More fire prevention thoughts!

Summer is over & fall, soon will bring cooler temperatures & the need for heating our homes.
It's important that we inspect & service our heating systems prior to the heating season to insure that your system is in good working order! Depending on the type & age of your heating system; as well as your own capabilities will dictate whether you or a professional heating systems serviceman performs the task.

In addition people; especially in older homes which often have inadequate insulation & leaking doors & windows find it difficult to adequately heat their home. The older homes, often don't have central heating systems & the ones that do are inefficient & expensive to operate. In an attempt to supplement these inefficient systems with portable heaters people often neglect to keep ordinary combustibles a safe distance from these heaters! Several people also enjoy using wood stoves to heat the interior space of their homes.

These home heating devices cause the majority of the fires in colder times of the year!

Bottom line is this: 1. The winter months bring the need for all of us to be conscientious by inspecting & servicing our home heating systems, prior to use! 2. Keep all clothing, blankets & other ordinary combustibles a safe distance from all fixed & portable heating devices! 3. Last; but certainly not least be careful to never leave small children unattended & always keep them away from all heating devices, to prevent serious burn injuries!

If we all pay close attention to the details I've outlined; this can be a fire safe heating season!

More fire safety tips later!...........Mark

Marks thoughts take a new direction!

I spent the last 10 yrs. of my Fire Service career focused on analyzing annual fire deaths in Oregon! I began to see commonalities in who were dying in these fires!

I found that the very young & the elderly were the people dying in the majority of these fires each year! Most of the fire deaths were occurring in residential occupancies. Further analysis I discovered that; what the Fire Service had termed for years as a fire problem, more specifically & more accurately was in fact a socio-economic problem! Single mothers & dysfunctional families, ( most on welfare or other forms of government subsistence) & the elderly poor were the class of people experiencing these residential fire deaths!

Most of the fires were in older, substandard rental buildings! Most of the fire deaths were in structures without any smoke detectors or with non-working smoke detectors, often with dead or missing batteries!

Unfortunately the people with low incomes were forced to rent from slum- landlord's who's only interests & motivation were a steady income stream! As such they're rental units, often fell in disrepair! Limited education was a major factor in this social class of people who could only hold down low-paying jobs!

My whole point is this: 1. We live in a very apathetic society & as such most Americans dismiss the need for fire prevention in their lives; believing that a house fire will never happen to them! Oregon's fire statistics prove them tragically wrong!

2. Until the Fire Service does a better job of offering effective fire prevention education to adults as well as children in all social classes; targeting the group of people who are most at risk; Oregonians will continue to die in these fires!

More later...........Mark