Nailing It Down
By Dave Murnen and Pat Beaty
We hope you’ve enjoyed your Christmas celebrations and that you have some fun — and responsible — plans for Tuesday night and New Year’s Day.
All of us here at NeighborWorks of Grays Harbor wish you a safe, happy, healthy 2020!
Toward that end, here are a few safety reminders for your New Year’s festivities and beyond:
If it still is up, go water that Christmas tree right now (and plan on taking it down soon). Don’t plan on burning it. Instead, recycle it for safety’s sake.
Do you have candles going? Keep a close eye on them. (New Year’s Day is the third most frequent day that residence fires are started by candles.)
Hectic kitchens can be a concern. Keep handles of pots on the stove and counters turned in, away from traffic and kids. Same goes for electric cords attached to cookers and fry pans.
When the bubbly is flowing, judgment gets weaker, so plan ahead to have a safe environment.
Make sure as you move furniture to accommodate guests for your New Year’s party that you don’t block any entrances or exits.
Do you or your friends and family smoke? Make sure you have plenty of deep ashtrays available. Before you head to bed, check upholstery to make sure a stray cigarette isn’t smoldering.
Consider ringing in the New Year with pots and pans and whistles instead of shotguns, fireworks and cannons. (Fireworks are the most common cause of fire during New Year’s.)
It’s indoor fire season
The winter season brings a greater number of residential fires than any other time of the year.
Each winter, home cooking and heating fires increase. In addition, winter storms can interrupt electrical service and cause people to turn to alternative heating sources, which contribute to the increased risk of fire during the winter months.
Here are some key things to remember:
Have working smoke alarms, carbon monoxide (CO) detectors and a 5-pound fire extinguisher handy for kitchen fires.
Even the smallest home or apartment needs more than one smoke alarm. You should have one in each bedroom and at least one outside the bedroom area, plus at least one CO detector on each level of the house.
Practice finding your way out of the house with your eyes closed, crawling or staying low and feeling your way out.
If there’s a fire in your house, get out — don’t worry about your belongings. That video you made of every room and all your belongings is in a safe place, and you sent a copy to your insurance company anyway for proof of valuation, right?
Toxic smoke kills quickly. Escape first, then call 911.
Teach your family to stop, drop to the ground and roll if their clothes catch on fire.
Plan ahead now and designate a “family meeting place” outside the house.
Make sure now that your home address signs are clearly visible from the street or road.
Folks living in rural areas need to ensure that they provide access for emergency vehicles.
Winter residential building fires occur mainly in the evening hours, peaking between 5 and 8 p.m.
It’s safest to make a habit of closing each bedroom door at night. If you suspect a fire, feel the door or the doorknob with the back of your hand — it’s more sensitive to heat. Never open doors that are hot to the touch. Bedrooms should have two ways out; so if the door is hot, go out a window or another door.
And remember that as you escape from a fire, stay as close to the floor as possible. Breathable air is down low.
Apartment folks need a plan
Apartment dwellers need to keep fire safety in mind too. Renters insurance is inexpensive and should be part of your plan, just like the 5-pound fire extinguisher.
Know your exits out of your building. One could be a fire escape stairway or a roll-out emergency ladder for the second-floor rooms.
Have an escape plan and practice it.
In case of fire, activate the fire alarm pull station to notify the other tenants.
If you would need assistance to get out and you currently live on one of the upper stories, consider moving to a lower floor apartment, so you don’t have as many stairs to navigate.
Never assume an alarm is false.
We now have a rich diversity of cultures and languages in Grays Harbor. It’s important that building owners and landlords make sure all their tenants understand important safety information related to the building.
So what should you do?
In the case of a fire in your apartment building, get out if you have a safe exit.
If the hallway is passable, move to the stairwell and get out of the building safely — don’t use elevators!
Once you’re out, or once you realize you cannot safely get out, call 911.
Then, if you’re inside your apartment, put something like a wet towel at the base of the door. If smoke enters your room, put a wet cloth over your mouth and then move to a “protected” area such as a balcony.
Apartment building owner/managers may have an evacuation plan for their residents’ safety. Ask your building manager what that plan is, but count on yourself and your own backup plan to save your family’s life and your own.
Again, Happy New Year!
Dave Murnen and Pat Beaty are construction specialists at NeighborWorks of Grays Harbor County, where Murnen is executive director. This is a nonprofit organization committed to creating safe and affordable housing for all residents of Grays Harbor County. For questions about home repair, renting, remodeling or buying, call 360-533-7828 or visit 710 E. Market St. in Aberdeen. Our office is fully ADA-compliant.
