Would everyone like a quick primer on how to read the NFPA diamond, AKA the thing on the side of buildings/doors to rooms with blue, red, yellow, and white quadrants?
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Well, that's enough yeses. First and foremost, you should know that the NFPA diamond was devised as quick visual reference tool for firefighters to know what kind of a hazard a place has before the enter it when, specifically, it is all on fire.
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The "on fire" part is key. Generally, the hazard ratings all still hold true when everything isn't on fire but it's good to remember what it truly meant for.
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The red, blue, and yellow the squares on the diamond run on a 0-4 scale, where 0 denotes no hazard of this type and 4 says this is horrible, needs the hazmat team, and you might want to just let this one burn rather than enter.
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RED is Flammability. At 0, even when the room is on fire, the things won't burn. In fact, you might want to make your turnouts from this stuff. At 4, you're talking spontaneously combustible. Things that will light on fire, just because, in the middle of a Minnesota winter.
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BLUE is Health Hazard. At 0, not only is this non-toxic, but all of the fire decomposition products are non-toxic too. At 4, you may have already have cancer from this place due to reading the sign. Full Level A hazmat gear is needed to even think about responding to this fire.
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Replying to @funranium
On a personal note regarding not taking the cancer implications seriously. This is what killed my father, who worked full-spacesuit hazmat. People are used to 'lol, causes cancer in California'. As well as 'well, it probably causes cancer in 20 years.'
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Replying to @xiphmont
Aww man, I'm sorry. The origins of this sign date to the "shake 'n' bake" dumpster fires in the 1970s where an awful lot of dumpsters lit on fire at semiconductor fabs. Whole fire crews dead in a year from FASCINATING cancers after responding.
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What chemicals were involved?
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A flaming dumpster load of garbage from a fab. Hell if I know. Neither did they.
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