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SAFETY

Keep Your Family Safe During the Holidays

What is on top of every First Responder’s wish list this Holiday Season?  Your family’s safety!  The adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is certainly true and—when simple prevention is ignored—our alarm bells ring!

Please take note of these tips this holiday season:

Inspect electrical decorations before use.  Look for damaged or frayed wires, and replace any component that shows wear.

Do not overload electrical outlets.  Overloaded electrical outlets and faulty    wiring are a common cause of fires

Never connect more than three strings of incandescent lights.  In fact, consider low-wattage LED strings.

Keep trees fresh by watering daily.  A dry evergreen inside your home is a fire hazard.

Use battery operated candles.  Candles start almost half of home decoration fires.

Keep combustibles at least three feet away from heat sources.  A heat source that was too close to a decoration was a factor in half of home fires that began with decorations.

Protect cords from damage.  To avoid shock or overheating, cords should never be pinched by furniture, forced into small spaces such as doors or windows, placed under rugs, located near heat sources, or attached by nails or staples.

Check decorations for certification labels.  Decorations not bearing a label from an independent testing laboratory such as Underwriters Laboratories (UL), Canadian Standards Association (CSA), or Intertek (ETL) have not been tested for safety and could be hazardous.

Stay in the kitchen when something is cooking.  Unattended cooking equipment is the leading cause of home cooking fires.

Turn off, unplug, and extinguish all decorations when going to sleep or leaving the house.  Half of home fire deaths occur between the hours of 11:00pm and 7:00am.

Happy Holidays!

Captain Brian Bolstad

Jackson County Fire District 5

Information source:

Holiday tips: https://www.esfi.org/resource/top-10-holiday-safety-tips-337

 

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SAFETY

Fires move fast…Are you prepared?

Summer is hot and conditions are prime for more wildfires.  Whether you live in town or in the country, preparing for a fire is prudent.

  • Talk with your family about fire safety at home and on vacation. All fires start small—a candle, a cigarette, a campfire, a firework.  Think through your actions and be aware of the conditions around you before you strike that match.

  • Keep grass and weeds trimmed. Contact your local fire agency about current restrictions on mowing and weed trimming before you start.

  • Look at your house and property from the view of a firebrand, or ember blown by the wind. Where might you land?

    • Move firewood away from your house.

    • Store gas cans and other flammable liquids in a secure location.

    • Consider enclosing eaves and the areas below decks.

    • Trim trees near your roofline.

    • Keep your gutters clean.

    • Trim trees and bushes around your home and along your driveway.

  • Prepare a “go” kit that allows you to grab essential items quickly. Start a list of items you would need to gather in the event of an evacuation.  Some evacuations last for days, so include such items as medications, toiletries, important papers, external hard drives, etc.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  When it comes to wildfire prevention that should be our collective mantra!

For more information on community fire safety, see the Rogue Valley Fire Prevention Cooperative’s website at https://rvfpc.blogspot.com/

Captain Brian Bolstad

Jackson County Fire District 5

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