Fire extinguisher options offered at expo
Fire extinguisher options offered at expo
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A fire engulfed a two-by-three-meter room in front of a
convention center in Jakarta for almost two minutes before an
explosion was heard from within the room. Strangely, the fire
quickly died down seconds after the explosion, leaving nothing
but thin, white smoke.
The scene was witnessed on Wednesday in a simulation conducted
by a Japanese company that produces a state-of-the-art fire
extinguisher named "Bonpet".
"Bonpet" is one among a variety of fire safety products
offered for public use in a fire safety industrial exhibition at
the Jakarta Convention Center in Senayan, Central Jakarta, from
Tuesday to Thursday.
The patent holder of the product, Hiromitsu Niizuma, said that
in the event that a fire broke out in a room and the temperature
inside the room rose, the bottle of Bonpet chemical substance
placed inside would explode. The released chemical substance
would then kill the fire.
He said that the fire extinguisher would automatically be
activated when the air temperature surrounding "Bonpet" heated to
above 400 degrees Celsius.
The sole agent of Bonpet in Indonesia, Muhammad Sohid, added
that given the effectiveness of the substance, a number of major
state institutions had chosen it to augment their fire safety
system.
"The Indonesian Army and Navy, a number of airports, and
national currency printer PT Peruri are among those who use our
products," he said.
Bonpet, priced at Rp 1.5 million (US$168), is also recommended
for household use.
For those who are in need of an environmentally and human-
friendly fire extinguisher, the preferred choice would be a
chemical substance called Inergen.
Effective in extinguishing fires, Inergen is also
environmentally friendly, as it is composed entirely of natural
gases -- nitrogen, argon and carbon dioxide -- that are found in
the earth's atmosphere.
Most fire extinguishers available on the market make use of a
substance called halon. This substance is similar to
cholorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that is known to contribute to the
depletion of the ozone layer.
Effendy Tantoso, an engineer from the company developing
Inergen, PT ODG Worldmad Indonesia, told The Jakarta Post that
the product extinguished fires by removing oxygen from the air.
He added that despite the low level of oxygen, people would
not suffocate because Inergen interacted well with the human
body.
"The level of carbon dioxide in the substance stimulates the
rate of respiration and increases the efficiency of the body's
use of oxygen," he said, and that it was safe for humans.
In a simulation observed by the Post, the substance was pumped
into a glass chamber until the flame of a candle died out --
showing that there was not enough oxygen to keep the flame alit
-- but a man who was inside the chamber was breathing normally.
Inergen, developed in the U.S., offers another advantage. It
does not produce fog the way other extinguishing agents do, so
when a fire breaks out, escape routes will remain visible,
pointed out a leaflet from its developer.