by Josiah922
The door opened. “Hello Mrs. Caldith?” asked Robert.
The 30 something lady smiled, “Yes, Robert?” Linda Caldith was dressed
in Capri pants a soft white top and held a dish towel in her hand. She
worked with Robert’s wife Heather and had asked Heather to have Robert
come by.
“Yes ma’am.”
“Come on in. My husband is in the backyard,” said Mrs. Caldith. She
escorted Robert through the furor and into the main living area. The
house was a larger one story house nestled in the quaint little
neighborhood in an upper-middle class side of town. Mrs. Caldith caught
her son’s arm as he ran through the house. “Ryan, go get Daddy for me
please.”
Ryan was 9 years old and preoccupied with a junior sized basketball. He
dribbled his ball twice as he hurriedly walked away, “Yes ma’am.”
After a few minutes past a man stepped in the living room. He was also
thirty something and looked a bit well dressed for being working in the
yard. He wore kaki pants and a golf shirt. He introduced himself as
Dennis Caldith.
Dennis was middle management at his job and was getting ready to meet
the boss that afternoon for a round of golf. He had taken his golf clubs
in the backyard and was testing a new putter when Robert arrived.
Dennis shook Robert’s hand and said, “Robert I appreciate you showing up
to help. Just pick out a new smoke detector and show her how to use it.
If you need anything else, just let us know.” Dennis turned to walk
away, but Robert did not break his hand shake.
“Dennis is it? Dennis, I think there has been a misunderstanding. I am
NOT here to help you shop for smoke detectors, although, I will be glad
to recommend some. My wife asked me to drop by because your wife is now
concerned with fire safety in her home. She no longer wishes to live
unprepared and loose another home to fire. Maybe the next time someone
may die. Maybe next time your son will actually be at home. Maybe the
next time when the lightening strikes the utility pole right outside his
room filling his room with smoke and he will suffocate in his sleep
before you or he can even wake. Maybe the next time you WON’T wake up in
time to get you and your family out of the house.”
Dennis paused and the looked at the seriousness of Robert’s eyes, “So what do you need?”
Robert broke his handshake and looked at Dennis, “You have been through a
lot, but ignoring fire safety will not make you safe. I am a
firefighter and the lieutenant of my department. I was not working the
night your home was destroyed, but I have seen the loss of other
families after a fire. Preparations of proper tools and knowledge WILL
allow you to fight back against the possibility of fire once again
causing harm to you and yours. I NEED your time and attention. Give me
an hour this afternoon and I can show you what you need to know.”
Dennis nodded and looked to his wife. “OK. Ok.”
Robert immediately pulled a notebook out of his black riggers bag and
started walking through the house. He started jotting a basic floor plan
of the house and started examining several things. He stopped in the
bathroom connected master bedroom. There was 6 different devices plugged
into a cheap multi plug on the side of the bathroom sink.
“I want you to reduce over loaded power outlets like this. Do you need to run all of these at the same time?”
Mrs. Caldith shook her head and smiled.
“Then they don’t NEED to be plugged in at the same time. Right?”
She nodded, a little embarrassed.
“Linda, just plug one or two in at a time. If you run several of these,
you could overload the circuit. Also what happens if one of these falls
into the sink while it has water in it?”
After several more minutes of looking Robert made his way to Ryan’s
room. He looked around and had been opening up and closing several of
the windows in the house, but now he was attempting to open Ryan’s
window. The window would not budge.
“Do you know why this window will not open? It looks like it was recently painted?”
Dennis spoke up, “Yea, we had the trim work outside repainted after we moved in. Linda thought that it would look better.”
Robert made a note as he said, “It looks wonderful. Unfortunately the
paint has sealed this window shut. It can not be used to get out of this
house. In the event of a fire and the hallway was block your son would
not be able to open the window to get out of the house.
Dennis then tried the window. He strained at it and it did not budge.
Dennis’ eyes suddenly widened a bit as he realized the situation.
Robert turned to the hallway and used a small folding chair to examine
the installed smoke detector. “Now the problem with this smoke detector
is that it has no battery backup. Do you see these wires go from the
detector to the houses power.”
Dennis answered, “Well isn’t that good. I mean we will never have to worry about batteries.”
Robert smiled, “Well that is right. But tell me something. Was the
electricity off or on after the lightening stuck the power pole on your
old house?”
Nervously Linda said, “It was off. If we had not had the flashlight beside the bed, we would not have been able to see.”
“So if the power is off, how is this smoke detector supposed to work?
Some of uninformed contractors think that this is a selling point seeing
that you won’t need to worry about changing the batteries. However,
just as in the case of your house fire, if you house looses power then
it will not be working.”
Robert reached into his riggers bag and brought out a new smoke
detector. He presented to the couple as he explained, “Here is an
example of a battery operated smoke detector that the fire department
gives away. Two years ago we started raising money to support the fire
education program. With that money we have several smoke detectors that
we can give away to people in the area. Many fire departments have
started doing this all over the country.”
Robert paused and then turned back to the smoke detector, “Anyways, back
to what I was saying. It is a good smoke detector that has an added
feature to it. As you can see here it has a light that in the event of
it detecting smoke it will turn on the audible alarm AND it will turn on
the light. So next time you will have a little bit of light here in the
hallway. Do you want me to install all three of these for you?”
Linda said, “Sure. I will get a step ladder for you.” Then she walked down the hall towards the equipment closet.
Dennis started, “Three? Why do we need three of them?”
“Well, in looking at your house you will need three to cover everything:
one here in the hallway right outside your bedrooms, one right outside
the kitchen door, and one in the garage. If you had a second story to
the house, I would recommend putting one upstairs as well.” Just then
Linda returned and Robert set to work. Within just a couple of minutes
the alarm was installed and working. "Here is also a little note. When
you change your clocks, change your batteries. In the Fall and Spring
when the time changes, use that to remind you to change your batteries
and then you will always have a built in reminder to do it."
Robert took a few minutes showing them how the smoke detector works.
Robert lit a match and held it up to the smoke detector saying, “As you
can see the smoke detector does not alarm when there is a flame nearby. A
smoke detector does just that. It detects smoke.” Robert blew out the
match and continued to hold it near the smoke detector. Within seconds
the alarm started blaring and the emergency light turned on. Robert
waved his hand forcing fresh air around the detector and it silenced and
reset.
Linda finished rubbing her ears and said, “Wow! That was loud.”
“Remember it needs to be loud enough to wake you up at night,” said
Robert has he picked up his rigger bag and the step ladder moving down
the hall toward the kitchen. A few more minutes and the other two smoke
detectors were installed.
Robert then grabbed his rigger bag and asked the two to follow him out
into the back yard. After he reached the back of the yard, he pulled out
a small fire extinguisher. “Now I do not recommend trying to fight
every fire you come across; but if it is a small fire and you wish to, I
can show you how to use a fire extinguisher to help put out the fire.”
Dennis smiled, “Show us everything.” Then he nodded at his wife.
Over the next few minutes Robert explained that different fire
extinguishers were rated differently because of the types of fire that
they are good at extinguishing. Class A extinguishers are for ordinary
combustible materials such as paper, wood, cardboard, and most plastics.
The numerical rating on these types of extinguishers indicates the
amount of water it holds and the amount of fire it can extinguish.
Class B fires involve flammable or combustible liquids such as gasoline,
kerosene, grease and oil. The numerical rating for class B
extinguishers indicates the approximate number of square feet of fire it
can extinguish.
Class C fires involve electrical equipment, such as appliances, wiring,
circuit breakers and outlets. Never use water to extinguish class C
fires - the risk of electrical shock is far too great!
Class C extinguishers do not have a numerical rating. The C classification means the extinguishing agent is non-conductive.
Class D fire extinguishers are commonly found in a chemical laboratory.
They are for fires that involve combustible metals, such as magnesium,
titanium, potassium and sodium. These types of extinguishers also have
no numerical rating, nor are they given a multi-purpose rating - they
are designed for class D fires only. He explained that an extinguisher
rated “ABC” is an extinguisher is the most used extinguisher because it
can fight a wide range of fires.
He then showed them how to remove the safety pin on the extinguisher and
use it by spraying the power at a point on the ground. Each took their
own turn spraying the extinguisher.
“Always point the stream at the base of the fire. Shooting it into the
flames will not help. If a pile of logs were on fire, I would shoot it
at the logs not the flames coming off of the logs. Understand?” Robert
added.
After they finished Dennis took a few moments to wash away the residue
with water from a nearby garden hose and cleaned up the mess that they
had made. Robert then faced both of them, “OK We need to go over your
plan. Linda please get your son and let’s meet in the living room.”
Robert then pulled out another fire extinguisher out of his bag and gave
it to Dennis. "Place this in the kitchen. The majority of house fires
start in the kitchen."
After a couple of minutes everyone was seated in the living room. Robert
began, “The first thing we need to do is to talk about our meeting
place. Everyone knows to get out of a burning home but where do you go
then?” Robert looked at blank stares from the three.
“Decide on a meeting place right now of where you can go. Ideally it
should be away from your home and in the open so the arriving fire
fighters can see you. Maybe out next to the street at the mailbox?”
Dennis chimed in, “That sounds good. We were just sort of standing in the front yard that night.”
Robert interjected, “What if you went out the back and they went out the
front? They would not know that you were safe unless you all met up
somewhere. We will decide right now that as soon as you exit the house,
GO TO THE MAILBOX. Everybody got that?”
Everyone agreed.
“Now that everyone is out of the house and met at the mailbox. How do you call the authorities? Is there a neighbor you trust?”
Linda answered, “How about Julie from across the street? Ryan and Mark play together a little.”
“That is great. After you get to the mailbox, I then want you to go to
their house and call the emergency number from there.” Robert then
turned to Ryan, “Ryan I want you to go to the mailbox and if your Mom
and Dad don’t meet you there in a few minutes I want you to go to Mark’s
house by yourself and tell them what is going on. OK?”
Ryan stopped for a second realizing that he might indeed have to do this
by himself if something was wrong with his Mom and Dad. “Yes, sir. I
can do that.”
Robert smiled, “Good. Now let’s talk about getting out of the house. The
first thing to know is that the number one cause of death in house
fires is…..” Robert intentionally stopped hoping that someone would
answer.
Dennis spoke up, “getting burned to death?”
Robert smiled, made a buzzer noise and said, “No I am sorry but thanks
for playing. No the number one cause of deaths in house fires is smoke
inhalation.”
Robert continued, “The good news is that the smoke is warmer than normal
air and will rise toward the ceiling. Get on your hands and knees and
CRAWL out of the house. The best oxygen will be at the lower level. Also
you can cover your mouth and nose with a cloth that will help filter
out SOME of the smoke. However, your best bet is to get out of the house
as fast as you can.”
Robert then went over doors and practiced touching a door to see if it
was hot before opening it. If it is hot, grab a towel or other cloth and
wet it (if you can) and stuff it underneath the door to keep out smoke.
Then look for another way out.
“Let’s practice. Ryan go to your room, Dennis go to the bathroom and
Linda you are in the kitchen.” Robert reached into his rigger bag and
pulled out a whistle. “When you here this whistle I want everyone to
follow the plan.” Everyone looked a little lost but did as they were
told.
Each of the family members stood in there rooms for a good 3 minutes
before they heard the sound of the whistle. Dennis stepped out of the
bathroom determined to be the first one out. He turned down the hall
towards the front door and was stopped by his kitchen chair with a sign
on it that said “FIRE.” Roberts walked up the hall and said, “First, you
are not on your hands and knees, 5 second penalty. Second, this way is
blocked by fire. You can not get past it. What do you do?”
Ryan came crawling up the hall and pulled on his Dad’s pants, “Get down Dad.”
Dennis looked around nervously then said, “Oh yeah,” as he dropped to
the floor. He looked at his son and instructed him to go back to his Mom
and Dad’s bedroom. Robert followed them up the hall and into the
bedroom where they closed the door. Ryan grabbed a quilt off of the bed
and stuffed it at the foot of the door. “Good job Ryan,” said Dennis to
his son. “Now let’s go out the bedroom window.” Within a few seconds the
window was open and the two hopped to the ground in the back yard. They
both ran around the house and was greeted by Linda clapping her hands
as she stood beside the front mailbox.
Robert walked out the front door looking at his watch, “49 seconds!”
“Aww! We can do better than that. Let’s do it again,” said Ryan pulling on his Mom’s arm.
Dennis took a second to catch his breath then said, “Robert thank you
for that. This is something that we need to continue to practice every
now and again. I can see that now. Thanks again.” Dennis shook Robert’s
hand.
“Not a problem. Maybe it will help you in the future. Now you are a little more prepared.”
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