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Home My WebLink About2010 - Couplings Spring Newsletter Ullllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll�l�ii�u °'°ly,' �'°°y'y'°'y""""'°ly'y'y'°' Y 1 .�� IU��UUUUU1��111ipIDU4ll1Ui�U0001�UII�UUl16ll� 1u�HUUUOu 1��1UIV000U��uI��uVUVUUUU��UI��UUUVu��VUU��II�U��UUUUUUUU��UUluu��U1��UUUUUUUUUUIIUUUUUVUU�U�u�l��U1��VUUUU��u�U��U��IUUUllu�uUl��UU�VU�UUUUUUVUII�U��ll�u C 0 N T FN G TH E C 0,ILII M U! `t ""' "' W III' °" l T INH F I IIS E ID E P"A R wT I dli T' iluu 111111 I ilu� ullllllllllllllli Ilullllllulllllllllllulluilllllllllllllllluuullllllllllllluuuuu iiiilli cull Iliiiiulllllllllllllllllllllllllll Ill�ull a lul uilllllllli lilluullllllullllullllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll ul o- a&�� uuuuVVu III uuuuuuu ��be / rte, I llf 1�fi;%" 0� / i1�05 �vvVVVI vi�i�Vu"'I�IIIIV iVU�l pIWUW�I�liilj IlM1orr w, on q u�mlil hl uuuliiiiiii� u ioui Bio Livonia Firefighters headed onto the ice again this March to take part in some ice and cold water rescue training. The additional challenges that the March weather threw at us included weakened ice that would send some of us into the cold water ourselves. Equipped with dry suits, the effort required to force our way to our victims proved to be an additional obstacle that must be overcome. Thanks to Madonna University and Berean Baptist Church for letting us use their ponds. Our ice and cold water rescue specialists, Captains Jim Montgomery and Tim Holt, are also to be thanked for coming up with excellent training opportunities for us to participate in. II uuuuuuuuu� Illlllllllllllllllllq uuuoiuuu IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 0 M I I E i sir d, 0 1 ,n By Shadd Whitehead /�»174 N4�fwr7davuwNr^f � �� Another issue of Couplings 'i4A4rnaum rra� �� is up and ready for your use. The great thing about this publication is that it gives you safety information that you can Did you know that 65 percent of put into use immediately. I am home fire deaths happen in homes proud to support Couplings, with no smoke alarms at all, or no and I hope that you are happy 1E smoke alarms that work? When to be reading it. there is a fire, smoke spreads fast and you need smoke alarms to give you time to get out safely. Having working smoke alarms in your home can save lives. Wd��:) S1[IteIII IIIIIII IIIIIII 1111111"' �" IIIIIII t "�` Be sure to see the changes to our website. If you start at the city's main webpage at www.ci.livonia.mi.us, then click on the "Departments" tab and click on the "Fire Department". Look down along the left column and check out all the new changes, which are updated regularly. If you click on the � "Educational Videos" section, you will get a chance to see some of the video pieces that we have that can give you an educational talk in the comfort of your own homes, from your favorite computer monitor. You can also check out previous issues of "Couplings" by clicking on our "Newsletter" tab to the left. In case of an Emergency Dial 9 11 uuuuu a IIII�. uuuuu mm S��ioU��d uuuuu By Tom Kiurski There is a Beatles song that is called "I Should Have Known Better". We hear this many times in the course of our lives. It may have been a relationship with another person that didn't work out, a vehicle that was purchased without thinking it through, a home purchase or many different things in our lives. All of us have thought this many times about incidents in our lives, and many more times about the actions of each of our children. In a recent fire that I read about from one of my sources, a nine year-old boy burned his house down. In the article, an older sibling of the child who started the fire was quoted as saying that "he should have known better". In this case, obviously he didn't. This phrase is used far too often when dealing with children who started fires. This started me thinking about why we, as adults, think children should "know better". Is it because we think that children should have learned about fire safety practices before they have reached the tender age of nine? With budgets the way they currently are, Livonia firefighters do not get into every school on a regular basis. Do we assume that teachers will give this information to their students? Teachers have a curriculum that may not always include information on fire safety. Some teachers may be passionate about fire safety, as they may have been touched by an event. Others may have been fortunate, and assume that fire will not happen to them or to their students. We also know that some kids get sick and miss school, or trips to the fire station. Others may be having a "bad day", due to illness or other things on their minds. They may not have been paying attention. Still, we assume they were exposed to the message and they retained every bit of it, and will strictly abide by it. Make sure that your children know about fire, and how it can be used safely and effectively most of the time. Let them know that through misuse of fire, bad things can happen. Unwanted fires cause $10 billion in property damage each year, causing people to move from their homes. Those same unwanted fires kill approximately 3,500 civilians each year in this country. Teach your children about matches, lighters and fires in the home. Teach them how fire can be used to help us, and how they can go on to cause damage. Make sure that matches and lighters are locked up, high out of reach of children. The old saying goes "out of sight, out of mind". Don't tell your children "never" to use matches or lighters. They see that they can be used safely and effectively by lighting candles, fires in the fireplace and candles on birthday cakes. Instead, tell them that they can take on responsibility for some aspects of fires in the home a little at a time. Start with having them blow out candles at dinner, and helping get the fireplace ready for the fire. Before you believe that a child should "know better", consider what they really know, rather than what everyone believes they should know. It is through proper instruction and continuous reinforcement that we can drive home the messages about fire safety. In addition, make sure that you put into practice the safety items you tell your children. H 0 M E SAFETY COUNCIL'" safe home is in your hands, Have you installed grab bars in bath and shower stalls? Are you careful not to use towel racks or wall-mounted soap dishes as grab bars, because they can easily come loose, J /fl causing a fall? Do you use anon-slip mat or have adhesive safety strips or decals installed in bathtubs and showers? Do you keep the bathroom floor clean by promptly wiping --- ;% up spills? --- Do you have a bath mat with a non-skid bottom for every bathroom floor? � Are you careful not to use cleaning supplies that may leave--- a slippery residue? ---I Do you use nightlights to help light hallways and bathrooms during night-time hours. --- Do medications, including vitamins, prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs, have child-resistant caps? --- Have you locked medicines, cosmetics and cleaning supplies in a secure cabinet. --- Are medicines and cleaning products kept in their original containers with the original labels intact? --- Have you read product use, storage instructions and safety recommendations for cosmetic, personal care and cleaning products? --- Is your trashcan covered with a lid? --- Are all electrical appliances, cords and fixtures in your home listed by an independent testing laboratory such as Underwriters Laboratories (UL)? --- Are all bathrooms in your home protected by ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCls)? --- Do you test your GFCIs monthly to determine that they are mZ a1 1111 lir i� e. !a / operating properly? --- Are small electrical appliances such as hair dryers, curling irons, and razors always kept away from water and unplugged and stored when not in use? uuuu m uumuu uw e uw uw uw m II II uumm lu u" Safety w m em By Tom Kiurski Summer is almost here, which means exciting adventures, trips, barbecues and time away from work and school. Yet summer is also known as "trauma season" since tragedies peak because children are supervised less, have more free time and engage in more outdoor activities. A properly-fitted bike helmet can reduce the chances of receiving a traumatic brain injury by as much as 85%, so make sure your children have the right size for the upcoming season. They should be used whenever biking, rollerblading or skateboarding, and try to set a good example and have one on yourself. Wear bright colored clothing, ride in the direction of traffic and always look left-right-left before crossing a street. When barbecuing this summer, once the grill is lit, it needs adult supervision. Children are easily distracted, and often forget safety rules. Never move the barbecue grill indoors, in a garage or too close to the house, as our response to these incidents are not usually fun for the cook. Around water, children need supervision. Children can drown in just a few inches of water, so don't let your guard down. Enroll children in swimming classes, have fences and alarms around pools, and have safety equipment nearby, such as flotation devices, first aid kits and long-handled objects to reach children. If you are boating, make sure you have Coast Guard approved life jackets for all on board, and make sure they are being worn. If camping is on the list of summer plans, make sure you use only flashlights inside tents, keep the campfire well away from any combustibles, and make sure the fire is completely out when going to bed or leaving. Many peo le have incorrect p information about fireworks. Just because a sparkler is a legal firework, it does not mean that it is safe...the tip of a sparkler burns at over 1200 degrees Fahrenheit! The number one day for unwanted fires in the United States is the fourth of July...celebrate by attending a professional display. " N IY1Y, YHIY' 11111111111 11111111111 IIIIIII uw IIIIIII IIIIIII IIIIIII uw ,IIIIIII m uuumuuull(IIIIIII IIIIIII By Tom Kiurski We have looked at a number of historic fires in the pages of "Couplings" over the past several years. In this fire, we will take a look back at a workplace that was stricken by fire. Hopefully after reading the article, you may review what you would do if a fire broke out in your place of business. In New York City in 1911, many young immigrant females wanting a job applied at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. The business made women's blouses, and it worked out of the eighth, ninth and tenth floors of a ten-story building. The work conditions weren't pretty, with rows of sewing machines buzzing, floors slippery from lubricating oil used on the �IO / v machines and plenty of blouses and scrap material nearby. � � r A fire broke out on the eighth floor near the end of the work day. The r cause may have been an overheated machine engine starting the blaze, or possibly a carelessly disposed of cigarette, although smoking was �;�f prohibited in the shop. Typically, a supervisor locked the exit doors when i he went from floor to floor, checking on production. As the fire grew, workers tried to escape. A freight elevator was used o�� to move several carloads of workers down to safety, until the elevator t p� started to warp from the heat and people started jumping onto the top e ' of the car once it began its descent. Some workers were able to use the outside fire escape stairs, but the buckled under the weight of the ; workers piling onto it, sending many to their deaths on the pavement below. ' 4 Those who remained tried to use the fire buckets located throughout the building, but most of them were empty. A fire hose with a nozzle was on every floor, but the lack of maintenance found them to be inoperable. Some workers were successful in breaking out windows and prying off the bars from the window. Unfortunately, the choice was to die from fire or jump 100 feet to the concrete street. The fire department arrived and had to remove bodies from the street to get close enough to the building to begin operations. The highest ladder from the fire truck reached only to the sixty floor, so many workers tried to jump to the extended ladder, without success. The fire was brought under control fairly quickly. In total, 146 perished in the blaze. While I sincerely hope that no one works in conditions Tike those present 100 years ago at this fire, we still need to take fire safety seriously. The next time you are at work, walk around and flook for exits. The one you normally use is fine, , y 1 but if it were blocked where are the other exits I that are available to you. Look to see where the fire extinguishers are located in the building, and make sure you know what class of fire they are to r be used on and that you know how to use them correctly. Review your emergency escape plans that you may have at work, and determine an outside meeting place for your co-workers, so that you can take a head count and see if anyone is missing. Don't let history repeat itself at your workplace. iiiiiref'iiiiiiig By Tom Kiurski Ask anyone in the city what firefighters use to put out fires and you will probably get the answer "water". We do use water to put out most fires; in fact, our fire trucks are set up for water supply and delivery. We have large hose that brings water from the fire hydrants to the fire trucks, where it is then pumped up to a higher pressure and send out various discharge outlets through smaller hoses that we use to fight fires. Some fires will not be put out with water. Flammable liquids, such as gasoline, are lighter than water, and will float on the surface of the water, while continuing to burn. To make matters worse, the fire will then follow the path that the water takes, which may start other objects on fire. When confronted with flammable liquid fires, we have to use foam to extinguish it. We use foam concentrate in 5-gallon buckets as our starting point. This thick gel has the consistency of syrup, and it is introduced into the hose stream with water, and is then "aerated", where air allows the new solution to foam up and come out of the firefighting nozzle. This new foam is very light in weight, and floats on the surface of flammable liquids, suppressing their vapor production and cutting off the oxygen supply, which puts the fire out. While Livonia Firefighters may use foam on a small percentage of our fires, we have to train with foam so that we are able to quickly set up for a flammable liquid fire once identified. i iii p „r I I r r 4 IF YOU FINiD MATCHES, GIvE THEM TO AN ADULT 0asio me ,, ova Ofe, A101111% TMvapors tNever4 r �f1P�l!191 i -..ibring gasoHne inidw Store itoutside, in ° I 1 I I approved Now,w 19 AU �I ! _ d a , • ,�Uig q rYlii� IIUIIII1�i►,,;�„' 1��l�,��u►5�ulm�au......,,�- _ .jai :i7.:ac:'.'; •'��':;�iiil hail � -