Fire Marshall Visit

At Nov. 19th's forum in the community room we listened to Hidalgo County's Fire Marshall, Richard Drewry, educate us on fire safety. Now, before you roll your eyes and yawn, let me tell you it was pretty interesting stuff!

The Fire Marshall's job is to prevent us from burning to death. That's it.

To do their job firefighters try to educate the public, starting with school kids. They use humor quite effectively. Donna #16 had, just the day before, attended a children's program with the kids at the school where she volunteers. She had very high praise for the results.

I'm going to just touch on a few highlights which I found interesting...

for instance, did you know:

We are 8 miles from the nearest fire station, which translates into at least a 10-15 minute response time. During that time the "little" fire is going to double (in square foot area) every 2 minutes.
Smoke is the big killer. 90% of fire fatalities occur in residential fires, and 98% of those deaths are due to smoke inhalation. Kids and seniors are the two groups at most risk in a fire. Kids because they don't know what to do. Seniors because we are more susceptible to poisonous smoke inhalation.

The United States burns down more property and kills more people in fires than any other developed country on Earth. Why? 'Cause we are lazy. Too lazy to install smoke detectors. Too lazy to test them or change the batteries.

What's your life worth? Check your smoke detectors today. Buy new ones if they are older than 5-7 years. How about your fire extinguisher? Is it near your kitchen? If your stove is on fire can you get to it quickly? Will it fight a grease fire? Does it need refilling? Do you have properly working carbon monoxide detectors?

Did you know that good old baking soda may not work on different cooking oils? That a properly rated fire extinguisher is better.

Do you know the rating system?

A is for ordinary combustibles-paper, cloth, plastics, rubber.

B is for flammable liquids-oil, gas, grease, some paint.

C is for electrical equipment-wiring, fuse boxes, etc.

If your RV or mobile home catches on fire: If it is very small put it out. If bigger than you can handle (split second decision here, folks) GET OUT! Then call or have someone call 911. Tell them the address, the gate code, too. Put the address, gate code, office phone number on a card by your phone. It is a proven fact that brains melt down in emergencies.

If a fire occurs at or near Sandpiper's the nearest hydrant is miles, MILES, away. Tanker trucks will be used with enough water to really drown any fire.

If your RV is on fire...well, forget it. It's probably a total loss. Concentrate the garden hoses on nearby RV'S. You can save them from catching on fire.

A fire truck costs a million bucks, but lasts up to 35 years before it needs replacing.
Hidalgo County is the 7th largest county in Texas with just under a million population.

The fire dept is a combination of 2/3 volunteer and 1/3 paid firefighters.

They answer 2200 calls a year, a lot of them grass fires.

And lastly, the Fire Marshall was pleased he didn't have to teach us the stop-drop-roll method of putting out flaming clothes.

Not wearing clothes is a good thing, 'cause they can't catch on fire. I think he admired that trait in us!