True Heroes
Fire Safety Month and Fire Prevention Week
We’ve all heard Benjamin Franklin’s famous line…
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
But you know what? When it comes to Fire Prevention, it’s so true. Just ask a Firefighter.
October is National Fire Safety Month!
And October 7-13 is National Fire Prevention Week.
What can you do to prevent a dangerous and damaging fire? Here are some tips!
- Put a smoke alarm on every level of your home, outside each sleeping area, and in every bedroom.
- If you have hearing problems, use alarms with flashing strobe lights and vibration.
- Test smoke alarms every month. Test your smoke alarms and practice your escape plan at night to see if your child will wake up and respond to the alarm. Children sleep more deeply and may not wake up. If your child does not wake up to the alarm, try an alarm where you can program your voice to alert him or her.
- Replace batteries once a year, even if alarms are hardwired.
- Mount smoke alarms high on walls or ceilings since smoke rises. Ceiling-mounted alarms should be installed at least 4 inches away from the nearest wall. Wall-mounted alarms should be installed 4 to 12 inches away from the ceiling.
- Plan and practice several escape routes and a safe place to meet outside.
- Plan and practice two escape routes out of each room of the house. It is important to have an alternate escape route in case one is blocked by fire.
- Fire drills should be practiced at least twice a year. Home fires and home fire-related deaths are more likely to occur during cold-weather months, December through February.
- Designate an outside meeting place, so all members of the family can be accounted for quickly. Once you are outside, call the fire department or 911 from a cell phone or neighbor’s phone.
- Teach safety. A child who is coached properly ahead of time may have a better chance of surviving.
- Teach children never to go back into a burning building for anything such as a toy or pet, and to call the fire department or 911 from a neighbor’s home or a cell phone outside.
- Teach children that if their clothes catch on fire, they should immediately stop, drop to the ground and roll themselves back and forth quickly to extinguish the flames.
- Take children to your local fire station for a tour. Children will be able to see a firefighter in full gear and learn that he or she is someone who saves children – not someone to be afraid of or hide from.
- Teach children to never touch or play with matches, candles, gasoline or lighters.
- Check the kitchen for preventable hazards and supervise children at all times in the kitchen.
- Keep children away from cooking and heating appliances. Never leave the kitchen while cooking and never leave a child alone.
- Keep anything that can catch fire away from your stovetop.
- Cook with pots and pans on back burners. Turn handles away from the front.
- Keep matches, lighters, and gasoline locked away and out of children’s reach. Keep flammable items such as clothing, furniture, newspapers or magazines at least three feet away from the fireplace, heater or radiator.
- Store all flammable liquids such as gasoline outside of the home.
- Place space heaters at least 3 feet from anything that can catch fire such as curtains or papers.
- Always turn space heaters off when leaving the room or going to bed.
- Plug an electric space heater into an outlet with enough capacity. Never plug it into an extension cord.
- Place covers over unused electrical outlets and avoid plugging several appliance cords into the same electrical socket.
- Replace old or frayed electrical wires and appliance cords, and keep them on top of, not beneath rugs.
- Never leave a burning candle unattended. Place candles in a safe location away from combustible materials and where children or pets cannot tip them over.
- Have chimneys cleaned and inspected once a year.
Live in a dorm or other university housing? Click here for tips on preventing fires and planning a safe course of action!
9/11/01
never forget.
Fires in University Housing
Do you have (or are you yourself) a student going away to school this fall?
(awww…)
The lists of things to remember to do before leaving home is immense: dorm necessities, vaccinations, class registrations… the list goes on and on.
In all the chaos and excitement, it’s hard to remember everything.
But the Los Angeles Fire Department came out with an important reminder this month: Prepare for the possibility of a fire in university housing.
Just like you have fire plans at home, at school, and at work, you also need one for Campus Housing.
Think it will never happen at your school?
155 people have died in campus-related fires since January 2000.
(Source)
The National Fire Protection Association says fire departments responded to an average of 3,840 structure fires in dorms, fraternities, sororities and barracks between 2005-2009. Every year (on average), fires caused:
- 3 civilian deaths
- 28 civilian fire injuries
- $20.9 million in direct property damage
So what can YOU do to keep yourself or your child safe while they’re away?
1. Identify fire risks. 81% of reported fires involved cooking equipment
(Source)
2. Know the Common Factors in Housing Fires: (source)
- Fires in campus housing are most common between the hours of 5 and 11 p.m.
- Lack of automatic fire sprinklers
- Missing or disabled smoke alarms
- Careless disposal of smoke materials
- Impaired judgment
- Fires originating on upholstered furniture on decks or porches
3. Follow these Tips: (source)
- Look for fully sprinklered housing
- Make sure your housing unit has smoke alarms inside each bedroom, outside every sleeping area and on each level
- Confirm that smoke alarms are tested at least monthly
- Never remove batteries or disable alarms
- Learn building evacuation plans and have a copy on hand BY the door. No organized plan? Make sure YOU have a fire escape plan with two ways out of every room
- Cook only where permitted
- Cook only when alert and not sleepy or drowsy
- Different states have different restrictions for use of BBQ grills, fire pits and chimeneas. Check with your local fire department before using these items- especially if you moved from out-of-state!
- Check with school rules on electrical appliances in your room
- Use the right surge protectors for your computers or electronics and make sure the protector is plugged directly into an outlet
4. Ask these Questions when you arrive at school or drop your student off there
We know this is a busy time for everyone. There’s a lot of excitement and preparation that goes into starting a new semester at school. But please be sure to take FIRE SAFETY into account. It’s a real risk that is too often forgotten, which can lead to deadly consequences.
Additional resources:
The Fun Stuff: Giveaway Winners!
Here at California Casualty, we care about
the fun stuff.
We know auto and home insurance isn’t anybody’s absolute favorite thing to talk about. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have some fun around here. For me, the most entertaining part of my job is…
announcing the winners of our giveaways!
No matter what we are giving away, no matter who wins, no matter where they live… it’s always a blast.
They’re also excited.
They’re always surprised.
And they’re always so grateful.
(Which is slightly ironic, considering our giveaways reward people who truly deserve it and are our way of saying thanks to them.)
We’ve recently announced the winners of TWO giveaways: Our “Work Hard, Play Hard” Polaris ATV and Our School Lounge Makeover.
The winner of our Polaris ATV is a very deserving volunteer paramedic and EMS instructor named Ellie Piatt of Huber Heights, Ohio.
Congratulations, Ellie!
When we headed to Ohio to surprise Ellie at a department meeting, we learned she’d never even so much as sat on an ATV before! But that didn’t seem to curb her excitement. Ellie says she plans to use the $10,000 ATV to help her Bethel Township Fire Department better help the community.
Ellie, The Bethel Township Fire Department, and member of the California Casualty team all posing with the Polaris ATV
An extremely selfless volunteer paramedic!? I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised. But the genuine bigheartedness of the people we work with is always the biggest reminder of why we work so hard to protect these American Heroes.
Congratulations, Ellie, and thanks for continuing to volunteer your time, talents, and treasures to your community.
As if that wasn’t rewarding enough…
We also revealed our most recently completed School Lounge Makeover!
This time, we had the pleasure of working with EON Designs to remodel the Teachers Lounge at Tusky Valley High School. (Tusky Valley is also in Ohio, what a coincidence!)
I had the pleasure of going out to TVHS in May to help surprise our winning teacher.
Kelly Gulling is a highly regarded and much beloved Chemistry and Physics teacher.
Congratulations, Kelly!
For the last 3 months, the EON Design team has been working hard to give the TVHS Teaching Team the Teachers Lounge they deserve. One with chairs that don’t break when you sit in them, enough space for everyone to enjoy the space, and a decor that is relaxing and soothing.
So here’s what the lounge looked like before the School Lounge Makeover…
On Tuesday, we revealed the newly made-over TVHS School Lounge!
Are you ready for this?!…
Doesn’t it look fantastic!? I really love the color…
And here’s Kelly, our winner, in the Lounge with her local Union President (far left) and the Principal at TVHS (far right).
I can’t tell you guys how great it was to see the Before and After of this School Lounge Makeover. The entire community at Tusky Valley High School was a pleasure to meet!
We hope you guys have a rockin new school year in your new lounge! Thanks for letting us get to know your community and reward your educators for everything they do.
Are you an Educator? Could your School Lounge use a Makeover? We are giving away TWO $7500 Makeovers next year! Click here to enter your school for your chance to win one!
Responding to and Healing from the Aurora Shooting.
Like everyone else across the country, the violent deaths of 12 innocent people in an Aurora, Colorado movie theatre left me heartbroken.
My mind flooded with questions and my heart ached for every victim, every family member, every friend and every member of the Aurora community that was touched by this devastating tragedy.
I was inspired and heartbroken as, one by one, each victim’s story came out. The six-year-old who was out seeing a movie with her babysitter. The two young men who gave their lives to save their girlfriends. The heroic members of the Armed Services who died in that theatre.
The list goes on.
And now, a week out, the question remains: How do we go on? How do we heal?
This question is particularly true of a few certain groups of Heroes. Heroes whose role in responding to tragedies like Aurora story is often overlooked.
The police officers who responded to the horrific scene that night. Who had to put their personal feelings aside to professionally process the scene and eliminate any existing threats- including the booby trapped apartment of the suspect. More Here.
The paramedics who treated and transported victims. Who held it together despite seeing the carnage up close, triaged the 58 innocent people with injuries, and comforted them on their way to hospitals. More here.
The nurses and medical staff who continue to heal survivors. Who tirelessly support their patients down a long and tough road to recovery, answer the tough questions, and experience firsthand the pain, sorrow, and confusion of the victims and their families. More here.
I can’t imagine what it must have been like responding to that scene. The horror of the loss. The pain of injured. The questions of the survivors. So I looked to some of my favorite Police Officer, EMT and Nurse bloggers. I asked them what advice or words of support they could offer to their professional colleagues in this time of processing and healing.
In three posts below, I have posted some fantastic responses, thoughts, and resources from Police Blogger John Marx of Cops Alive, EMT Blogger Captain Morse of Rescuing Providence, and Nurse Blogger Keith Carlson of Digital Doorway.