Fire Prevention Week is approaching and is a time when fire departments
open their doors a bit wider than usual. They host open houses, pancake breakfasts, conduct fire station tours, and
encourage the local press to publish home safety tips. Each year we all hear
about Home Escape Plans, the value of smoke detectors in the home, and plenty
of healthy doses of "Stop, Drop and Roll". All good things to
be sure, which continue to remind us all to be safe.
Often overlooked each year
during this week, ironically, are the men and women who spend the rest of the
year also saving lives by preventing fires and serious burn injuries as
their full-time job. These are the Fire Prevention Officers and Fire Inspectors
– including full-time, part-time and volunteer – that become the watchdogs
of safe practices and construction as well as identifying potential fire
hazards at home and at work.
Business owners may
sometimes cringe at the image of the white hat and clipboard walking through
the plant or office making checkmarks here and there, but never realize that for
decades that they've already
been the beneficiary of their labors. Now well into the 21st
century, most commercial buildings are either protected by sprinklers or built
under guidelines that significantly reduce the spread of a fire from one
business to another by protecting the careful tenants from the careless
tenants. By enforcing a national Life Safety Code, occupants know where to go
to escape a fire, where to find an extinguisher, or are assured that there are
enough exits to handle everybody. Storage of volatile materials is restricted
and exposure to others safely limited or prevented through the enforcement of
established fire codes.
Many school districts,
rather than merely accommodating what used to be an intrusive invasion into
lesson plans once a year, now incorporate fire and burn prevention lessons and
activities into the curriculum for the year, partnering especially during this
week with local Fire Departments.
Fire inspectors seek out
and identify hazards to people and property, and by occasionally issuing those
irritating notices of items that need to be corrected such as exposed wiring,
openings that can allow fire to travel to other parts of the building, or merely
blocked emergency exits, have saved countless civilian and firefighter lives by
making sure most fires don't happen in the first place.
They're overlooked most
of the time during Fire Prevention Week as visitors tour the fire stations
ringing the engine bell and watching demonstrations, all of which are both fun
and educational of course, but rarely are acknowledged as the life savers they
really are.
Next time you see a Fire
Inspector doing his or her job, give them a hug, or even just a big smile, and
say thanks.
They deserve it throughout the entire year.