Masonry Magazine September 1966 Page. 29
Plan Ahead And Live
The fire began as a tiny ember, but in minutes flames were licking hungrily at the walls of the two-story suburban home near San Antonio. Poisonous smoke curled up the stairway toward the rooms of the sleeping family. The father, an attorney, smelled the smoke first and roused the other members of the family. Quickly he climbed out of the second-story bedroom onto a porch roof. His wife handed out two of their sons. Then he reentered and rescued his two other boys. They all climbed down a latticework to safety.
This family was ready when fire struck. There was no hesitation, confusion or panic because a few weeks earlier they had worked out a fire-escape plan.
Too often it's a different story. The files of the National Fire Protection Association are packed with thousands of fire fatality reports which tell of homes suddenly turned into execution chambers by searing flames and deadly fumes. Each day, reports come in from all parts of the nation describing scenes of fire terror.
In Los Angeles a mother fled her flaming home with two of her children, but watched in horror later as firemen carried out the bodies of her two sons, 3 and 4 years old.
Four children died when an early morning fire swept their two-story, frame house in Galesburg, Illinois. The parents, who slept in a first-story enclosed porch, escaped.
In Ogden, Utah, two brothers re-entered their blazing home to rescue their younger brothers and sisters. The two brothers perished in the flames. The younger children, it was learned later, had already fled to safety.
During 1965, there were approximately 12,000 fire deaths in the United States. More than half of these deaths occurred in home fires, and over one-third of the victims were children. Fire-safety experts say that a majority of lives lost in home fires could be saved if families were prepared.
Prompted by these grim statistics and the knowledge that preparedness saves lives, the Accident and Fire Prevention Department of the American Mutual Insurance Alliance recently published Operation EDITH-Exit Drill In The Home. This 16-page booklet describing this family fire-safety plan is now getting wide distribution among fire departments across the nation.
Essentially, EDITH is a guide which shows a family how to prepare for a fire emergency and how to get out of a home safely once fire strikes.
Fire-safety experts know that not everyone instinctively flees a burning building. Children panic and hide in closets or under beds. Terror-stricken adults "freeze" in their burning homes and have to be carried out bodily by firemen.
Other fire victims sadly underestimate the speed at which