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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011 - Couplings Fall Newsletter Ullllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll�lliuu °°'°'11 �'°°111'°'1""""'°'111'1'°' Y .����� ������IU��UUUUUI��IiIiUiDU4i1Ui�U000i�UIi�UUll6lli 1u�HUUUOu C 0 N T FN G TH E C 0,ILII M U! "I T""' "' W III' °" l T INH F I IIS E IIS E P",A R T I WE T "� VIII VIII �VIII 111111 By Tom Kiurski r , Your Livonia Firefighters are working hard to help make your lives better. While you all understand that your fire department responds to fires, fire alarms and other fire-related calls, you may not know that we also respond to much more. We respond to the storms that take out utility lines, odor investigations and natural gas leaks. We are right there, keeping our community safe. But the busiest part of our day takes place responding to medical emergencies • in the community. Some of those medical emergencies may be the result of vehicle crashes, falls or other trauma related incidents, but most are due to �'� other medical conditions such as cardiac events, strokes, difficulty breathing or diabetic emergencies. No matter what the call, your firefighters are also trained as paramedics, and will be there when you need us. � In addition to all that, we make a concerted effort to be out in the community, '" promoting a healthy and fire safe lifestyle. You may have visited our websites that can be accessed from the cit website �r�rr�r�r�r .n...11.ii .iii ....irrr�.ii.._u a or our �� y (....._ .._ ._ .. .. . ... . ... own at u�ru�w...Illivoirn..p_ fp.ire_fp.ghteirs„coirm. You may read our weekly safety articles through the Livonia Observer's newspaper or website. Some of you take advantage of our child car seat installation services, performed by our own �lr�� ` certified car seat technicians. But we do much more than that. We spend time at community events whenever possible. We were there helping at the Susan Komen 3-Day for the Cure walk. We helped raise funds for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation by working with our friends at Baskin-Robbins at the 31-cent scoop night. We stop by our senior centers and take blood pressures on a frequent basis. We participate in the Spring "Passport to Safety” event and hold an annual Fire Prevention Week Open �Nyr tyW House in October of each year. ern, If you haven't seen us lately, take a look around. And if you still don't see us, stop by any of our fire stations for a tour of the fire station and the apparatus, like so many groups do. Hope to see you soon! M� _ F uuuoiuuu llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllq IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII uuuuuuuuui� 0 . . . . By Shadd Whitehead We all know what is coming when the warm air turns crisp, and the leaves begin to fall. It's time to � �� prepare for the upcoming cold season with fireplace VOl��10110U cleanings and inspections, furnace cleanings and any repair jobs that have been waiting around for too long. And when the weather does change, Got and Exit you can read this and all of our previous issues of 1E Strategy?, "Couplings" right from the comfort of your home. Just visit us on the city website. ,o 1 u°I ROLE OV 1100 ///llwzzoi /t In case of an Emergency Dial 911 IIIIIII "' °"""""' 1111111 IIIIIII °°°°° "tuIr,IIIIIn 60 This year (2011) marks the 60th birthday of Sparky the Fire Dog, the official mascot of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), who has been teaching children, parents and teachers fire prevention and public safety for the past six decades. Sparky was created in 1951 for an Advertising Council campaign. Two years later, his fire prevention campaign reached more than 68 million people through radio public service announcements and another 3 million through television. As an influential figure in fire prevention, his success can be attributed to collaboration with firefighters and others to educate the public on important prevention and safety messages. He has even experienced a touch of fame; in the 1980s, celebrity Dick Van Dyke served as the voice of Sparky to help expand the reach of Sparky's messages. Since Sparky's inception in the 1950s, the number of fires and fire injuries in the United States has declined, which is due in part to enhanced public education efforts. Sparky's work continues and is more important than ever because most fires can be prevented when people take personal responsibility and follow a few safety guidelines. Visit Sparky at his official website (www.sparky.org) for plenty of fun and interactive games for families, and learn fire safety along the way. We hope you enjoy these images of Sparky as he was originally depicted back 60 years ago and how he has matured into today's Sparky. uuumu u Safety w m em i uuuum i mi uw uuuu As summer turns to fall, it's a good idea to refresh you memory on fall fire safety tips. Some safety tips are the same regardless of the time of year, but many safety concerns are seasonal, particularly those that involve keeping your home warm. CIlll &,,i es Illi e&m , IIII'Illlfatteiii y CIlll &,,i es Get in the habit of changing the batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors every fall and spring when changing the clocks for Daylight Savings Time. It is also a good idea to make it standard procedure in your household to verify that all fire extinguishers are fully charged and in working order when you adjust the clocks each season. h Ioi�meIllh°° eat y I iiii llll a No matter what type of device you use to heat your home, making sure your heating devices and/or systems are in good working order is an important part of learning some fall fire safety tips. Many things can go wrong with heating equipment during the spring and summer months. Verify that everything you need to keep your home warm throughout fall and winter is in good working order before you experience the first cold snap of the season. t iiia tiiii llll Illh °tliiiiiii Sys°teiii m Safety I iiiillll a Get your central heating system cleaned, inspected and serviced by a certified HVAC (heating, venti- lation and air conditioning) contractor every year before using it. If you have a gas heater, make sure that you have a sufficient quantity of fully functioning carbon monoxide detectors installed in your home. Sllll cmc° Illh m ilii Safety I iiiillll a • Make sure that any space heaters are surrounded by at least three feet of empty space. Nd�a • Never place clothing or any other objects on a space heater to dry. Do not place heaters near furniture or drapery. Turn space heaters off when you leave the house or go to bed. • Avoid storing any combustible items near heaters. , Illlllllmc°�� Safety Iiiiilllla • Get your chimney inspected each year to make sure that it is safe. • Hire a chimney sweep to clean out your chimney every fall. • Repair any cracks in fireplaces • Use fireplace screens to keep sparks and fire debris inside the fireplace. • Do not ever use gasoline to start a fire in the fireplace. • Never leave a fire unattended. • Make sure that combustible materials are not stored within three feet of your fireplace • For naturalas fireplaces, get all connections and Tines inspected � g p p r before use each season. • Remember that outdoor fireplaces can be just as dangerous as indoor units, and observe all safety precautions when using them. umuu IIID m e uuuuu uw uw II m e m By Tom Kiurski I'm sure many of you may remember the classic movie starring Clint Eastwood called "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly". A spaghetti western classic, featuring bounty hunters, buried gold and more double-crosses than most people can count. When I read about recent fires, I can probably categorize some of them as "the good", some as "the bad" and some as "the ugly". Starting off with the good, we had a wheelchair-bound elderly man in a nursing home in Arizona who had his bedding catch fire. The fire sprinkler operated as intended, confining the fire until firefighters could arrive, rescue the man, and complete the extinguishment. The alarm that sounded when the sprinkler was activated gave the firefighters an early notification of the fire. In Colorado, a four-story hotel was full of guests when a candle in a guest room ignited a nearby shirt, which then spread the fire. This fire was also controlled with a single sprinkler head, keeping the damage limited to just $10,000. The bad behaviors of children are my next category, and the result is Pi plenty of damage and the deaths of three children. In the first incident, a 3-year-old girl died in a fire that started when she and her 6-year-old brother were playing with a lighter in the basement of their Indiana home. In Alaska, two 5-year-old boys with a history of fire play were left alone and started numerous fires, killing one of the boys and a 15-year-old sibling. The fire completely destroyed the home. uuuuuou The ugly category is reserved for those who should have known better than to behave in the manner in which they did. Our first story comes from Pennsylvania where a father and son brought a vehicle's fuel tank in the house for repair. They placed it, with gasoline still in it, within three feet of the operating kerosene heater. Next up is an Ohio woman who placed a portable space heater pointing at her feet and the couch. No surprise here that a fire started when she left the room, forgot about the space heater which was too close to the couch. Our final ugly contestant is three elderly women who shared a home. One woman was on home oxygen for a medical condition, and all three women were smokers. If you weren't aware that oxygen intensifies fire, as in that flame from a cigarette, it does just that. Two of the three women died in that fire. Fire departments in the United States respond to approximately 1.3 million fires each year. These fires kill over 3,000 civilians, injure over 17,000, and leave t over 12.5 billion in damages. Take the few minutes II ' necessary to ensure you have working smoke °" i, r alarms and a home fire escape plan that everyone r:, �G >f mww,»fGui5 N'� V ,Wm6rt�i�p, in the home is familiar with and has been practiced T in the past six months. Give any actions Tike those NAAIf mentioned above some thought before going ahead " . � - with them. If it sounds unsafe to you, it probably is. i � ft,,, u IIIIIII IIIIIIIe a m e uuum uuum II uw IIIIIII IIIIIII IIIIIII uuuuuuumVegas By Tom Kiurski In November of 1980, people flocked to Las Vegas to get away from the normal routine of life. Vacationing in an adult playground had appeal, and the glitz and glamor of Las Vegas was very inviting to those needing a change of pace. One of the newest, fanciest places to stay at that time was the MGM Grand Hotel and t � Casino. In the morning hours of November 21sr , approximately 5,000 people were registered 1 b at the hotel, with many others in the casino, restaurants and shops. The building was a 26 story high rise, with over 2,000 hotel rooms. The fire started in a hallway of shops just outside of the casino. The shop was under renovation, and was closed, allowing the fire to break out and build undetected. The fire, being fed by wallpaper, PVC piping, glue and plastic mirrors, raced down the hall and into the casino at an amazing rate of 15 -19 feet per second until the massive fireball blew out the main casino entrance. While the fire was confined to the casino and restaurant/shop area of the building, the smoke dampers that were supposed to not allow smoke to move within the building failed to operate as planned. This resulted in the spreading of smoke and toxic gases from the fire area into the hotel guest rooms. The majority of the 85 fire deaths were in areas remote from the fire, where the victims died in their rooms or in the hallway as they were trying to leave when they were overcome with the deadly gases. This fire taught us graphically that smoke inhalation is a more serious threat in large buildings than the flames themselves. One couple was quick to credit their safety to their daughter, who had learned how to crawl low under smoke and had practiced this with her family just before her parents left for a Las Vegas vacation. Other survivors took appropriate actions by putting wet towels around the door to block out smoke, notifying other occupants, using the r telephone in the room to call in their location and putting a wet towel over their mouth and nose to act as a filter. rrppp f r /0/»>iiii� �uurrr�If//o�����r �� rrtrrrrrrrr9 ((((rJnryrJr (((( E Uri O � /�r �� /�� I III JJ��I��mmmry J �I III I�I/'�� /� /�/� �� 11��U1JJIJ�»1JJ� ///IJJJ iiii�i��, %r Dv � r�mm� �ll�i,��,.� d� mrrrrrm� mrrrrrr�� � IIII�1l,f°� ID,,,,,,,,,,ID �/�j��,%`%I��� ����'lll'°,`n,,l SAFETY TIPS 7 . ,, Be sure older children TA K1,,,, fr IF. i1;,1 and younger children are accompanied by a „,,�r i � r I when "Trick or Treating." °o Accompany younger children to the door of every home they approach and make sure parents and guardians are familiar with every home and all people from which the children receive treats. ' o Teach children to 1 it VI I; enter a home without prior permission from their parents or guardians. 4, Teach children to 1 .!EVE approach a vehicle, occupied or not, unless they are accompanied by a parent or guardian. o„� � o Make sure all children wear reflective clothing and carry a glow stick when out at dusk and at night. 6, Make sure children are able to see and breathe properly and easily when using facial masks. All costumes and masks should be clearly marked as flame resistant. '„ Teach children to 1 %I,,,,,°/1,,,; fr approach a home that is not well lit both inside and outside. 8, Teach children to stay alert for any suspicious incidents and report them to their parents, guardians, and/or the proper authority. , Teach children if anyone tries to grab them to make a scene; loudly yell "This person is not my father/mother/guardian"; and make every effort to get away by kicking, screaming, and resisting. o Consider organizing or attending parties at home, in schools, or in community centers as a good alternative to "Trick or Treating." 00 � I till, � I�MIMNIMu � Carry, " ,.► flashlight t whentreatingaind x weair tape on youir As n t �•:, + Halloween costume .drivers can 1 yJi 4 = ee you. r �I ttt R1 I " fe Have ur TM � 4inspected once a Jam. ����iij�f! � III if - w d cleaned or repaired if necessary >��R �y /�