Fire blankets may be made of a heavy
wool cloth impregnated with a fire-retardant chemical, continuous
filament glass fiber, woven silica that is a fiberglass composition
or other materials. They can be wrapped around a burning person
to pat out the flames. A second type of blanket is filled with a
cool gel. All blankets are meant to extinguish the fire by depriving
it of oxygen, in other words, by smothering it.
However, the time it takes to retrieve the blanket
and use it to extinguish the flames can be enough for the fire to
get worse, increasing the risk for serious patient injury.
Multiple layers of draping materials and other fuel
sources create spaces in which the fire can spread. The weight
of a gel-filled blanket can cause the flames to spread from under
the blanket to other surface areas on the patient. Covering to smother
or patting the fire excludes air, but it also traps heat, smoke
and burning materials next to the patient. Patients with open wounds
during a fire have a dramatically increased risk of infection. Combustion
debris and the fire blankets themselves constitute a significant
contamination risk.
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