Problems
Prevention and cure for fires.
Answers
Get insurance.
Have firefighting equipment.
Listen out for alerts.
Have an evacuation plan.
Know how to prevent fires.
Preventing Fires - Precautions
Methods include:
Knowing the safe refuge or high fighting points in an area. (Fire fighters have a designated safe place with access to water and safety from fires.
Fire fighters might set a fire to burn undergrowth nearby to form a barrier. Don't do this yourself and risk starting another fire unless you have got proper instructions and permission and precautions and if necessary supervision.
Listening to weather reports and observing fire prevention fire alert weather warnings on hot days, or no fire notices.
Not smoking nor starting deliberate fires.
Knowing your water access points and unlocking doors if fire fighters need to get through, for example eg to fight a fire in your back garden / which Americans call a yard.
Not starting fires on windy days.
Leaving an area around a fire which is a barrier.
Ensuring the fire (such as a camp fire) is out before you leave.
In California some residents have sprayed protective foam or covering over cars.
Story
A fire in a neighbour's garden in London was started by a weed-burning machine. I think it was left unattended for a moment during a phone call. Very quickly set light to low plants and then reached a row of trees along a fence. Whoosh.
You might be told to shut all doors to contain a house fire. But if fire brigade need access to the back it would be different. On this occasion I think the fire brigade on the phone instructed the home owners or neighbours rushing to help to leave front door and kitchen door and side gates wide open and alleys unobstructed so fire fighters could rush through with hoses.
Onlookers may be asked to stay away and to move parked cars to allow access for fire brigade vehicles.
Records Of Residents
In buildings such as conferences, the organisers may be required to keep a list of occupants, people with special needs needing to be alerted or helped (deaf, blind, wheelchair or handicap). People who are leaving early or out for the day or night might be asked to inform the office so that fire fighters are not risking lives by searching for missing persons who do not turn up at the car park roll call.
Ambulance
Which Phone To Use
The advantage of a land line is that it may be easier for the emergency service to trace your call.
However, when a member of my family collapsed (on cancer treatment) we were told by the ambulance answering service to stay on the phone to report the patient's condition,. They asked us to use a mobile phone so we could go to the patient, report the patient's condition and follow the emergency service instructions.
You might also need to gather the patient's identity, home address details, medicine, night clothes for hospitalisation, toothbrush, reading matter for them or yourselves fi there's a long wait for treatment or while they are being treated.
You may find that you cannot go with the patient in the ambulance, so you want to know which hospital they are going to, its address and phone number, which unit they will go to.
If the patient is in intensive care or surgery you might not be able to visit. They might also want items brought from home such as pyjamas, daytime clothes to return home (if they went to hospital in night clothes or a dressing gown), plus slippers or reading glasses.
We also had to unlock the front door and leave it ajar so ambulance staff could identify the house and enter quickly - especially true if the person making the call is likely to collapse or a carer might faint from shock.
The ambulance phone service also asked us to put guard dogs or pets shut away because pets might think ambulance crew bursting in were intruders and hold them at bay, especially when alarmed by sirens, knocking and shouting.
Mistaken Identity
What about claims after a fire? Businesses need backup of records to continue.
Regarding identifying victims, after the fire in London (Grenfell) I read about how forensic teams identify remains and injured people. It is no longer the case that a handbag or identity document is regarded as sufficient. In America there was a case of a badly injured girl who was found near another girl's handbag. The result was that two families were affected:
The family sitting vigil by the heavily bandaged and unconscious girl thought she was their daughter and alive, because of the handbag nearby, when their own daughter was dead.
Good news for the family of the injured girl who thought their daughter was dead, when she was in hospital.
Speed or Undue Haste?
Apparently, at Grenfell, relatives of presumed victims have demanded to know why the identity of the dead is not given out quicker. Relatives need to hold funerals, make insurance claims, have permission to court and re-marry, change names on documents, stop claiming the deceased person's pensions and start claiming other pensions for the widows and children. The insurance companies and government agencies and employers, banks, tax offices and others also need to know.
But if the parent of a supposedly dead person falls ill or dies of shock, that could be a additional problem caused by haste and undue investigation of corroborating evidence.
My article is not authoritative. It is simply a guide to what you should be finding out from relevant authorities.
You can find information from general sources such as wikihow as well as local emergency services. For example tips on fire prevention are on websites such as that of the London fire service in England.
Flats
I wondered why the Fire Brigade tells you to stay put in a block of flats. I had always thought that you had to get out, because that is what I was told in a house fire or ground floor flat.
I understand from the London fire brigade website that the reasons for instructions to stay put are :
a) Most fires are contained within one flat because of fire doors and sprinkler systems.
b) If you leave your flat you might find yourself in a smoky corridor.
c) Large numbers of people leaving block the way to firefighters rushing to reach the site of the fire.
At a recent fire at Grenfell in London, 2017, there were no sprinklers and as the fire spread up the building the people at the top, 22nd floor, decided their only hope was to leave via the stairs and two of them got out from that high floor. (Mrs Li and from Taiwan and Mrs Liao.)
Fire or other emergency - Check advice which applies in your area, season, weather.
My Google search brought up Wiki articles first on all sorts of survival situations. For example:
http://www.wikihow.com/Survive-an-Abduction-or-Hostage-Situation
Tips
http://www.wikihow.com/Fight-a-Forest-Fire
http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/FireSafety.asp
(Section on fires in flats)
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/a-minute-later-we-wouldnt-have-made-it-grenfell-tower-blaze-survivor-relives-miraculous-escape-
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. I have other posts on fires, safety, survival, and precautions. Please follow me, bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.
Prevention and cure for fires.
Answers
Get insurance.
Have firefighting equipment.
Listen out for alerts.
Have an evacuation plan.
Know how to prevent fires.
Preventing Fires - Precautions
Methods include:
Knowing the safe refuge or high fighting points in an area. (Fire fighters have a designated safe place with access to water and safety from fires.
Fire fighters might set a fire to burn undergrowth nearby to form a barrier. Don't do this yourself and risk starting another fire unless you have got proper instructions and permission and precautions and if necessary supervision.
Listening to weather reports and observing fire prevention fire alert weather warnings on hot days, or no fire notices.
Not smoking nor starting deliberate fires.
Knowing your water access points and unlocking doors if fire fighters need to get through, for example eg to fight a fire in your back garden / which Americans call a yard.
Not starting fires on windy days.
Leaving an area around a fire which is a barrier.
Ensuring the fire (such as a camp fire) is out before you leave.
In California some residents have sprayed protective foam or covering over cars.
Story
A fire in a neighbour's garden in London was started by a weed-burning machine. I think it was left unattended for a moment during a phone call. Very quickly set light to low plants and then reached a row of trees along a fence. Whoosh.
You might be told to shut all doors to contain a house fire. But if fire brigade need access to the back it would be different. On this occasion I think the fire brigade on the phone instructed the home owners or neighbours rushing to help to leave front door and kitchen door and side gates wide open and alleys unobstructed so fire fighters could rush through with hoses.
Onlookers may be asked to stay away and to move parked cars to allow access for fire brigade vehicles.
Records Of Residents
In buildings such as conferences, the organisers may be required to keep a list of occupants, people with special needs needing to be alerted or helped (deaf, blind, wheelchair or handicap). People who are leaving early or out for the day or night might be asked to inform the office so that fire fighters are not risking lives by searching for missing persons who do not turn up at the car park roll call.
Ambulance
Which Phone To Use
The advantage of a land line is that it may be easier for the emergency service to trace your call.
However, when a member of my family collapsed (on cancer treatment) we were told by the ambulance answering service to stay on the phone to report the patient's condition,. They asked us to use a mobile phone so we could go to the patient, report the patient's condition and follow the emergency service instructions.
You might also need to gather the patient's identity, home address details, medicine, night clothes for hospitalisation, toothbrush, reading matter for them or yourselves fi there's a long wait for treatment or while they are being treated.
You may find that you cannot go with the patient in the ambulance, so you want to know which hospital they are going to, its address and phone number, which unit they will go to.
If the patient is in intensive care or surgery you might not be able to visit. They might also want items brought from home such as pyjamas, daytime clothes to return home (if they went to hospital in night clothes or a dressing gown), plus slippers or reading glasses.
We also had to unlock the front door and leave it ajar so ambulance staff could identify the house and enter quickly - especially true if the person making the call is likely to collapse or a carer might faint from shock.
The ambulance phone service also asked us to put guard dogs or pets shut away because pets might think ambulance crew bursting in were intruders and hold them at bay, especially when alarmed by sirens, knocking and shouting.
Mistaken Identity
What about claims after a fire? Businesses need backup of records to continue.
Regarding identifying victims, after the fire in London (Grenfell) I read about how forensic teams identify remains and injured people. It is no longer the case that a handbag or identity document is regarded as sufficient. In America there was a case of a badly injured girl who was found near another girl's handbag. The result was that two families were affected:
The family sitting vigil by the heavily bandaged and unconscious girl thought she was their daughter and alive, because of the handbag nearby, when their own daughter was dead.
Good news for the family of the injured girl who thought their daughter was dead, when she was in hospital.
Speed or Undue Haste?
Apparently, at Grenfell, relatives of presumed victims have demanded to know why the identity of the dead is not given out quicker. Relatives need to hold funerals, make insurance claims, have permission to court and re-marry, change names on documents, stop claiming the deceased person's pensions and start claiming other pensions for the widows and children. The insurance companies and government agencies and employers, banks, tax offices and others also need to know.
But if the parent of a supposedly dead person falls ill or dies of shock, that could be a additional problem caused by haste and undue investigation of corroborating evidence.
My article is not authoritative. It is simply a guide to what you should be finding out from relevant authorities.
You can find information from general sources such as wikihow as well as local emergency services. For example tips on fire prevention are on websites such as that of the London fire service in England.
Flats
I wondered why the Fire Brigade tells you to stay put in a block of flats. I had always thought that you had to get out, because that is what I was told in a house fire or ground floor flat.
I understand from the London fire brigade website that the reasons for instructions to stay put are :
a) Most fires are contained within one flat because of fire doors and sprinkler systems.
b) If you leave your flat you might find yourself in a smoky corridor.
c) Large numbers of people leaving block the way to firefighters rushing to reach the site of the fire.
At a recent fire at Grenfell in London, 2017, there were no sprinklers and as the fire spread up the building the people at the top, 22nd floor, decided their only hope was to leave via the stairs and two of them got out from that high floor. (Mrs Li and from Taiwan and Mrs Liao.)
Fire or other emergency - Check advice which applies in your area, season, weather.
My Google search brought up Wiki articles first on all sorts of survival situations. For example:
http://www.wikihow.com/Survive-an-Abduction-or-Hostage-Situation
Tips
http://www.wikihow.com/Fight-a-Forest-Fire
http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/FireSafety.asp
(Section on fires in flats)
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/a-minute-later-we-wouldnt-have-made-it-grenfell-tower-blaze-survivor-relives-miraculous-escape-
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. I have other posts on fires, safety, survival, and precautions. Please follow me, bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment