Please Stay Safe During The Holidays.... Read This

[Fire-Medic]

It's the holiday season, you're at home sleeping in bed, all your family members asleep too. What you don't know, is that there is a raging inferno in the hallways, sealing you in your bedrooms, waiting for you to wake up and open the door. That was the story here Saturday morning.

 

It's the holiday season folks. Most of us have Christmas trees, and candles lit in the window sills, and are sipping hot chocolate with our families on Christmas Eve or during Christmas Day, as the youngest ones in the family are eager to tear into their gifts.

 

Sadly, a father is in a hospital in critical condition, his wife and four children are dead due to this exact same scenario. His wife's father died of a heart attack after he heard the news of what happened. What makes this situation much more tragic, is that these five lives could have been saved with the installation of a 10$ smoke detector.

 

FIVE LIVES COULD HAVE BEEN SAVED WITH THE INSTALLATION OF A 10$ SMOKE DETECTOR.

 

Those words should never be said. EVER.

 

All of us spend insane amounts of money on our hobbies. Overclocking, modding, and whatever other hobbies you may have. Put aside some of your money, call your local FD, and have them come tell you where to install some smoke detectors. Installing 100$ of detectors, is much better then losing everything you have, and your family forever.

 

As a recommendation, put one smoke detector at the top of every stair case, as well as one for the kitchen, and preferably hallways, and each bedroom. You should also have atleast one CO detector on each floor of your home. Many detectors are coming out as combination CO and smoke. You can get the kind that run off batteries, or the ones that tie into your electrical system. If you can afford it, get those, and have a battery backup installed in case your power goes out.

 

Folks, we're not talking about spending 1000$ on a new computer. We're talking about spending 100$ to save your life, and the lives of your loved ones. Many of your communities will have programs to outfit you with one or two smoke detectors, as long as you will keep the batteries up to date. Change them every six months, just to be safe. People tell you once a year, but every six months is what the fire service says. Contact your local FD, and see what they can do for you. It's what we're there for...

 

It's the holidays. Losing five people in a fire is not something you deal with easily. Our guys morale is low after yesterday, we're all stressed and need to vent, and to focus our anger, frustration, hurt, and all our other emotions somewhere. Please everyone, prevent this from happening to your family.

[hockeyrcks9901]

Wow, that really sad. We have smoke detectors in my house and my apartment.

 

But I thought CO was heavier than air so those detectors cant be inside smokde detectors. I could be wrong though.

[Ghost2520]

We take no chances here, we've even got a smoke detector in the attic as far as I know. Did you know these 5 people? Definately not a good holiday season for that families relatives.

[bigred]

this is exactly why we have not moved into the new house until the FD has in to inspect it. the safety of my family can not have a price put on it.

[Propane]

wow thats sad... in my house we have some really old fire detectors but they do their job (presuembablly, whats a good way to check?)... and we have CO2 detectors, 1 in the basement and 1 in the bedroom hallway... we also have a radon pump in our basement... it get pretty pricy but its worth not dying/having cancer in the future...

[hockeyrcks9901]

I'm guessing Xinul didn't know these people but I know hes either a firefighter or EMS. So he probably had to deal with it.

[OptikaliLLusion]

>.< poor family, my sincerest sympathies

 

Yeah, smoke detectors are very important. I'd refuse to live in my house without them.

[Fire-Medic]

The family involved, was that of the fire chief of the city it happened in. The father that is listed in critical condition, is his nephew. I did know the family that was involved, because the fire chief there is like family to me. His wife used to babysit me when she owned her daycare.

 

As a firefighter, or EMT, Cop, Paramedic, Rescue Tech, it doesn't matter if you knew the family or not. All that matters is you tried your hardest to save them, and no matter how hard we tried, it wasn't possible. Early detection and warning, would have saved them, and that's something we can do. Public education, public relations, fire safety, fire prevention, all of it.

 

If this thread only gets one user at OCC to go check their smoke detectors, or to replace the batteries, then I have succeeded.

 

One life lost because of this, is one too many.

[Kamikaze_Badger]

Really sorry to hear that . Some people are too cheap to spend $10 on something they don't deem necessary, but spoil their kids as much as they can... it's sad .

 

And a real life event that happened to me not too long ago was a CO (Carbon Monoxide) incident. We've had a detector for it for years now, and never once had it gone off. The furnace here was having an issue, and began to leak CO into the house. There's no explaining the feeling you get when you realize that for just $15, your life was saved, and your loved ones weren't forced to have a lonely holiday season.

 

Don't just read what Xinul says. Do as he says. When your life or the lives of your family are saved by the precautions that should be required in households, you too will realize what that small amount of money can mean.

[OptikaliLLusion]

Yep... and while we're on the subject, clean your chimneys. There have been a lot of fires around here in Maryland recently, a lot of them due to the fireplaces being so dirty.

[Arkadiy]

The funniest part is, probably over 90% of people reading this do not have fire detectors or something similar. I have some but you are right, nothing we take seriously. They beep if the battery is even getting to be low so we know they aren't low (they even some how beep without batteries in them until you put some in). I don't think we have any CO2 detectors, but I guess we are a more cautious family. Sad to hear this happen though....

[Fire-Medic]

The funniest part is, probably over 90% of people reading this do not have fire detectors or something similar. I have some but you are right, nothing we take seriously. They beep if the battery is even getting to be low so we know they aren't low (they even some how beep without batteries in them until you put some in). I don't think we have any CO2 detectors, but I guess we are a more cautious family. Sad to hear this happen though....

600725[/snapback]

 

FUNNY?

 

How is ANY of this funny? There are FIVE people dead because of this. Would it be funny if it was YOUR family in there, without the an early warning? How is it funny for ANYONE to experience this?

 

I'm sorry, but your lack of compassion in the start of your post really pisses me off, as well as the fellow firefighters that are viewing this right now. Nothing about this is funny. It's a tragic event in a small close knit community.

Edited December 19, 2005 by Xinul