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Show v r , B October 4, 2001 evacuatioim Emrneirgeinicy Know, practice procedure at home, work by Jim Maryott crash or hear others yell. There seems to be no happy medium. People either panic when they see smoke or are indifferent when they just hear alarms. Mff Fire Department assistant chief Facility Evacuations. The idea seems simple to most when the fire bells ring, everyone runs out of the building. Right? Not exactly. Klany more things come into play when dealing with building evacuations. Recent events have shown the importance of emergency notification and timely evacuation. The death toll could have been much worse had evacuation procedures from the World Trade Center not been in place. the Hill AFB Fire During Fire Prevention Week, Oct Prevention section conducts evacuation drills throughout the base. To schedule an evacuation drill or have fire extinguisher training, cal! the Hill AFB Fire Prevention Section at Ext All buildings, whether they are for meetings, homes or work, are subject to emergency situations. People in these facilities must know how to get out and away from danger as quickly and orderly as possible. It sounds simple until an actual emergency strikes. Unfortunately, many people panic and do irrational things during emergencies. Some include returning to a burning building to retrieve personal belongings, pets or vehicles, taking extra time to turn off appliances or computers, or shut windows and close draperies. Other practices include getting dressed, putting on coats and hats, cleaning up, collecting valuables and pictures and our favorite "time waster" looking for the emergency. Most people wont evacuate immediately if they don't personally sense danger. They don't believe anything is wrong unless they see or smell smoke, feel heat or steam, hear a 3, time-consumi- Information and training help solve evacuation problems. The following emergency procedures apply to home and work building evacuations. Sound a vocal alarm and, if available, pull the manual fire alarm box that alerts occupants and the fire depart- ment Call 911, from a phone in the building if it's safe or from another building. Don't assume someone else has called in the emergency. When you hear the alarm, immediately walk to the nearest exit Don't stop for personal belongings or search for a problem. Help anyone in need. Meet at the rally point so everyone can be accounted for. Don't leave the rally point unless asked to do so. comDon't return to the building until the mander or senior fire official grants permission. it's the Practice an escape plan at home and at work will work. At smoke test the how to see home, only way plan detectors monthly, have predesignated locations for all family members to meet and practice different ways out At work, tell all permanent workers about rally points, extinguisher and manual pull box locations and emergency procedures. Permanent workers may have to help visitors Find the exits. A quick and orderly evacn uation is imperative to the everyone's safety. know will don't assume everyone for emergencies what to do. r l' ' Mr Nn i ed on-sce- v-- i Pre-pla- Photos by Ill m Hill Rpii:.:: rrp I n I Sl ! I urn I 1 ETll ! "Stop, Drop and Roll," above, is one of several fire safety rules painted on the outside of the trailer. Children got a close look at one of Hill's fire trucks, below, and had an opportunity to ask questions about the vehicles. V- Operation Bright Star Hill cin t( V'.'SHi..' rio' f fa n- v ; - W -S Jh S. mi TJ jsr squadron builds desert city complex than is visible to the eye. The initial task at hand for the civil engineering team was to bull75th AEG Public Affairs doze and grade the tent city area to begin building. The team had From fixing power outages at night to ensuring everyone has to completely redesign the area from its original plan developed hot water for a fresh morning shower, the 75th Expeditionary Civil during the initial site visit in June. "We had to work with the Egyptian military to modify our setEngineering Squadron from Hill AFB responds to base support needs. up and throughout the entire process they have been extremely n The unit faces many challenges to create and sustain the gracious in supporting everything we've done," said Bole. of more than 600 residents at Cairo West AB Egypt affecThe original exercise tasking was to set up nearlyl50 tents, and tionately referred to as "home," as part of Operation Bright Star. to provide water and electricity to all users in tent city and another d "We practice for this on a smaller scale, but these worksite on the other side of the base. to it is have the rare Water was a big issue. Although there was a well on base and days opportunity to build up a base of this size from the ground, up," said 1st Lt Scott Bole, 75th ECES com- water lines installed, some had to be replaced and the entire line mander. .checked for leaks. The water crews adapted to several operational For Bole, it's his first time deploying to a bare base and having constraints to start up and maintain the s miles of piping to start from scratch, but that didn't stop him and his team of 95 required to distribute '80,000 gallons of water to the dining tent civil engineering technicians. laundry and shower areas. Most of the team is from Hill, but the group has brought in the While tent city construction continued, the team tackled its next team members from the other bases like Seymour-JohnsoAFB, challenge providing enough electricity to light up a small city N.C., Holloman AFB, N.M., Mountain Home AFB, Idaho and sev-- with the potential to grow to 1,200 or more people. Everything on eral bases across the Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force base is powered by generators that run on diesel and jet fuel, with Reserve. Bole called the team "a seamless melting of forces." a set of back-u- p generators in case the primary generators fail. The ADVON, or initial team arrived Aug. 31 and immediately The planning for set-u- p and base support for the Bright Star more than 100 flatbeds of tents, vehicles and 2 exercise has involved the 75th Civil Engineering Squadron began equipment comprising the base support deployment package since December to set up Kghts, air conditioning, water lines, known as Harvest Falcon. The initial crew included 11 civil waste disposal, city planning and structural design. This is the engineers, security forces and fuels personnel and a small comfirst time Air Force Materiel Command has participated as the mand element lead group in an exercise of this magnitude. The equipment had to first be signed over and allocated to the With all the challenges the team has faced in its first couple appropriate areas depending on its function in order for set-u- p weeks, the most difficult challenge Bole said was "convincing to begin. After the equipment was in place, the team built up the everyone we were in Egypt" Many of the initial crew had diffis base to sustain people within three days. They were able culty acclimating to the time change, the culture and getting setto maintain their workload continually ahead of schedule. tled into a routine. "We've worked together, averaging from hours a day with The civil engineering team here is comprised of fire protection, little rest in between, over the last 14 days," Bole said. They explosive ordnance disposal, structural crews, readiness, elecoriginally had two weeks to complete the entire bare base set- trical power production, HVAC, equipment operators, utilities up. This may seem like enough time to set up facilities on a rela- crews for water waste, entomologists, force managers, customer tively small piece of ground, but the undertaking may be far more service, engineering assistants and bare base management. mini-tow- year-roun- 1 Jrrr Tectv Sgt Jonathan Zimmerman, above, 75th Expeditionary Civil Engineering Squadron fire department, performs "ready checks" on his fire truck. Master Sgt William Dow, 75th ECES, prepares a water pipe to install in tent city at Cairo West AB, Egypt The squadron maintains more than four and a half miles of water piping to supply the base with water. in.. ;; ... V V in ; ,1 . ' L" . - VH-;.- , four-plu- n off-loadi- 01-0- 900-plu- " if. x iiii.ii it ; SPV' by 2nd Lt. Kimberly Melchor civ'. 1r'.." r riii fZC-.-- . )Jl "V fxf W I . Mary Galbralth firefighter Jim Ritter, above, explains fire escape routes to Hill Field Elementary as they entered the Utah State School third graders. Students gave Sparky a high-fiv- e Fire Marshal's Life Safety House, a trailer where children learn about fire safety. StOP VT3 " 15-1- 8 |