Fire Safety

It’s that time of year again when we all seal up our homes for the long winter and fire up our furnaces and wood stoves. Unfortunately, many of us do not consider the possible dangers. Accidents can and will happen occasional, even for those of us who are prepared.

The only time you have to decide whether you and your family are going to be victims or survivors is now! Once tragedy strikes there usually isn’t enough time to make up for a lack of planning.Recently, two of my friends and I were working on a Job in Nome and the house we were living in caught fire while we slept. Like most people we felt safe at home in our beds and never considered the possibility of such a tragic event. As a result, I managed to escape with smoke inhalation and few minor cuts and bruises and the horror of that night etched in my mind forever. My friends were not so fortunate. One friend received severe burns over 17% of his body, and my other friend didn’t make it out alive. All because we never expected some something like this to occur and we didn’t plan for it. On that particular night we had less than a minute and a half to react or die, and the situation went from knowing we had a problem to its too late!

I’m not a Fire expert but here is a list of the things we did wrong or neglected to do that might save someone’s life someday.

1. Have an alternate escape route. We only had one door out of the building and it was engulfed in flames.

2. Arrange a safe place to meet outside so you can account for everybody. In all the confusion, nobody realized that my friend was still in the building until it was too late.

3. Have a heavy object available near any escape windows. It took over six attempts for me to break through a thick plate glass window and I nearly lost consciousness trying.

4. Despite what you may believe, do not stop to call 911 immediately. When in a burning building you may be out of time without realizing it, and you will also likely be breathing fumes that can cause you to drop where you are stand. Get out Immediately! Once you are all out, you can decide whether it is safe enough to renter and call for help and if not, you can call from a neighbor’s house.

5. Remember that once you break a window or open an outside door, the inrush of fresh air will only make the situation worse, so be ready for it. No need to mention smoke detectors but I will, because they are probably the only reason why I’m still here and able to write this article.

Please be safe and support you local fire fighters. I know that I’ll be sending them my donation. If anybody is interested in knowing how bad things can get in a hurry.

You may be able to access the article on the web. Nome nugget newspaper (archives.. November 8th edition)

Dedicated to my Friend, Jeffrey A Martin …deceased October 30th 2007