Fire Safety and Prevention for Adults

Since adults are, well, adults, they often underestimate the need for a smoke detector. As such, they often fail to have enough of them, don't install them in the proper locations, and/or forget to test the batteries or remove the batteries. Smoke detectors are your first line of defense against fires because they can detect problems that are out of your line of sight, smell, and touch. How can we use smoke detectors effectively?

Install them in the right rooms. It is recommended to have at least one smoke detector on each level of your house, including the attic and basement, and in the garage. It is not necessary to have them in EVERY room, for example having one right in or too close to the kitchen and bathrooms can cause problems. Steam and burned food can set them off. One rule of thumb to use is to ask, "Can I hear a smoke detector from every room, even with the door shut?" If a detector will not wake you up in a bedroom with the door shut, you need more detectors.

Install them in the right place on the ceiling. Manufacturers recommend installing your smoke detector on the ceiling no less than 6-8 inches from a wall. If you absolutely cannot do this, place it on the wall 6 inches below the ceiling. Placed too close to a corner, detectors can trap clean air and delay an alarm. If on a wall, placed too far down will allow smoke to build up above the detector and delay an alarm.

Do not teach your kids to ignore them and don't you ignore them either. The alarm is not a dinner bell. If you ignore the smoke detector, your kids will too, and that can be a fatal mistake.

Never remove the batteries. A few Christmases ago, a toddler woke his mother up to tell her the fire was on. She had taken the batteries out of the smoke detector the night before to run toys. Enough said.

Test the batteries monthly. Each detector has a test button that, when depressed, will sound the alarm. If the detector does not sound or if it chirps, replace the batteries.

Fire extinguishers are given a series of ratings based on what types of fires they are designed to extinguish and how much product they hold. This is very important because you want to make sure you get a fire extinguisher that will extinguish the material that is on fire and extinguish enough of it. An extinguisher that is too small is useless.

There are four categories of materials that extinguishers are designed for:

Class A: extinguishes wood, paper, common garbage, and other things that burn. Remember A for "Ash" - if it will create ash, it's class A.

Class B: extinguishes liquid and fuel fires. Remember B for "Boil" - gasoline, grease, and solvents.

Class C: extinguishes electrical fires. C is for "Circuit" - the faulty toaster or burned out vacuum motor.

Class D: used mostly in commercial operations where flamable metals such as magnesium are present.

Class A and B extinguishers are also rated according to how much product they hold, which determines an estimated square footage that can be extinguished by a novice user. In a residential area, consider at least one extinguisher for each 600 square feet of living space, putting priority on the kitchen, laundry area, garage, and utility room.

How to use a fire extinguisher.
Even if you've read the bottle a hundred times, using an extinguisher can seem daunting. The first time I ever used one was in my first practical exam - by that time I'd used a 2 1/2 inch hose (which creates enough pressure to sit you back on your butt!) but never that little red bottle.

PASS - Pull, Aim, Squeeze, Sweep

Step 1 - Pull the pin from the handle of the extinguisher.
Step 2 - Aim the nozzle at the BASE of the fire.
Step 3 - Squeeze the trigger.
Step 4 - Sweep the base of the fire, back and forth, until it is extinguished.
Step 5 - if necessary, call 911.

Kids, still afraid of fire and smoke, have memorized the information we drill into them - roll out of bed, check the door with the back of your hand, have two ways out of every room, crawl under the smoke, never go back inside, go to your meeting place, call 911 from a neighbor's house or cell phone.

Adults, however, seem to forget and ignore these important steps. They run around the house trying to put out the fire or find things to take with them, they call 911 from the house that is on fire, they wander around the property to scope out the situation, and often cause more stress than necessary when the fire department finally shows up.

Firefighters are trained to attack a situation based on a value system:

1. Self preservation
2. Rescue
3. Mitigate hazard (extinguish fire)
4. Preservation of property

If everyone is out of the house, our number one problem is solved. Everything else can be replaced and a safe fire attack can be made. If not, the entire situation changes drastically as a rescue must be organized. Firefighters have died trying to save people who were actually out of the house but failed to meet up with their family as planned.

Finding residences is an increasing problem for fire departments, EMS, and law enforcement. In the city, homes are not always clearly marked with house numbers or apartment numbers. In rural areas, mailboxes are across the street from a house, grouped at the end of a long road or driveway, or non-existant. If emergency services cannot find your house, they can't help you. How can you make sure your address is easy to spot?

Have clear address numbers posted at your residence. For city-dwellers this means on your house, visible from the road. If you live in the country, this means a fire-address sign at the entrance of your driveway. Having your numbers on the mailbox is not good enough. These numbers are often too small to read, or aren't posted on the side of the box that responders are approaching from. Ask your fire department what signs they can recommend. You can even purchase some styles at your local hardware store.

Keep your driveway clear. One problem with rural residences is that trucks cannot fit into driveways because the driveway is too narrow, improperly based, or crowded by trees. There are ordinances in your county that mandate rules about driveways. Water supply to rural fires is crucial, and driveway problems can greatly delay the fire department's ability to respond.

Keep clutter and trash away from doors. In all homes, clutter is a problem for firefighters. They are already in unfamiliar territory, now they have to deal with more piles and barriers. People have died trapped in their homes because firefighters weren't able to cut through piles of newspapers, toys, clothes, and boxes to save them.

If your home has been devastated by a fire, returning to normalcy seems so far away. Taking the right first steps can help you find the resources you need to get assistance immediately.

The United States Fire Administration has an excellent publication titled, "After a Fire: Returning to Normal." The basic details of this document can be read online, and the table of contents includes:

* The First 24 Hours - Securing Yourself and The Site
* Insured
* Not Insured
* Valuing Your Property
* Replacing Documents & Records
* Salvage Hints
* Fire Department Operations
* Emergency Numbers
* After the Fire Strikes: More Information

While they are on scene, ask your fire department or law enforcement officials about how to contact the Salvation Army and/or American Red Cross. These agencies will set you up with temporary shelter, food, personal essentials, and counselling.

When giving tours to young adults of driving age, I ask, "What should you do when you are driving and see an emergency vehicle on the road using lights and sirens?" They always respond "Pull over and stop" in unison, and I swear I hear a "duh" in there.

Then I tell them to go home and tell this to their parents.

My number one frustration and pet peeve with being a firefighter is dealing with traffic while responding to a call in my personal vehicle or a fire truck. It absolutely blows my mind how ignorant and careless drivers can be.

If you are driving and you see an emergency vehicle with lights and/or sirens engaged, the appropriate response is to calmly pull over and stop. Continue once you are sure all vehicles have passed, by properly signalling back into your lane.

DO NOT use the opportunity to go faster in front of the vehicle. Unbelievable as it may seem, this happens with some frequency. A fire truck is approaching a vehicle from the rear so they speed up, thinking to themselves, "Wow, right on, now I can get there faster."

If you disregard these rules, you can and will be ticketed. Just because police are busy at the time does not mean they won't make a house call. Besides being obnoxious to us, delaying our response causes a potentially deadly situation for whomever we are trying to help. If it were you or a loved one in danger, you would want us to get there 'yesterday'. No matter what you're doing, nothing is so important that you cannot take an extra 20 seconds to pull over.

The University of Oklahoma Fire Department has a fabulous resource that answers all your questions about sharing the road with emergency vehicles.

I've seen a lot of crazy stuff on the road while trying to navigate the mile and a third from my house to the fire hall, or from the fire hall to a call. One of my favorites has to be the woman who cut me off three blocks from my house, and drove 25 mph in a 30 mph speed zone with four of us in our private vehicles behind her, lights and sirens blaring, happily chatting away on her cell phone the entire time. She didn't look in her mirror until 20 feet from the fire hall driveway, at which time she totally freaked out and nearly put her car in the ditch.

Another time a minivan decided that instead of finishing a left-turn, they'd sit in the middle of the two-lane road that was already lined with school traffic. They stopped all right, but failed to pull over.