6 fire safety tips you should know like the back of your hand

                                                

It’s all fun and games till you meet a burn survivor. At Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, it was fire safety awareness week last week, and we had two burn survivors as guest speakers. They survived an arson fire that happened in their dorm in Seton Hall University, New Jersey, in the year 2000. Their names are Alvaro and Shawn, and they were two eighteen year old college freshmen who were one of the 58 people to get burned that fateful morning. By God’s grace, they pulled through and lived to tell the story. 3 students died as a result of the incident, and 4 out of the 58 students and fire fighters were severely burned, including Alvaro and Shawn. You can read more about the story here.

I decided to write an article on fire safety based on what I learned from Alvaro and Shawn’s story. They mentioned that if they had learned the exit routes a little better, they would have known to turn left to safety, instead of right, towards the source of the fire, when they finally tried to get out of their room crawling in the smoke. Not that the fire couldn’t have started near the exit routes, but it may not have taken as long to get help. Also, they did not respond to the fire alarm as quickly as they should have because they were so used to the alarm going off as a result of pranks played by fellow students that they thought that was just another false alarm and took their time to get dressed and get out. They advised students who lived in dorms to ALWAYS respond to the alarm no matter how many times it sounds in a minute, because you can never tell when it would be a real fire.

                                       

                                          

I didn’t know about fire drills when growing up in Nigeria. Maybe we had some growing up, but they were obviously not frequent enough for me to have the memory. I know we had fire extinguishers everywhere: in my dorm in high school, college, and even at home, but that was all I knew about fire safety- a fire extinguisher. No tips, nothing else. I did not even know how to use a fire extinguisher and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t. They were more like monuments. So, when I came to the U.S., I volunteered at an event in my school called Health Hullabaloo, during which medical students shared their medical knowledge with the community. On this particular day, we had kids from elementary schools, and someone on my team threw out a question asking them what to do in the event of a fire and they were on fire, and all the kids chanted ‘STOP, DROP and ROLL!’ and I was like ‘Huh?’ They also knew to crawl when there’s smoke because smoke rises. I was in awe, not because I did not know that, but because I did not know that at that age, and I certainly did not know that from a fire drill either.

So, I thought to draw your attention to some fire safety tips. There are special tips for specific places, like the office, the home, a dorm, an apartment, but thankfully, there are tips that encompass all, in the worst case scenario, just because fire is the same, no matter where it happens. I looked at the tips given by the American RedCross Society, and came up with a summary:

1. Make sure everyone has the fire safety department on speed dial, which should be 911 in the US

2. Do regular check-ups to ensure the fire alarms are working, combustibles and flammables are kept and handled safely, and the fire extinguisher isn’t expired (because they do expire!)

3. Have an ESCAPE PLAN. Make sure there are at least 2 ways out of the room or the building

4. Practice the fire drill with everyone in the building or household as the case may be, making sure they know the escape routes and they know where to meet outside the building. The American Red Cross has a cool game called Monster Guard that teaches kids about safety, and you can download it here

5. Teach everyone to STOP, DROP and ROLL if their clothes catch on fire and to crawl out when smoke starts to build. It’s not necessarily the fire that kills but the smoke (carbon monoxide) released. Air on the ground would be much safer at that time.

6. Teach members how to use the fire extinguisher. Note that it is safe to use only if it is a small fire, there isn’t any smoke, everyone else has exited the building, and the fire department has been called. Remember the word PASS when using a fire extinguisher:

·         P- Pull the pin and point the nozzle away from you

·         A- Aim low at the base of the fire

·         S- Squeeze the lever slowly and evenly

·         S- Sweep the nozzle from side to side

                                          

And just to chip in another tip I learned from Alvaro and Shawn, whenever you are out to dinner, or even lodged in a hotel, just make sure to identify at least 2 exits out of that building. If at a hotel, be sure to count how many doors there are to your quickest exit. If you cannot see as a result of the fire, then you can at least feel your way to safety. Please run out whenever you hear the alarm, whether it is a false alarm or not! And remember, don’t say it cannot happen to you. Be safe!