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Thursday, August 5, 2010 -
Cool, Pleasant Summer Nights…Time for a Family Fire Drill
Ok, the recent summer nights have been hot, humid and anything but pleasant. Just hang in there, we’ve got to catch a nice one sooner or later and when we do, it’s the perfect opportunity for a bit of Fire Prevention in the home. All you need is the family, a smoke detector and that nice night.
Gather the family and review your fire escape plan. You should identify two exits from each bedroom if possible. Walk through the bedrooms with the children and plan each child’s escape from their room. Close the bedroom door and instruct them that when the smoke detector sounds, they should first check the door for heat before opening it. Touch the door at the bottom, middle and as high up as the child can reach to feel for heat. If the door is hot, don’t open it, use the alternate exit. Spend some time practicing with the alternate exit.
Next, leave the house and select a location where the family will meet if you have to evacuate during an actual fire. The meeting place should be a safe distance from the house, such as the mailbox at the end of the driveway or the tree in the front yard. Keep in mind when picking the spot that the children may have to be able to get there when there is snow on the ground.
Once you have chosen your meeting place, stress to all family members that once you have escaped, you never go back into the house. If a family member doesn’t make it to the meeting place, the others should wait there for the firefighters and alert them to the need for a rescue. Also, remind your children that the firefighters will try to rescue their pets. Many children have safely escaped from a fire only to reenter the building to search for a missing pet.
Now that everyone knows the plan, it’s time to practice. Everyone goes to their bed and stays there until mom or dad activates the smoke detector. At the sound of the detector, everyone practices their escape plan and heads outside to the family meeting place. Run through the plan several times and allow the children to practice using the alternate exit under your supervision. This is also a great time to go through the house and make sure that each of your smoke detectors is working properly. Check the battery and change it if needed.
As with everything else in life, practice makes perfect. When the smoke detector sounds in the dead of night, as smoke is filling the house, the time for practice will have long since passed. The time to prevent a tragedy is now, before the fire.
Take care and stay safe.
Dave Hardinger, Fire Chief
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