Portable fire extinguishers can be just as effective in untrained hands as they can be in those trained to handle them.
Case in point—VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia recently witnessed a car fire that was extinguished by an employee at Jimmy John's before the fire department could get there.
Somewhere near 7:30 pm, on a Wednesday evening, Robert Panek said he was behind the counter of Jimmy John's Towne Center location, when their driver ran in yelling a car was on fire. "I went around the counter and looked and I saw flames
on the door," said Panek.
That's when Panek grabbed an extinguisher off Jimmy John's wall and rushed out the door with a co-worker.
Even though Panek had no idea how to to use a fire extinguisher, he managed to figure out, using it to extinguish the flames in and around the car. "The family was all out and away from the car and we were able to put the fire out," Panek
said.
The experience Mr. Penek had with this car fire drove home the importance of having fire extinguishers nearby too. "Once I get a new car in the future, I will probably have a fire extinguisher in there," says Panek.
Hall, B. (2018), Wavy.com, retrieved from "Freaky Fast" Jimmy John's Worker Puts Out Fire Before Firefighters Arrive,
August 29, 2018.