Surgical Fires: Woman's face ignites during surgery

Miami woman's face ignites in 'flash fire' during surgery



The article about this incident, w/photos is located here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2068853/Kim-Grices-face-ignites-flash-routine-procedure-biopsy-cyst.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Fires during surgery? Not as unusual as you might think! Here's the second one in the same week!

Washington man's face catches fire during routine surgical procedure: It's second such incident in a week nationwide 

Immediately followed by this post on a Legal Malpractice website: Two surgical fires in one week may lead to malpractice suits 

Overview of Surgery Fires



Authorities suspect the Fire Triangle might be responsible. According to the FDA: Fires can occur when the three elements of the “fire triangle” come together. In the surgery room it looks like this:

 Oxidizer: Gases used during surgery, such as oxygen and nitrous oxide, and room air

 Fuel: Flammable objects, including surgical drapes, alcohol-based skin preparations, airway tubing, and even the patient’s hair or body

 Heat: Tools such as electrosurgical (tissue-cutting) tools, lasers, fiber-optic lights and cables that can generate heat or sparks and cause a fire

 Surgeries of the head, neck and upper chest pose a greater risk of fire, especially if the patient is receiving extra oxygen through a breathing mask or nasal tubing.

I know you want to know more about it. From "The Patient is on Fire!" A Surgical Fires Primer (http://www.mdsr.ecri.org/summary/detail.aspx?doc_id=8197):

Most people have heard of the fire triangle: heat, fuel, and oxidizer. When these three components come together in the proper proportions, a fire—the rapid chemical reaction of fuel with oxygen, resulting in the release of heat and light energy—is bound to occur. Diminish or remove any element of the triangle, and a fire can be prevented or extinguished.

 Each side of the triangle contains obvious (and some not-so-obvious) components that are commonly found in the OR environment. Each member of the surgical team controls a specific side of the triangle: surgeon, heat sources; nurse, fuels; anesthesiologist, oxidizers. By understanding the fire triangle and how to properly manage its components, the surgical team can prevent fires.

Heat and ignition sources. Heat input from a variety of sources increases the oxidation rate of a fuel-oxygen mixture until combustion occurs. In addition to the overhead surgical lights, some of the heat sources found in the OR are defibrillators; electrosurgical or electrocautery units (ESUs, ECUs); heated probes; drills and burs; argon beam coagulators; fiberoptic light sources and cables; and lasers used with the free-beam (bare-fiber) method or with contact tips or fibers. These sources produce temperatures from several hundred to a few thousand degrees Fahrenheit, enough to ignite most fuels, including most drapes. In addition, incandescent sparks can be produced by ESUs or high-speed drills and burs; lasers can also cause sparks when the energy hits instruments or the laser fiber becomes damaged. These sparks, or even glowing embers of charred tissue, can provide enough initial heat to ignite some fuels, especially in oxygen-enriched atmospheres (OEAs).

Also, for a few seconds after deactivation, a heated ESU or ECU probe tip, fiberoptic cable tip, or laser contact tip can retain enough heat to melt plastics or ignite some fuels. While these devices must be in contact with a material to heat it, a laser can heat a fuel from a few centimeters to several meters away. A fiberoptic light source may take a minute or so to heat a drape to the point of combustion, while a laser can cause almost instantaneous ignition. By ensuring that these heat sources are not directed toward or allowed to come in contact with fuels, OR staff can prevent fires.

Fuels. A fuel is anything that can burn, including almost everything that comes in contact with patients, as well as the patients themselves. As shown in the "Fuels Commonly Encountered in Surgery" table below, fuels abound in the OR; note that, in addition to the many items that are generally known to burn, many other items that are not generally thought of as flammable are listed.

Some prepping agents and a few ointments required during surgery are volatile and extremely flammable, more so than many other fuels. For example, liquid alcohol from a wet, dripping prep can pool under the patient and generate vapors beneath the drapes for quite some time. Concentrated alcohol vapors trapped under drapes or above areas still wet with alcohol can be easily ignited by heat or sparks (see "Proper Prepping Techniques," below). Open bottles or basins containing volatile solutions (e.g., alcohol from suture packs, acetone degreaser) should be closed or removed from the sterile area as soon as possible after use.

Under the right conditions, some surgical ointments can burn. For example, petroleum-based ointments used in an OEA will ignite when enough heat is present to cause vaporization. These materials must vaporize and mix with oxygen to allow ignition. Globs of ointment are not easy to ignite because their mass absorbs considerable heat before vaporizing. Thin layers, however, have a low mass per area and need less heat to cause vaporization; thus, they are more ignitable.

 In contrast, water-based lubricants, such as K-Y Jelly, are mostly water and will not burn; heat simply vaporizes the water in the lubricant, cooling the area. In fact, water-based lubricants can be used to coat hair to make it fire resistant.

I DID NOT know that about lube! I'm thinking, KY could save some eyebrows not only during surgeries but BBQ season...Sure when you show up to the BBQ with a Costco sized container of KY Jelly, people WILL wonder, especially if they were expecting you to bring the pasta salad. But the conversation about fire safety has to start somewhere. I'm just thinking, starting with some lubricant is not a bad idea. At a bbq or in a surgical suite...

Preventing Fires in the Operating Room

But I digress, this post is about Surgery Fires. Turns out, Surgery Fires are preventable. I know. Such a surprise. Here is how to prevent them (in case you are asked)




Extinguishing Operating Room Fires
Because fire prevention is NEVER 100% effective, here is how to put OUT a surgery room fire from the ECRI Institute https://www.ecri.org/surgical_fires :

https://www.ecri.org/Documents/Emergency_Procedure_Extinguishing_a_Surgical_Fire.pdf


More info is available at:

Surgical Fires in the News https://www.ecri.org/Press/Pages/default.aspx
FDA Surgical Fire Initiative http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/SafeUseInitiative/PreventingSurgicalFires/default.htm
SurgicalFires.Org http://surgicalfire.org/
Inside Edition Reports on Surgical Fires http://www.insideedition.com/news/7309/inside-edition-reports-on-surgical-fires.aspx
Surgical Fires: Chronological Bibliography 1949-2009 https://www.ecri.org/Documents/Fires_Bibliog_HD_2009_Fires_Issue_(1949-2009).pdf

The Firefighter is Your Friend: A Lesson Plan

A colleague recently asked me for a Firefighting presentation for a kindergarten class. I sent him the lesson we used to present. I figured I would share it here as well. 

This program is called "The Firefighter is your Friend". The purpose is to introduce the very young students, preschool - Kindergarten, with the role of a firefighter in an emergency and to familiarize them with the protective clothing and equipment first responders wear.

Fire deaths in New York City declined last year -- Newsday.com

Fire deaths in New York City declined last year -- Newsday.com

Fire deaths in New York City declined 10 percent and fire response times were quicker last year, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg acknowledged Monday that pending budget cuts will make keeping those numbers under control a challenge.

"The public doesn't have the income to generate the taxes to pay for more," he said at a new firehouse in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. "We're going to have to do a lot more with less."

In response to a $4 billion deficit through 2010, Bloomberg ordered a citywide slash in spending by 7 percent. He proposed cutting fire department training and reducing the night shift staff at four firehouses in each borough but Queens. Those reductions begin Saturday.

When Bloomberg came into office in 2002, six firehouses were shuttered to trim budget costs. Fire deaths spiked from 97 in 2002 to 125 in 2003, according to the city Fire Department's figures.

Response times during that same period were slower, growing from 4:13 to 4:20.

For 2008, fire deaths totaled 86, down from 95 in 2007, the figures show. Of the 2008 deaths, the leading cause was related to careless smoking.

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said unattended candles, overloaded circuits and careless smoking were the top-three causes in the city's fires.

In an effort to reduce fires and fire-related deaths, the city spent $1 million in U.S. grants to promote the use of smoke detectors and educated 600,000 New Yorkers through various programs on fire prevention and safety, Scoppetta said.

According to the figures, the fire response time to structural fires on average was clocked at 4:12 for 2008, 15 seconds faster than in 2007.

Scoppetta said a change in dispatch protocol sped up responses. Now when a blaze is reported, the dispatcher sends out firefighters to the fire's location while keeping the caller on the phone if more information is needed.

Before, firefighters didn't respond for at least a minute until dispatchers collected as much information as possible on the fire from a caller.

"They have all the information they would've had if we held them in quarters for a minute plus, instead they are on their way and they get there much faster and they still end up with all the information that's available," Scoppetta said.

More adults causing fires, Jamaican officials say - JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM

More adults causing fires, officials say - JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM
Kimmo Matthews
Thursday, January 01, 2009

FIRE officials say they continue to face major hurdles in spreading the message about fire prevention across the island as more adults - and not children, as expected - are failing to follow fire safety measures.

"It may come as a surprise but in many of the reported cases of fires it is the adults and not the children who are failing to follow safety measures," said Emeleo Ebanks, public relations officer from the Jamaica Fire Brigade Fire Prevention headquarters.

Ebanks also explained that recent assessments showed that children were not only quick learners but were often following what they were taught, hence making fewer mistakes when it came to fire prevention practices.

Fire officials said this was in contrast to adults who - despite what they were taught - were consistently failing to change their habits and kept making the same mistakes over and over.

According to representatives of the Jamaica Fire Brigade Fire Prevention, since the start of the year there have been 1,510 reported cases of structural fires and 5,667 cases of bush fires across the island.

To stem this problem the officials said they were going into the schools and communities to inform and to educate persons about how to prevent fires.

"We have been in the schools and into the communities. It may sound strange but our biggest target now is the adults and not so much the children.

"What we are seeing is that adults are making the same mistakes over and over. On the other hand children, when they are taught about the precautions, are following these guidelines and making fewer mistakes," the officials said.

Message of Fire Prevention will continue into new year in St. Kitts,

SKNVibes.com News: Message of Fire Prevention will continue into new yearBy VonDez Phipps
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THROUGHOUT the last year, the St. Kitts-Nevis Fire and Rescue Services has made great strides in educating the general public in fire prevention and safety tips, an initiative it intends on strengthening for the new year.

In a December 30 interview with SKNVibes, Fire Sub-station Officer at the St. Kitts Fire Prevention Office Clarence Hendrickson stressed the importance of understanding and observing fire safety tips.

He said once aware of the dangers involved in overlooking fire safety tips, individuals can be fully able to prevent fires, safeguard their property and know how to respond in case of fire-related casualty.

Hendrickson noted that especially during the Christmas season, persons must pay particular attention to the proper use of power strips. He urged the general public not to overload power strips and stated that Christmas trees and decorative lights should be unplugged when no one is at home.

“A common mistake people make is passing electrical cords under their rugs. Rugs are made from oil-based materials which generate heat. Applying additional heat to these cords over a period of time, the insulators will get overheated and damaged causing the live and neutral wires to touch, resulting in a fire.

“Also, in the case of lighting and extinguishing matches, many persons fail to follow fire safety tips. People have a tendency to turn on the gas before they light the match. Sometimes, excess gas vapour is emitted and igniting the match after may cause an explosion. So people must be cautious to light the match first.

Also, after using a match, it is advised that you extinguish the lighted match with water to ensure that the match does not automatically re-ignite. Some persons may also put the used match right back into the box with the other matches which is not wise at all as it too can cause fire.”

He further stated that individuals should ensure that all appliances not in use are unplugged. Hendrickson also discouraged the public from cooking when feeling tired or sleepy and said individuals should not go to bed smoking.

“We are pleased to announce that there has been a significant reduction in the cases of fires which may suggest that persons are observing the fire safety tips more.

We intend to start the Fire Awareness programmes in which we will be going around to schools, hotels and business places to have lectures on fire prevention and safety tips.”

Hendrickson said the Department has made a concerted effort to educate and sensitize people to the causes of fires and equip them with the knowledge of how to respond in the case of a fire. He said that through the Fire Summer Safety Programme, “each one is reaching one to get the message around”.

He thanked the general public for its full cooperation this year and said he is looking forward to its continued support in the upcoming year.

Some women threaten no sex if men shoot fireworks - Yahoo! News

Some women threaten no sex if men shoot fireworks - Yahoo! News

ROME – Some women in Naples said they won't make love if their men shoot off dangerous fireworks on New Year's Eve. "Se Spari, Niente Sesso" (If you shoot, no sex), as the reported group calls itself, claims to have signed up hundreds of women in the Naples area to combat celebrations that injure or maim hundreds each year.

Carolina Staiano, a mother of two, was quoted in La Stampa daily on Wednesday as saying she was inspired to create the group because her father was partially paralyzed in a fireworks accident.

Setting off fireworks, often homemade or illegally imported, remains popular in Italy and especially in Naples, even though accidents are frequent and sometimes deadly.

Staiano said that "there are other ways to celebrate." And if men don't get the message, women should "send them to sleep on the couch."

Now here is a PubEd campaign I hadn't thought of! I am sure it is much more effective then issuing citations! lol

Demonstration mishap

Firefighter Training Mishap - The best home videos are here
Another demonstration gone bad....

Fire Safety Song

From the UK....enjoy!

Fire Engine Art Project

Materials list (Fire Truck):
- 1 Graham Cracker per child
- Red Frosting
- One Cheese cracker
- Three pretzel sticks (2 whole, and one broken in thirds)
- Two Hot Tamales per child
- Two Oreo® cookies per child (or one split in half)
- Two chocolate candies (like M&Ms)per child
- Two Corn Pops per child

Directions (Fire Truck):
1. Spread some red frosting on the graham cracker
2. Press the cheese cracker to the front of the truck
3. Build the ladder from the pretzel sticks
4. Put two hot tamales on the top for lights
5. Place the split Oreo's as wheels
6. Add two chocolate candies for hub caps
7. Add a Corn Pop for the head/tail lights

Click here for directions: Handout, website.

Fire Prevention Presentation gone bad

Problems with live props and an interested audience...

Fireman Sam-Do you have what it takes?

Open Day at Pontypandy Fire Station and Norman Price says he wants to be a fireman one day. (Disclaimer-Property of S4C / Hit Entertainment) Do you have what it takes to be a firefighter? 9:58

Fire Department Stresses Holiday Safety

Fire Department Stresses Holiday Safety | WEEK News 25 | Local News

The Peoria Fire Department has lit a holiday wreath it wants to keep red.

This is the 15th year for this fire safety campaign. You see, it is up to you to keep the wreath red by practicing fire safety at your home and at work.

For each residential or commercial fire in Peoria from now until January 2, the fire department replaces a red bulb with a white one.

Peoria Fire Department Division Chief Greg Walters said, "That bulb stands out in contrast with the building and it brings up a lot of questions. Why you got white bulbs on there? It gives us that opportunity to talk to the community about fire safety - in general holiday safety."

A white bulb on the wreath signifies a fire with more than $500 damage.

There were 10 white bulbs during the 2006 holiday season.

Frightened Mother Returns to Baby Left in Hot Car

Inside Edition - Frightened Mother Returns to Baby Left in Hot Car

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" A frantic mother screams. The woman had just run out of a store realizing she left her 7-month old daughter alone in a hot car. The drama was caught on tape in the parking lot of a Target in suburban Kansas City. The mother is inconsolable as she tells police she was inside the store's pharmacy when she saw police activity out front and realized what was going on. Fortunately for the Kansas City mom, her baby came out of the ordeal ok after being left alone for about thirty minutes.

A tragedy avoided...but the reason I posted this was for the GOOD ADVICE...TO AVOID IT...read on....

INSIDE EDITION talks with an expert to find out what parents can do to help keep their children safe. Our expert says something as simple as leaving a stuffed animal in the passengers seat of your car can serve as a reminder, and can make the difference between life and death. The animal serves as a visual cue. It will remind the driver that there is precious cargo in the back seat of the vehicle. It becomes a simple reminder that will hopefully prevent frightening scenes like the one outside of the Kansas City Target store.

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871--National Geographic Kids Magazine

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871--National Geographic Kids Magazine
The story of a young girl's escape from the blaze. Also from this site links to NFPA and the basic info on the Chicago fire:

Chicago in 1871 was already a big city, bustling with more than 334,000 residents. Its streets, sidewalks, and most of its buildings were made of wood. Hay and straw were inside every barn. To make the situation worse, people used candles and oil lamps.

Fires had been common that year because of the dry weather. The Chicago Fire Department was overworked and underequipped. On Saturday, October 7, firefighters began putting out a fire that wiped out four city blocks. It took them 16 hours. By Sunday evening the men were exhausted. Then around 8:45 p.m., a fire began in the barn of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary.

FROM THE BEGINNING, EVERYTHING WENT WRONG

Human error then made a bad situation worse. One firefighter later said, “From the beginning of that fatal fire, everything went wrong!” A watchman atop the courthouse saw smoke rising from the O’Leary barn, but he assumed it was coming from the previous fire. When he finally realized a new fire was blazing, he misjudged its location. His assistant sent a message to the fire stations, but he mistakenly directed horse-drawn fire wagons to a location about a mile from the burning barn. When the fire department finally reached the barn, its equipment was no match for the blaze. The new fire raged on.

More links:
Web of Memory http://www.chicagohistory.org/fire/
Did the Cow do it? http://www.thechicagofire.com/
Chicago Public Library http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/disasters/great_fire.html

Los Angeles Fire Department all 'aTwitter' over Web 2.0

Los Angeles Fire Department all 'aTwitter' over Web 2.0

August 03, 2007 (Computerworld) -- The Los Angeles Fire Department has been the toast of the blogosphere in recent weeks after its efforts at using the micro-blogging site Twitter came to light.

Twitter allows users to post short (140 characters or less) notes. The fire department uses Twitter to post information about fires or other emergencies that it is responding to. These messages are then sent to users signed up to receive the information on their mobile devices.

During the May fires in Los Angeles' Griffith Park, for example, the LAFD received press inquiries from the BBC and from news media in Prague, the Czech Republic, by way of Twitter, said Brian Humphrey, LAFD's public information officer. Humphrey maintains the Web 2.0 technology with another department spokesman, Ron Myers. The pair work 12-hour shifts to update the blog, send out twitters and other duties.

Government agencies are not usually known for using cutting-edge technology, but the LAFD has immersed itself in various Web 2.0 projects, including a blog, a real-time alert service, a Flickr photo site and a live Internet radio show.

Instead of a traditional phone interview with Computerworld, Humphrey and Myers suggested the interview take place live on the department's BlogTalkRadio channel. BlogTalkRadio is a free, Web-based tool that allows anyone to host a live Internet radio show and take callers from the phone. The shows can then be made available as a podcast via RSS and iTunes. Or the hosts can place a BlogTalkRadio flash player on their site or blog so users can listen to the radio broadcasts. The entire Computerworld interview with Humphrey and Myers is available here.

Humphrey said the department began looking at Web 2.0 technologies after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. While those stranded at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans were certainly hungry and thirsty, "they were dying a little bit at a time from a lack of information," he said. "They thought they were on their own Gilligan's Island."

The LAFD uses four attributes to characterize the success of Web 2.0 tools: desirable, beneficial, justifiable and sustainable.

"We can no longer afford to work at the speed of government," he said. "We have responsibilities to the public to move the information as quickly as possible ... so that they can make key decisions."

Interest in the LAFD's effort has grown; its blog just logged its 1 millionth visitor this year, and photos on its Flickr account have been viewed 500,000 times in the past year, Humphrey said. The department has made widgets available with content it produces and uses RSS to allow more users to subscribe to updates.

But the most popular effort has been the Twitter account, which now has about 190 followers who can receive Twitter updates from a mobile device. For example, a Twitter will report that a structural fire is being battled by 30 firefighters, or that a car accident has occurred. It reads like a dispatch log of sorts from the calls the department receives and answers.

"The idea for us is that not everyone who is in need of information in times of distress will be sitting in front of a computer," Humphrey said.

While no funds have been earmarked for these projects, and Humphrey and Myers spend time on and off the clock working on them, the LAFD has more than 80 Web 2.0 projects in the pipeline that it is testing.

Humphrey advises other government agencies testing the waters of Web 2.0 not to fall into a common misconception about the technology: That it will allow an organization's voice to be heard louder, more clearly and over a greater distance.

Instead, "having this Web 2.0 presence ... allows us to listen more clearly and more accurately over a greater area," he said. "It is all about getting much more feedback [from the public]."

But the department's journey to the Web has not been without its challenges. As Humphrey, a 22-year veteran of the department who has a propeller placed under his fire helmet in his office likes to note, "I don't have a problem running into a burning building ... but stepping out into the Internet was very intimidating."

Pool Drain Sucks Out 6-year-old's Intestines

MINNEAPOLIS - A 6-year-old girl who sat on an open drain in a wading pool lost part of her intestinal tract to the drain’s powerful suction, her family said.

Abigail Taylor was injured in the wading pool on June 29, according to her family.

Her father, Scott Taylor, said the suction caused a 2-inch tear in Abigail’s rectum and pulled out much of her small intestine. Doctors had to remove the part of her intestines that remained, according to the family’s lawyer, Bob Bennett.

Abigail remained in intensive care at Children’s Hospital on Thursday and appeared to be improving, Bennett said.

She was to undergo surgery on Friday, Bennett said. “She’ll receive her nutrition through a port for the rest of her life,” he said.

Bennett said the swimming pool’s drain hole was improperly uncovered. However, the general manager of the club where the pool is located said he didn’t think anything was wrong with the pool. He referred questions to the attorney for the club’s insurance company, who declined to comment.

Several states have passed pool-safety laws after children drowned or were disemboweled by drain suction. North Carolina, for instance, requires pools to have dual drains to diffuse the force of the suction and prevent children from being trapped.

Did you know...

Certain groups of children are at higher risk for drowning.
 Children ages 4 and under have a drowning death rate more than three times greater than other age groups and account for 80 percent of home drownings.
 Male children have a drowning rate more than two times that of female children. However, females have a bathtub drowning rate twice that of males.
 Low-income children are at greater risk from non-swimming pool drownings.
 Drowning fatality rates are higher in southern and western states than in other regions of the United States.

Rural areas have higher drowning death rates than urban or suburban areas, in part due to decreased access to emergency medical care.

More than half of drownings among infants (under age 1) occur in bathtubs.
 More than 10 percent of all childhood drownings occur in bathtubs; the majority of these occur in the absence of adult supervision.
 Female children have a bathtub drowning rate twice that of males.
 Since 1983, there have been at least 104 deaths and 162 nonfatal incidents involving baby bath seats.
 Children can drown in as little as one inch of water and are therefore also at risk of drowning in wading pools, bathtubs, buckets, diaper pails, toilets, spas and hot tubs. Since 1984, more than 327 children, 89 percent between the ages of 7 months and 15 months, have drowned in buckets containing water or other liquids used for mopping floors and other household chores. It is estimated that 30 children drown annually in buckets.

More than half of drownings among children ages 1 to 4 are pool-related.
 Among children ages 4 and under, there are approximately 300 residential swimming pool drowningseach year. More than half of these drownings occur in the child's home pool, and one-third occur at the homes of friends, neighbors or relatives.
 Most children who drown in swimming pools were last seen in the home, had been missing from sight for less than five minutes and were in the care of one or both parents at the time of the drowning.
 Since 1980, more than 230 children ages 4 and under have drowned in spas and hot tubs.
 African-American males ages 5 to 9 have a swimming pool-related drowning rate four and a half times that of their white counterparts. African-American males ages 10 to 14 have a swimming pool-related drowning rate 15 times that of their white counterparts.
 Installation of four-sided isolation fencing could prevent 50 to 90 percent of childhood residential swimming pool drownings and near-drownings.

Children ages 5 to 14 most often drown at open-water sites (rivers, lakes and oceans).
 In 2003, 21 children ages 14 and under drowned in reported recreational boating accidents. In 2003, 62 percent of children ages 14 and under who drowned in reported recreational boating accidents were not wearing PFDs or life jackets. It is estimated that 85 percent of boating-related drownings could have been prevented if the victim had been wearing a personal flotation device.
 In 2003, 200 children ages 14 and under sustained injuries in reported recreational boating accidents involving personal watercraft.
 Approximately half of all boating deaths occur on Saturdays and Sundays and between the months of May and August.

For more information about pool safety, check out the following:
CPSC Issues Warning for Pools, Spas, and Hot Tubs
Avoiding entrapment: layers of protection not only guard against drowning, but also reduce pool drain hazards
Phoenix Fire Department: Water Safety and Drowning Prevention
Facts About Childhood Drowning
Water Watchers
Drowning Support Network

Safety First on the 4th!

VideoPlink.com - tons of free videos!
A funny PSA? for firework safety. :32

Fire department wants residents to 'Junk the Juniper' /Trees are very combustible, could help reduce threat of wildland fires

RGJ.com: Fire department wants residents to 'Junk the Juniper' /Trees are very combustible, could help reduce threat of wildland fires
Video: Protect your home from wildfire
KAREN SHERLOCK/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

Area residents can exchange juniper shrubs for another shrub, plant or tree at two Moana Nursery locations.

Faced with budget constraints, the Sierra Fire Protection District and other local fire agencies are waging a door-to-door fire safety assessment campaign in high risk areas around the Truckee Meadows.

The Reno Fire Department is urging people to help reduce the threat of wildland fire near homes by taking part in this Sunday's "Junk the Juniper" event at Moana Nursery.

"The juniper has a combustibility that ... acts as a ladder fuel," said Capt. Bonnie Terry of the Reno Fire Prevention Bureau.

A ladder fuel starts low in shrubs, such as junipers, and climbs to higher levels, such as nearby trees, and eventually the adjacent homes, Terry said.

Bring in one juniper shrub or tree to either Moana Nursery location between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday at 1100 W. Moana Lane or 11301 S. Virginia St. and exchange it for another shrub, plant or tree.

This event is part of the Nevada Wildfire Awareness Week, which runs through Friday. It is an effort to modify ornamental landscaping around homes and buildings to help reduce the threat of a wildland fire destroying structures.

Fire Fighters Are Knocking At Your Door

SOONEWS.CA - Fire Fighters Are Knocking At Your Door

Sault Ste. Marie Fire Service will commence their annual In-Service “Fire Safety Awareness” campaign on May 22, 2007 through to September 27, 2007.

Uniformed firefighters with identification will be knocking on doors of homes throughout the city. Crews will provide information concerning residential fire safety and ensure home owners understand that it is their responsibility.

The Ontario Fire Code requires that all residential occupancies have a working smoke alarm installed on all storeys.

This year’s in-service campaign will be conducted from Monday through Thursday – 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Rescue 911 - 100 Lives Saved - Segment 2

Electrical cord starts a fire and a "silent killer". Good stuff!