Teaching Fire Extinguisher Skills with PASS #508

Choosing & Using Fire Extinguishers #508: Challenge | Recap

🏆 Challenge of the Week

Fires can start fast and without warning. In those first few moments, knowing how to use a fire extinguisher could be the difference between a close call and a serious emergency.

Sure, most of us see fire extinguishers at work every day. They’re easy to spot, but actually using one? That’s a different story. Without hands-on practice, it’s hard to feel confident when it really counts.

So here’s the question: if a fire broke out, would you, your family, or your coworkers know what to do?

This week, your challenge is to design a short, engaging module or interaction that helps learners practice the PASS method: Pull, Aim, Squeeze, and Sweep. Keep it practical and relatable, so learners walk away feeling ready to act when it matters most.

📝 Content & Interaction Ideas

Here are a few ideas to help you get started. Feel free to use these or focus on any content area that fits your challenge:

• Interactive PASS Simulation: Learners virtually operate a fire extinguisher, practicing each step of PASS (Pull, Aim, Squeeze, Sweep) in realistic scenarios.
• Fire Scenario Selection: Present situations like an office kitchen fire or an electrical fire. Learners choose the right extinguisher and apply PASS correctly.
• Timed Response Challenge: Learners complete the PASS steps within a time limit, building confidence under pressure.
• Spot the Mistake: Show examples of incorrect extinguisher use. Learners identify the errors to reinforce proper technique.
• 360° Hazard Hunt: Using Storyline’s 360° image feature, learners explore a workspace, click on hotspots, and spot potential fire hazards.
• PASS Drag-and-Drop: Learners put the PASS steps in the correct order, helping reinforce both memory and accuracy.

Fire Safety by Larry Van Wave

This example does a great job using 3D and animated graphics to teach fire extinguisher basics. Learners can hover over hotspots to explore each part, then click through the PASS steps using a tab-style interaction. Each step includes simple visuals and motion to show how to use the extinguisher correctly.

View project | Larry Van Wave | Wave

⚒️ Authoring Tools

You’re welcome to use any authoring tool you’d like this week. If you’re short on time, try quickly mocking up your ideas using PowerPoint, Figma, or your favorite graphics app.

🧰 Resources

Here are some helpful resources on preventing identity theft. You’re welcome to use any of these in your project. If you use Articulate's AI Assistant for any content or images, please mention that when submitting your example so our team can see how you’re using it.

• U.S. Fire Administration: Choosing and Using Fire Extinguishers
• University of California, San Diego: Fire Extinguisher Training
• U.S. Fire Administration: Fire Extinguisher Infographic
• National Fire Protection Association: Fire Extinguisher Safety Tips
• OSHA: Portable Fire Extinguishers
• University of Wisconsin: Types of Fire Extinguishers

🙌 Share Your E-Learning Work

You put in the effort, now let’s make sure people see it. Here are some easy ways to share your challenge demos and get your work noticed:

• Personal blog: If you have a blog, please write about your example from this week’s challenge and share the link with your submission.
• Social media: Please share your examples on LinkedIn and mention both David & Articulate using the #ElearningChallenge tags so we can help promote your work.
• Support your peers: With the new submission format, you can comment directly on each example. Try leaving helpful feedback on at least three projects this week
• Community forums: Feel free to cross-post in the forums to give your work even more visibility.

🎉 Last Week’s Challenge:

Before aiming at fires, we aimed at phishers. Check out last week’s identity theft challenge to see how your fellow challengers tackled digital danger:

Recognizing and Preventing Identity Fraud #507: Challenge | Recap

👋 New to the E-Learning Challenges?

The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.

Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article.