Fire Safety In The Home

Place smoke detectors in each floor of you home. This includes the basement. It is also a good idea to place smoke detectors in each bedroom of your house.

Plan multiple escape routes out of your house just incase it catches fire while you are home. Pick a landmark outside of your home for everyone to meet when they exit the house. Practice a few times a year so your family knows what to do if a fire ever develops. As you are exiting the house remember to stay low.

Place fire extinguishers in key areas of your home. These areas include: The kitchen, basement, laundry room, garage, and other areas where fire may develop quickly. Make sure the fire extinguishers are easily accessible.

Practice the Stop, Drop and Roll method.

Camp Fire Safety

Keep camp fires in a area away from vegetation.

DO NOT have camp fires when there is a burn ban issued for your area.

DO NOT have camp fires on windy days

Always keep a bucket of water and a shovel near your camp fire to put it out if it becomes to large.

NEVER leave a camp fire unattended.

Always put the fire out when you are finished.

I wish you could see the sadness of a business man as his
livelihood goes up in flames, or that family returning home,
only to find their house and belongings damaged or lost for good.

I wish you could know what it is like to search a burning bedroom for
trapped children, flames rolling above your head, your palms and
knees burning as you crawl, the floor sagging under your weight as the
kitchen below you burns.

I wish you could comprehend a wife's horror at 3a.m. as I check her
husband of 40 years for a pulse and find none. I start CPR anyway, hoping
to bring him back, knowing intuitively it is too late. But wanting
his wife and family to know everything possible was done to try to save
his life.

I wish you knew the unique smell of burning insulation, the taste
of soot-filled mucus, the feeling of intense heat through your turnout
gear, the sound of flames crackling, the eeriness of being able to see
absolutely nothing in dense smoke-sensations that I've become too
familiar with.

I wish you could understand how it feels to go to work in the
morning after having spent most of the night, hot and soaking wet at a
multiple alarm fire.

I wish you could read my mind as I respond to a building fire "Is
this a false alarm or a working fire? How is the building constructed?
what hazards await me? Is anyone trapped?" Or to an EMS call, "What is
wrong with the patient? Is it minor or life-threatening? Is the caller
really in distress or is he waiting for us with a 2x4 or a gun?"

I wish you could be in the emergency room as a doctor pronounces
dead the beautiful five-year old girl that I have been trying to save during
the past 25 minutes. Who will never go on her first date or say the
words, "I love you Mommy" again.

I wish you could know the frustration I feel in the cab of the
engine or my personal vehicle, the driver with his foot pressing down hard on
the pedal, my arm tugging again and again at the air horn chain, as you
fail to yield the right-of-way at an intersection or in traffic. When
you need us however, your first comment upon our arrival will be, "It took
you forever to get here!"

I wish you could know my thoughts as I help extricate a girl of
teenage years from the remains of her automobile. "What if this was my
sister, my girlfriend or a friend? What were her parents reaction going to be
when they opened the door to find a police officer with hat in hand?"

I wish you could know how it feels to walk in the back door and
greet my parents and family, not having the heart to tell them that I nearly
did not come back from the last call.

I wish you could feel the hurt as people verbally, and sometimes
physically, abuse us or belittle what I do, or as they express
their attitudes of "It will never happen to me"

I wish you could realize the physical, emotional and mental drain
or missed meals, lost sleep and forgone social activities, in addition
to all the tragedy my eyes have seen.

I wish you could know the brotherhood and self-satisfaction of
helping save a life or of preserving someone's property, or being able to
be there in time of crisis, or creating order from total chaos.

I wish you could understand what it feels like to have a little boy
tugging at your arm and asking, "Is Mommy okay?" Not even being
able to look in his eyes without tears from your own and not knowing what
to say. Or to have to hold back a long time friend who watches his buddy
having rescue breathing done on him as they take him away in the
ambulance. You know all along he did not have his seat belt on. A sensation that I
have become too familiar with.

Unless you have lived with this kind of life, you will never truly
understand or appreciate who I am, we are, or what our job really
means to us...I wish you could though.

-author unknown-

A Firefighters Poem

A firefighter's life is one big surprise,

usually they laugh, sometimes they cry.

There's always stress, toil and strife,

hoping they are good enough to save one life.

Their families understand, when they miss dinner,

if they run out of church, don't think they are sinners.

Answering a call, is tops on their list,

regretting each one they have ever missed.

They try and try, but can't make us see,

the happiest people, still work for free.

Jumping from bed, fighting the cold,

knowing what to do without being told.

They rush to the station, jump on the truck,

depending on skill never on luck.

Putting their life on the line for an unknown friend,

hoping and praying it won't be the end.

"The bravest people in the world", the title is fitting,

they all do their best, never come close to quitting.

Next time you see them, all their lights blinking,

Take just a minute, to think what they are thinking.

-Author Unknown

A Firefighters Gloves

A Firefighters Gloves hold many things
From elderly arms to a kids broken swing
From the hands they shake and the backs they pat
To the tiny claw marks of another treed cat
At 2 am they are filled with the chrome
From the DWI who was on her way home
And the equipment they use to roll back the dash
From a family of 6 she involved in the crash

The brush rakes in spring wear the palms out
When the wind does a "90" to fill them with doubt
The thumb of the glove wipes the sweat from the brow
Of the face of a firefighter who mutters "What now"

They hold inch and three quarters flowing one seventy five
So the ones going in, come back out alive
When the regulator goes; then there isn't too much,
But the bypass valve they eagerly clutch

The rescue equipment, the ropes, the C-collars;
The lives that they save never measured in dollars
Are the obvious things firefighters gloves hold
Or, so that is what I've been always told

But there are other things Firefighters Gloves touch
Those are the things we all need so much

They hold back the rage on that 3 am call
They hold in the fear when your lost in a hall
They hold back the pity, agony, sorrow
They hold in the desire to "Do it tomorrow"

A gloves just a glove till it's on firefighters
Who work all day long just to pull an all-nighter
And into the fray they charge without fear
At the sound of a "Help" they think that they hear

When firefighters hands go into the glove
It's a firefighter who always fills it with love
Sometimes the sorrow is too much to bear
And it seeps the glove and burns deep "in there"

Off comes the gloves when the call is done
And into the pocket until the next run
The hands become lonely and cold for a bit
And shake just a little thinking of it

And they sit there so red eyed with their gloves in their coats
The tears come so fast that the furniture floats
They're not so brave now; their hands they can't hide
I guess it just means that they're human inside

And though some are paid and others are not
The gloves feel the same when it's cold or it's hot
To someone you're helping to just get along
When you fill them with love, you always feel strong

And so when I go on my final big ride
I hope to have my gloves by my side
To show to St. Peter at that heavenly gate
Cause as everyone knows, firefighters don't wait.

Thank God.

-Author Unknown