Off The Editor’s Desk – 9-25-2019
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Fire Prevention Week!
National Fire Prevention week this year is October 6 through October 12. The slogan this year is “Not every hero wears a cape. Plan and Practice your Escape.”
In 2017, 3,400 civilians died in the United States from fires. Seventy-seven percent of these deaths occurred in the home.
The best slogan that I can offer to protect you in your home is “Don’t Give Fire a place to Start.”
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) notes that this year’s campaign works to celebrate people of all ages who learn about fire escape planning and practice, bring that information home, and spur their families to action,” said Lorraine Carlo, vice president of Outreach and Advocacy at NFPA.
According to NFPA, “A home escape plan includes working fire alarms on every level of the home, in every bedroom, and near all sleeping areas. It also includes two ways out of every room, usually a door and a window, with a clear path to an outside meeting place (like a tree, light pole or mailbox) that’s a safe distance from the home. Home escape plans should be practiced twice a year by all members of the household.”
For more information visit the NFPA at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
Shortly after one a.m. Monday morning the Glenwood City Fire Department was paged out by the County dispatch system for a house fire in Springfield Township where a family of six escaped their smoke filled house. But they needed attention by the local ambulance crew from breathing too much smoke. Firefighters reported that no smoke detectors were sounding when they arrived at the scene.
The best protection against fire deaths in your home is a smoke detector that will give you an early warning of smoke and that will give you the time to get out of the house. Remember that most fire related deaths are from toxic smoke and not the fire itself. Remember to change the batteries in those smoke detectors twice a year. Once when daylight savings ends and the other when it begins.
In the United States there were 1,319,500 fires in 2017, and besides killing 3,400 people and injuring another 14,670, those fires did an estimated $22 Billion dollars in direct property loss (this figure includes $10 Billion loss in Northern California wildfires.
During my 25 years as Fire Chief in Glenwood City, four people died as the result of fires. Three of them were in home fires, including a 12-year-old boy. The fourth was from a traffic accident.
So, your service is needed in your community, become a firefighter by volunteering at your local fire department. You will not get a cape, but you will be dressed in some $5,000 or more worth of fire protection gear. You will get a helmet a couple of hoods to protect your face and head, a matching set of turnout gear, (coat, pants, gloves, a pair of suspenders) a pager and a self contained breathing apparatus. That’s the air tank on your back and gives you about 20 minutes of air to breath while fire fighting. Get involved; call you local fire chief today.
Thanks for reading! ~Carlton