Get Low. Get Out. Call Fast.

02Feb09

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Mounting concerns

Many of the recent fires in this community could have been less significant if the fire department had been called earlier. Over the past year a trend has been noticed. People are simply not calling the fire department soon enough. To be candid, people are trying to solve their fire problem without us. Or they are not responding to their smoke alarms soon enough. Or they are not aware that they have a problem.

Raising awareness, providing education

The Washington Township Fire Department has been providing education programs in this community since the 1970s. One area of reach is in the local school system. Children from preschool through high school are given safety education programs to help them reduce their own risks, to help them share proper information with their families, and to provide them with awareness of how to better plan for emergencies. These lessons teach more than fire safety; they cover risks from falling, the prevention of burns, head injury prevention, and a variety of other topics. However, one lesson is addressed multiple times: home fire escape planning.

Children are asked in these lessons if they have done a home fire escape drill with their families during the past year. Without fail only one or two in a class of twenty-five or more will answer that they have. Discussion on the subject shows that families:

  • Don’t have [take] the time
  • Don’t think it is an important issue
  • Don’t know that they should
  • Already feel safe ["It's not going to happen to us"]
  • Think they “know” what they would do
  • Don’t really care about that at the moment
  • “Know” that the fire department will save them if they have a problem
  • …and the list goes on

Proper planning

Each of the reasons given above can be easily addressed. Unfortunately, when a fire happens most people have found themselves in a situation they didn’t anticipate — often because they didn’t easily address one of the “excuses” given.

Planning a fire drill is simple enough. It can be taught with a few very simple phrases:

  • Have a working smoke alarm
  • Know two ways out of any room
  • Stay low when there’s smoke or even when there’s not
  • Gather at a meeting place outside so that no one wonders who is out
  • Send someone to call for help [911 in this community] IMMEDIATELY

Where it fails

Remember the phrase above “they think they KNOW what they would do?” Often this is where this system fails. Because knowing what to do is not always the same as being ABLE to do it. Just because I know that I should push down the keys on a piano to make notes doesn’t mean I can play the piano.

Fire drill planning is only one step in the system to getting out safely. One must PRACTICE the plan a few times to be able to do it effectively. To say that you only have to go out a door or get to a window is easy enough. When there is smoke, heat, and poisonous gases in the house you will find yourself doing things you never even knew you would do.

A recent house fire placed a man and his wife in a very serious situation. She did not know to get low near the floor. She began to move through the house after alerting her husband to the fire. She was looking for a family member that may or may not have been home at the time. The result? She found herself in an extremely smoke filled environment. She was coughing, she was having trouble seeing and she was very disoriented. Only when she found a familiar landmark in the house (a desk) did she know where she was and which was she should go to get out. The husband had worked himself outside, but he re-entered the home to try to find his wife and to retrieve property that he felt was important.

Three steadfast rules

  1. Always leave as soon as you hear the smoke alarm.
  2. NEVER go back in a house that has fire inside
  3. Call the fire department immediately

Of the many fires that happened this past year, all of them would have been less severe, there would have been less damage and loss, and the families would have been safer had they simply called as soon as they knew there was a problem.

Don’t go it alone

One of the misconceptions often seen is that “we can take care of it.” People often think that their fire concern is a small concern. They believe that they can handle the situation without “raising a fuss.” Fire department members often hear the phrases “we didn’t want to bother you” or “we didn’t want all the trucks out front.”

Consider this: When is smoke too much smoke? When is fire too much fire? It’s an easy answer: when it is out of control. When is it out of control? When one finds themselves in a situation where they can no longer deal with the problem alone. Remember, we don’t know you have the problem until you call us. When you call us after it is already out of control, the damage is done. We could have and should have been there to keep it from getting that bad.

You are not alone. You have a local fire department that has the tools, resources, and training to help you when there is a problem. Even a small problem. Know your plan. Practice your plan. Don’t wait until you have a problem to figure out how to deal with that problem.

Get Low. Get Out. Call Fast.

Learn more

The Home Safety Council and the National Fire Protection Association have great materials to help you plan and practice your home fire drill. Visit their sites to get them. And, if your child comes home from school and says “the firefighter told me that we should have a fire drill” then DO it. Again. And Again.


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