit of the Washington Hospital Center and was released Thursday morning.
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. At about 3:10 on the video below you will see a plastic barrier melt and drip down in a large flaming clump on the three firefighters who were extinguishing the fire.
It was much more obvious to the audience than the firefighters themselves that something was amiss. All three had plastic burning on their PPE. It took a little more than 30 seconds before the fires were put out.
On Friday, DC Fire & EMS Department officials confirmed that a sergeant from Engine 6 was burned on the cheek and hand. He spent the night in the MedStar Burn Unit of the Washington Hospital Center and was released on Thursday.