With consistent assistance from PERC and various dealers nationwide, propane-related accident reports will continue declining. (image: bima-nusantara.com)
Over the years, the propane industry has put forth a strong effort to clean up the fuel’s reputation as explosive and potentially dangerous through safer tanks, equipment, and training. In the most recent of these endeavors, the Rocky Mountain Propane Gas Association and the Propane Education Research Council (PERC) teamed up with Safe Fire, a training company that handles a variety of fire situations, to offer a weekend training exercise for volunteer firefighters in rural Montana, KXLH.com reported.
Rural Fire Departments often don’t have funding for specialized training sessions, but usually need it more, said Safe Fire instructor Dan Landon. That’s because propane is more widely used in the country than in larger cities. So how do propane dealers reach out to these departments and make it work?
“They provide so many pennies per gallons and it goes into a fund and it comes back to different associations in America,” Landon said. He noted that while propane accidents nationwide are on the backslide, there’s still a need to train first-responding firefighters.
“We try to teach them how to use the water pattern to push the fire away and keep them cool,” Landon added. “Then we’re done with our incident and we can walk away and be with our family.”