StreamLight 4AA luxeon helped in a fire...

[mega_lumens]

I had a fire in my building and without writing a novel on the situation, my StreamLight 4AA Luxeon was at my hand during the evacuation. It is imperative to have illumination in order to escape the thick smoke that starts to consume you very quickly.

Make sure your primary lights are working and are in easy reach. I woke up in the morning to screams of fire, so it took me some time to process what was happening, while the apartment below my floor was burning down. Once I realized that there was a fire, I quickly ran for my lights and I picked the SL 4AA which was on my shelf near my bed.
I later noticed that some of the firefighters were using the same SL light that I had.

I have several "lessons learned" that will be corrected, such as making sure the fire escape cage lock is not jammed, and pet travel cages are in working order. I also wish I had some breathing device for heavy smoke, (but that's an unrealistic/expensive overkill.)

 

[Gunner12]

I hope everyone is ok.

I'm glad that you are at least unharmed.

The narrower beam of the Propoly probably helped here.

 

[Burgess]

Thank you for sharing your story with us.


Glad to hear that you're safe from the fire.



Yep, the ol', trusty, Streamlight ProPolymer 4AA Luxeon
still has a lotta' life left in it, eh ?



_

 

[OceanView]

Glad you're OK! I remember a firefighter making a comment one time, "Know what a fire looks like?" Most people think of images from movies, like Backdraft with flames all around, but the reality is that you don't see fire--there's too much black, suffocating smoke. I still trust Streamlight Propoly's as the light I keep in my cars and I can certainly see them coming in handy during a fire evacuation with it's small but tightly focussed hotspot.

If you're interested in a smoke hood/mask, I'd recommend two for further investigation: the Xcaper smoke mask and the Safe Escape Smoke Hood. There are other fine smoke hoods out there, but they are significantly more expensive, and the two I recommend filter the big killer--carbon monoxide. I wouldn't recommend that you purchase anything that did not filter out carbon monoxide. And you can buy the Xcaper kit for just $29 so you won't break the bank.

 

[etc]

Wow

I would think a headlight is most useful in a situation like that, given that your hands might be used for something else -- carrying stuff or trying open/close doors/etc.

I need to have an evacuation plan myself. the stuff that must be taken in an emergency.

 

[mega_lumens]

Glad you're OK! I remember a firefighter making a comment one time, "Know what a fire looks like?" Most people think of images from movies, like Backdraft with flames all around, but the reality is that you don't see fire--there's too much black, suffocating smoke. I still trust Streamlight Propoly's as the light I keep in my cars and I can certainly see them coming in handy during a fire evacuation with it's small but tightly focussed hotspot.

If you're interested in a smoke hood/mask, I'd recommend two for further investigation: the Xcaper smoke mask and the Safe Escape Smoke Hood. There are other fine smoke hoods out there, but they are significantly more expensive, and the two I recommend filter the big killer--carbon monoxide. I wouldn't recommend that you purchase anything that did not filter out carbon monoxide. And you can buy the Xcaper kit for just $29 so you won't break the bank.

Thanks for the smoke hood advise, because I will buy such a thing. Yes, the most horrifying experience is darkness from the smoke and how you can not control when your body shuts down from the choking smoke. At some point I realized my tongue was covered in slight soot. I did not see any flames at any point of the whole dramatic experience.

A head lamp would be a good idea for keeping hands free, but I think a hand held is still better for pointing at different locations to find what you're looking for.

 

[kramer5150]

I was just looking at streamlight pro-polys yesterday at Frys. I was hoping to find a AA or 2AA single Nichia emitter model. They had a slick looking 3emitter Nichia model but it was 3-N cells:sick2:

 

[sORe-EyEz]

yes N-cellsare rare, butt i've seen a Pelican penlight using 3AAAA cells.

 

[LED-holic]

Glad you're okay.

I sleep with my cargo shorts near by. My I have my EDC light clipped to it, at the ready, should I need to get up in the middle of the night to do something.

 

[Nite]

Post your story here plz!!

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?p=2612206#post2612206

pt2. Has your Light Saved you, or others, from a Dangerous situatio

 

[riceboy72]

Very glad to hear you're okay. I hope you suffered no loss and if you did, you recover quickly.

Now that you can look back on it, did the Streamlight do everything you needed it to do, or would you have opted for another light? I know that in an emergency, especially a fire, time is of the essence, but this got me to think about what light I'd grab if I only had a few seconds to get dressed and get going. I've read that LED's and smoke don't bode well, so I'm wondering how it did for you - especially in the thick smoke.

Again, thank you for sharing your experience with us and for the reminder on the animal carriers. One of those things I had never thought about, but certainly is important.

 

[Sarratt]

Makes me glad that I have my PP Luxeon .... just wondering if the narrow focused beam was or would be better than a more diffused higher Lumen beam like the L2D ce etc. or would the greater light just add to the confusion you were looking at?..

Good job staying alive

edited to add .... I agree about the animal carriers .... Stupid intellectually to go in to a dangerous situation for a "animal" but i'd probably do it in a moment of panic.

 

[OceanView]

.... just wondering if the narrow focused beam was or would be better than a more diffused higher Lumen beam like the L2D ce etc. ...

I don't have any experience with heavy smoke, but just from my experience with very thick fog, I suspect that if the smoke is thick enough, even though one light may be significantly brighter than another, if the beam is diffuse, all the light energy is wasted in just lighting up a bigger blob of the smoke right in front of you. It's not necessarily piercing the smoke to illuminate things farther away.

If you look at the flashlights that are advertised for fire fighting, they all have very tight beams with little side spill and most are only a fraction of the output of what flashaholics would consider "bright" lights. Then again, I have a feeling that in thick smoke, no light is going to be sufficient to see very far anyway, so as long as the beam can illuminate even a few feet effectively, maybe that's enough.

That does reinforce the advice that we often hear as airline passengers--count the number of rows to the nearest exit because you won't be able to see the exits when the cabin is full of smoke. Same thing with our homes and apartments. We very well may need to escape our homes by touch alone.

 

[mega_lumens]

Honestly, so much happened at such a short time that I don't specifically remember how well the SL PP performed through the smoke, but the smoke did block the "throw" of the beam to some degree. I do know that I would be in much worse situation if I didn't have the light. When I went for a light, I wasn't really thinking which light to grab, but I always liked my SL PP and it's built like a tank.

I believe SL did design this light for fire fighting use, so I'd assume it would be one of "that" lights for a fire situation. Never having the experience of cutting through real smoke in fires with flashlights, I can't judge the performance of this light compared to others. Common sense tells me that higher output lumens in a thrower do better at cutting smoke.

 

[Sarratt]

So you never "saw" flame ? .... Was the beam ....this should be a new thread

 

[mega_lumens]

So you never "saw" flame ? .... Was the beam ....this should be a new thread

I live on the top floor and the fire was in the apartment under me. I saw glow of actual flames for a second when I tried for the hallway stairs, but the smoke was too overwhelming and I was scared to go through the smoke, because I did not know how serious of the flame/fire was below, so I crawled back into my apartment through the hallway with my SL.

 

[RGB_LED]

Wow! Glad to hear that you made it out safely. I also have a SL PP 4AA on my nightstand table (along with a few others of course... :devil so that's a great endorsement for an older, but still tough, light. :thumbsup:

Aside from smoke damage, I hope your apartment wasn't damaged.