FVCC FIRE RESCUE

1. FVCC FIRE RESCUE Fire Prevention and Public Education

2. OBJECTIVES • 2-19.1 Identify five common causes of fires and their prevention. • 2-19.2 Identify the importance of inspection and public fire education programs to fire department public relations and the community. • 2-19.3 Identify dwelling inspection programs.

3. OBJECTIVES • 2-19.4 Identify the components of a program to instruct citizens how to report a fire or other emergency. • 2-19.5 Identify school exit drill procedures. • 2-19.6 Identify life safety programs for the home.

4. OBJECTIVES • 2-19.7 Identify common fire hazards and recommendations for their correction. • 2-19.8 Identify the components of fire station tours. • 2-19.9 Identify the elements of fire safety surveys.

5. OBJECTIVES • 2-19.10 Demonstrate inspection procedures for private dwellings • 2-19.11 Demonstrate, individually or as a group, presenting a prepared public education program to an identified audience for any of the following topics: • 2-19.11.1 Stop, drop and roll • 2-19.11.2 Crawl low in smoke • 2-19.11.3 Escape planning

6. OBJECTIVES • 2-19.11.4 Calling the fire department • 2-19.11.5 Fire station tours • 2-19.11.6 Residential smoke detector placement and maintenance • 2-19.11.7 Other locally developed programs • 2-19.12 Demonstrate documenting the presentation of a program covered in 2-19.11, using a reporting form that includes: Program title, Number of participants and Evaluations. • IFSTA Essentials, 4th ed, Chapter 17 • Delmar, Firefighter’s Handbook, 2000, Chapter 21

7. COMMON CAUSES OF FIRES & THEIR PREVENTION • Poor housekeeping • Can make maneuvering difficult • Increases fire load • Increases the chance a flammable or combustible material will come in contact with an ignition source • May hide other hazards • Pre-plan these locations during EMS calls [(Hint!!) Ashton Feb 2001]

8. COMMON CAUSES OF FIRES & THEIR PREVENTION • Heating, lighting and power equipment that is improperly used or defective • Old or worn electrical equipment • Sparking, arcing, resistance heating may ignite combustibles • May be a shock hazard • Fuel sources can be provided by: • Improper disposal of cleaning or floor sweeping compounds • Depending on substance, may be spontaneously combustible • May be a volatile fuel source if ignited

9. COMMON CAUSES OF FIRES & THEIR PREVENTION • Cooking • Unattended cooking materials or food on the stove • Use of stoves and ovens for heating the home • Loose clothing ignited by burners • Personal fire hazards • Individual traits, habits and personalities of occupants of a building • Unsafe acts of individuals

10. COMMON CAUSES OF FIRES & THEIR PREVENTION • Prevention • Can be accomplished by reducing or eliminating fire hazards through public education and fire prevention programs

11. IMPORTANCE OF INSPECTION & PUBLIC FIRE EDUCATION • The most effective way to fight fires is to prevent them from starting • (From 1971 to 1991 there was a 50% decline in fire / burn related deaths, this can be contributed to public fire education, codes and standards, sprinklers, and smoke detector alarms.) • Can reduce the risk of serious fires • Enables firefighters to become familiar with building and their hazards • May visualize how existing strategies apply to the building • Permits recognition of hazards not noted before

12. Yet this still happens!

13. IMPORTANCE OF INSPECTION & PUBLIC FIRE EDUCATION • Provides a value to citizens as an aid to prevention of fire • Firefighter gains valuable on-site information • Permits them to enforce local fire codes • Gives the fire department a chance to build or reinforce a good public image (So fit the part)!

14. DWELLING INPSECTION PROGRAMS • The firefighter understands that a dwelling inspection campaign is a fire department’s effort to reduce the number of fire deaths and home fires and is conducted on a voluntary basis. • The firefighter represents the fire department • The firefighter meets the citizens with dignity and pride • The public has the right to expect firefighters to be fully qualified to advise them on fire prevention matters

15. DWELLING INPSECTION PROGRAMS • The firefighter maintains a courteous attitude on all inspections • The firefighter thanks the owner or occupant for the invitation into their home • The firefighter remembers that the primary interest is preventing a fire that could take the lives of the occupants and destroy the home. • The firefighter makes constructive comments regarding the elimination of hazardous conditions • The firefighter keeps the inspection confidential • The firefighter never makes notes from the inspection available to an insurance carrier, repair service organization, sales promotion groups, or any publicity group that would identify a given home.

16. DWELLING INPSECTION PROGRAMS • Procedures • Should approach the house on the sidewalk or path • Should clean shoes before entering house • If no one is home, should leave materials between doors or under doormat. DO NOT use mailbox. • Should introduce self to the homeowner and state purpose of inspection • Should ask for permission to make the inspection • Conduct the inspection • Attics • Faulty electrical equipment • Storage

17. DWELLING INPSECTION PROGRAMS • Living areas • Heating appliances • Cooking procedures • Smoking materials • Electrical distribution • Electrical appliances • Basement • Accumulation of waste or discarded material • Furnace and stove vent pipes • Gas appliances • Oil burning installations • Work rooms

18. DWELLING INPSECTION PROGRAMS • Outside the home • Condition of roof • Condition of chimneys • Condition of yard • Waste burners • Condition of garages or shed • Flammable liquids • If hazards are detected, they should be explained and correction suggested • Favorable conditions should be complimented • Thank the homeowner for permitting the inspection

19. PROGRAM TO INSTRUCT CITIZENS • Dial the appropriate phone number • 9-1-1 • Fire department’s seven digit number • “O” for operator

20. PROGRAM TO INSTRUCT CITIZENS • Give the address with cross street or landmark • State his/her name and location • Give the phone number he/she is calling from • State the nature of the emergency • Stay on the line if requested to do so by the dispatcher

21. PROGRAM TO INSTRUCT CITIZENS • Identify school exit procedures 2-19.5 • Evacuation drills should be conducted as often as necessary to ensure all occupants of building are familiar with process • Focus of drill should be placed on disciplined order and control

22. SCHOOL EXIT PROCEDURES • Evacuation drills should be conducted as often as necessary to ensure all occupants of building are familiar with process • Focus of drill should be placed on disciplined order and control • Specific exits should be assigned to groups with alternate routes utilized.

23. SCHOOL EXIT PROCEDURES • Occupants should proceed to pre-designated assembly points outside and away from the building. Teachers should take roll call, reporting missing or unaccounted for children to responding firefighters • Emergency evacuation plans should be in graphic form and posted in each classroom and at various locations throughout the school • Fire alarm system should be used when conducting a drill to familiarize students and staff with sound

24. LIFE SAFETY PROGRAMS FOR THE HOME • Stop, drop and roll (self) • Do not run • Stop immediately where you are • Drop to the ground and cover your face with your hands • Roll around until flames are smothered • Call for medical assistance Assist them to the ground • Smother the flames with a blanket or heavy coat • Call for medical assistance

25. LIFE SAFETY PROGRAMS FOR THE HOME

26. LIFE SAFETY PROGRAMS FOR THE HOME • Exit • Drills • In • The • Home E.D.I.T.H

27. Exit Drills In The Home • E.D.I.T.H. • When do most home fires start? • Between the hours of midnight and 6:00 a.m., just when you are asleep - and least prepared! • Where do most home fires start? • In this order kitchen, living room, basement, bedrooms, all others. This means that most fires start just where they are likely to block your usual escape (from bedrooms).

28. Exit Drills In The Home • Fire Escape Planning • Draw a floor plan of your ground or upper floor bedrooms with two escape routes from each room. • Step 1 (Basic Floor Layout):To get you started, select a floor plan from the list on the right that is most like your home and print it out; or draw your own floor plan by following these guidelines: • a.Make an outline of your entire floor area: dimensions and details need not be exact. • b.Now add each bedroom and label it. • c.Locate windows, doors and stairways. If any upper floor, shade in any rooftops that could be used as a fire escape.

29. Exit Drills In The Home • Step 2 (Room Inspection): • a.Go to each bedroom and select the best window for an emergency escape. • b.Test the windows or screens to see that they work easily and are large and low enough to use. • Step 3 (Complete "Escape Plan"): • a.Black arrows show normal exit through hall or stairways. • b.Red arrows show emergency exit in case fire blocks hallways or stairs.

30. Exit Drills In The Home

31. Exit Drills In The Home • Family Instructions • Gather your family together for a short explanation of the vital nighttime fire escape procedures. • Point 1Always sleep with bedroom or hall door closed. It can keep out fire long enough to allow escape through your emergency escape route (usually a window.) If you are trapped, close the doors between you and the fire. Stuff the cracks around the doors to keep smoke out. Wait at a window and signal for help with light-colored cloth or a flashlight. If there’s a phone in the room, call the fire department and tell them exactly where you are. • Point 2 • Make certain that a smoke detector is installed and operating properly in the hallway outside bedrooms. Fire safety officials are now recommending the placement of smoke detectors inside bedrooms where the door is kept closed at night. This is to protect against the advent of fire starting inside the bedroom.

32. Exit Drills In The Home • Point 3Don't waste time getting dressed or gathering valuables. Precious seconds can count in a fire. • Point 4Test the door before opening. Intense heat and deadly smoke can be on the other side. • Point 5Have an outside meeting place to quickly check if everyone is safe. Once out - STAY OUT! • Point 6Plan to use a neighbor's phone to dial 911.

33. Practice Makes Perfect • Conducting Your Fire Escape Drill • 1.Everyone is in his/her bedroom (doors closed). • 2.Test your smoke detector to sound the alarm. • 3.Everyone swings into action - out of bed, to the door. • 4.Carefully test door before opening. • First Drill:Escape through normal exit (hall or stairway). • Second Drill:Imagine doors are hot and the hall is blocked by fire. Now everyone must test his emergency escape exit. Depending on age and capability, you need not actually go out on the roof, but be sure everyone can open windows, screens easily, and position emergency escape ladder quickly, etc.

34. Exit Drills In The Home • Install and maintain smoke alarms. Install them on every level of your home and outside of each sleeping area. Test them at least once a month and replace batteries in accordance with manufacturing requirements or whenever an alarm begins to chirp, which signals the battery is low. • Since November 2002, reports have been pouring in from various media outlets across the country about the newly discovered phenomenon of children sleeping through activated fire alarms. Research is showing that this occurs due to unfamiliarity with the sound of an activated smoke alarm.

35. LIFE SAFETY PROGRAMS FOR THE HOME • Escape planning (Review) • Have two escape exits from every room • If fire is detected and you are in bed, crawl low to the door • Alert others by blowing a whistle or shouting • Feel the door • If its hot, exit through another exit (window) • If the door isn’t hot, open the door slowly, check for heavy smoke or file; if safe, crawl out. • Close the door behind you • Continue crawling to safety • Once outside, go to the family meeting place • Ask someone or call the fire department

36. Stay Low & Go • Crawl low under smoke. Smoke is dangerous! If you encounter smoke, use an alternate escape route. If you must exit through smoke, the cleanest air will be several inches off the floor. Crawl on your hands and knees to the nearest safe exit.

37. COMMON FIRE HAZARDS • Combustible materials • Clothing, unused furniture, cardboard boxes, papers, etc • Stored properly • Appliances • Proper operation, maintenance and conditions

38. COMMON FIRE HAZARDS • Electrical wiring and equipment • Wiring old, frayed, exposed • Improperly installed electrical conductors • Unprotected light bulbs • Replace, clean repair • Portable heating units • Listed by UL or FM • Separated from other combustible materials • Properly maintained

39. COMMON FIRE HAZARDS • Wood stoves/fireplaces • Properly installed • Clear of combustibles • Vent pipes in good condition • Cleaning of chimney • Maintenance • Proper ash disposal • Heating fuels • Stored properly, away from heat or other ignition sources • Proper containers, closed/sealed

40. COMMON FIRE HAZARDS • General housekeeping practices • Ash trays for smoking materials • Matches and lighters stored away from children • Candles used safely • Exhaust vents and dryer vents cleaned regularly

41. Candle Safety • Facts and Figures* • Candle fires reached a 19-year high of 12,540 in 1998, resulting in 157 deaths, 1,106 civilian injuries and $176.1 million in property damage. • Unattended, abandoned or inadequately controlled candles are the leading cause of home candle fires (37%), followed by leaving candles too close to combustibles (19%), according to annual averages from 1994-98. Nine percent were started by children playing with candles. • December is the peak month for candle fires, with nearly twice the average number of incidents. Almost half (44%) of home candle fires start in the bedroom.

42. COMMON FIRE HAZARDS • Residential smoke detector placement and maintenance • Placement of smoke detectors One detector near every sleeping room • One on every level of home • Detector shall be installed • On ceiling at least 6 inches from wall • On the wall from 4 to 6 inches from ceiling • Replace detector every 10 years

46. Remember this for Firefighter Survival!!! Same event holds true along the walls & floors.

47. COMMON FIRE HAZARDS • Responsibility of owner or landlord to: • Have the detector installed • Ensure that any required batteries are in operating condition at the time a tenant takes possession of the dwelling unit

48. COMMON FIRE HAZARDS • Responsibility of tenant to: • Test the detector • Perform good maintenance • Notify the owner or authorized agent, in writing, of any deficiencies that cannot be corrected • Replacement of batteries • Maintenance suggestions • Test weekly • Once a month, test with smoke • If battery operated, replace battery at least 2 times yearly (with the change of the clocks)

49. COMMON FIRE HAZARDS • Electrical distribution panels • Proper circuit protection and clearance • Proper number of circuits • Properly marked • Gas appliances • Proper clearance to combustible materials • Piping and vents in good condition • Manual and automatic gas safety devices

50. COMMON FIRE HAZARDS • Furnaces, hot water heaters, vent pipes • Properly installed • Clear of combustibles • Vent piping in good condition • Hot water temperature settings low enough to prevent scalding and burns • Shop or work rooms • Good housekeeping • Safe, orderly storage of materials