Fire sand bucket

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Fire Protection

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A fire sand bucket or fire bucket is a bucket filled with sand which is used to put out fires. They are often kept next to ovens, barbeques and other areas where fires can occur. Because oil-fires are resistant to water, a fire sand bucket is used to put out the fire. In order to put out the fire, the sand in the bucket is dumped on the fire to starve it of the oxygen it needs to stay alight.

[edit] History

The fire sand bucket was thought up by a middle-aged man called, Frankie Pham (a Chinese immigrant, brought to Holland as a child), in 1891. He had noticed that sand could be used effectively to put out fires, but could only be used in outdoor conditions. Usually fires would be put out by water which would further ruin the object that was on fire. As he was a poor man he could not afford to buy new things to replace the items that he had lost. He decided to use sand in a bucket if he need to extinguish a fire, and the result of that was the fire sand bucket (De Emmer van het Zand van de brand)

[edit] Safety issues

• It is recommended that a steel bucket is used. If a plastic bucket is used, it may crack, warp or melt.
• The bucket should be well labelled so that, in case of emergency, it is easy to spot and use.
• The sand must also be cleaned of all flammable material. If the sand is collected from a beach, it could contain dried grass or plants which would hinder the effectiveness of the sand. Permission is normally required before taking sand from a public beach.

[edit] References

Article: history of Frankie Pham [1]