Masonry Magazine September 1966 Page. 30
Plan Ahead and Live
(continued from page 29).
Smoke, flames and suffocating heat kill. Some victims, believing they have plenty of time to escape, try to save a precious possession or attempt to call the fire department from inside their burning home. A family of nine was recently wiped out in an early morning home fire at North Beach Park, Maryland. Firemen sifting through the smoldering ruins found one adult fully clothed, wearing a topcoat.
Families who plan ahead have the best chance of escaping from a burning home. Home fire-safety programs like Operation EDITH advise that a "home fire chief," usually the father, should sit down with the other members of the family and work out an escape plan. Basically, there are five steps in setting up a family escape plan:
1. Draw a rough floor plan of the home. Map out an escape route and an alternate route from each room. Bedrooms should receive special attention.
2. Dangers of fire should be impressed upon all members of the family. Emphasize that smoke as well as fire can kill. Explain how to test a door to find out if a blast of hot air and flame is lurking on the other side, and how to call the fire department once safely outside.
3. Pick a place outside the home where the family will meet after escaping. Make sure that everyone understands the rule that once out of a burning home they stay out.
4. Explain that fire kills quickly and that in order to escape, speed is essential. Children should be warned not to take time to dress or look for a favorite toy.
5. Once these basic rules are understood, frequent home drills should be held to teach family members to react automatically when disaster strikes.
In laying out a fire-escape plan it should be remembered that each family will be faced with problems peculiar to their home. Families who live in one-story homes may find escape relatively easy. Almost anyone, except the aged, the ill or very young children, can open a window and drop the short distance to the ground without injury. However, in many of the newer one-story homes, half-windows located four or five feet from the floor pose a special problem. In this case, it is necessary to have a chair or dresser nearby so persons can climb up to the sill level to escape.
Other problems are presented by screens, storm windows and the new vertical, casement-type windows. If these make escape difficult, the basic rule is to smash them out with a chair or nightstand. A pillow, blanket or piece of clothing should then be placed over the broken glass on the window sill so the person can climb out to safety without being cut.
The upper floors create the most troublesome problems, because escape usually means a drop of 15 to 20 feet to the ground. If there is a porch, garage roof or portico beneath the second-floor bedroom window a person can crawl through the window onto it and await rescue or drop the shorter distance to the ground. But usually use of some form of auxiliary escape device should be planned. This device may be one of the rope ladders now being marketed. Folding aluminum ladders that look like a downspout are also available, and any family handyman can construct a fire-escape pole for $10 to $15.
One other serious escape problem arises when a family member is aged or bedridden. This person cannot be moved through a window except as a last resort. It is usually a job for trained firemen. In cases like this, it is a good idea to notify the fire department in advance that the home has an invalid. Some fire departments have "I" (invalid) stickers which can be placed on the bedroom door and window where these persons can be found.
With any family escape program there must be total planning, periodic practice, re-evaluation and a growing awareness of the dangers of fire. Family members should be taught to make the life-saving door test. If a door is warm to the touch, don't open it. Wood is a poor conductor of heat, and chances are that flames are already eating away at the other side.
At night, all doors in the home, especially the bedroom doors, should be closed. This can delay the spread of fire up to 15 minutes.
Emphasize that smoke is the real killer in most fires. Children should learn how to use a handkerchief or wet washcloth as a "gas mask." and practice crawling to take advantage of the usually smoke-free area about 18 inches above the floor.
Showing family members how to roll up in a blanket or rug to smother blazing clothing is another good technique which can be incorporated into the basic family plan.
However, in all these exercises, emphasize that a family fire-escape plan has two main objects: Get out of the home as quickly and as safely as possible, and then call the fire department.
The National Fire Protection Association estimates that each year 4,000 Americans could save themselves from death in home fires if they would take the time to prepare a family fire-escape plan. Most parents would be outraged to discover that their children's schools did not hold fire drills. Yet, ironically, most of these same parents never hold escape drills in the home-where fire is 200 times more likely to strike.