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Show no HFo IP bv Margaret VanNoy rruliln Writer When the National Safety (.'ouiu'il totals the drath count from home fi res, Hill you lie kart of the statistics4 If you were not at home and a fire started. Hould your children know what to do4 Have you planned fire escape procedures uith them, showing them every possible escape route.4 Have you conducted actual fire drills in your home.4 (Holier 7 through 11 is fire prevention week, laical fire departments have liecu working with school children giving them information on fire fighting procedures and lips cm how to present fires. Adults also need to lie reminded of some safety factors. More than 5,01 Kt Americans will die this year in home fires, most of which cat or at night. Will you or yours lie an unnecessary victim4 III MAN REACTION Although an impressive amount of research has assembled a wealth of data on fire safety and procedures such as how fast certain sulistances bum, rate of heat release, mass burning rate, etc., which are important in the development of technology for reducing fire losses, an important link is missing: the human reaction. Your knowledge and your ability to read are all important in what the statistics will show should you have a fire in your home. Some buy a smoke detector for their home, but their precautions end there. Have you planned what to do after the smoke detector sounds? A smoke detector cannot get you out of the fire; that's up to you. Fear and panic can be as deadly as a fire. According to safety experts for Family Safety" magazine, tragic deaths from fire are avoidable if families plan how to escape from their homes, and if thev hold fire drills regularly. DRAW A FLOOR PLAN First, draw a floor plan of your whole house including doors and windows and any olistacles that might delay escape or trip someone in the dark. Next, visit each room, family in tow, and plan escape routes. Decide which is o the easiest route and mark the path out of the house on your floor plan. Then plan an alternative emergency exit should the route lie bloc ked, I'suallv, this will lie through a window. Qioose a wale, easily oeucd one. la-- t children practice oieumg windows and unfastening storms and screens. Provide a wav for them to reac h the latches. Explain how to break a window safely, using a chair or lamp Itase to smash the glass and knot k out remaining shards of glass, while standing in a safe posit ion at the side. A nig or blanket should l placed over the frame to prevent cuts. If the window sills are high almve the floor, family meuitters must move a chair or dresser to the window and climb through it. SECOND FIXX)R ESCAPE Escape from second floor will prolia-bl- v le more difficult than from a ground floor. Experts advise having a rope or chain ladder. The ladder may either honk over the sill or icrnianeutly Ixilt to the floor, ladders are for sale in most three-storhardware stores in two-anlengths. Don't forget that a climber needs toe room wall and ladder. Everyone should practice using the ladder to avoid panic and unnecessary falls from loss of lialancc. Many fire deaths and injuries occur, not from fire or smoke, but from "leap" y out of upjker-stor- y windows. Roofs, Never jump from an upper-stor- high and narrow, perhaps you should stall larger and lower ones. y window excejit as a last resort. Experts advise that you lower yourself from the window, hang down and then drop to the ground. Know what is under each window in your home. Is there a concrete walk, or drive, liasemetit window wells, or other olist ructions? DECALS PINPOINT HELPLESS If you have handicapped memliers in your family, they should lie located on the ground floor, with a window decal (available from your fire dejiartment) indicating where they are to firemen. It is a good idea to put an extra smoke detector in a handicapped person's bedroom. Seriously consider remodelling your home to provide two ways out of every room. Since basement windows are often in- After you plan and practice exiting your home using various methods, determine a definite spot where the family is to meet once they are outside. It should lie a well lighted spot at the front of the house. This will prevent unnecessary tragedy which often results as parents or other a luiming house. CALL FIRE DEPARTMENT OUTSIDE After everyone is safe, one family memlier b designated to call the fire department from a neighbor's phone, limning liefore you leave the home tak valuable minutes that could cost you your life. Every family member old enough should have the fire department numlier memorized. Practice speaking slowly and distinctly giving name and address and w ait ing to answer quest ions. You can not stress too strongly the the house importance of not for pets or possessions. Many fire deaths occur for this very reason. Don't let your plan lie dormant; drill at least every sis months. Since most deaths occur at night, practice Iwdroom escapes thoroughly. Sleeping with lied room doors dosed will help protect sleepers from deadly smoke and gases which are responsible for over half of all Are deaths. It will also slow down spreading fire. If you have smoke detector in your borne, testing it by setting it off will be an effective way to start the drill. Have family drill on such procedure as rolling out of lied, and crawling to the bedroom door. Test it for heat with the palm of your hand. If cool, stand and open it just a crack. If passing your hand across the opening indicates the air is cool, it b safe to open and exit through Be Your Ovn Fire Inspector d HELP US PROTECT YOU1 PROPERTY I51URN oil electric and gas appliances when leaving room. VER heated sieves er pipes will cause fires. UTS1DE rubbish and grass fires should be carefully watched. wiring should be care ELECTRICAL annually. and see that all gas pipes and LOOK are tight. open fire should have a screen hall. If the air b warmer than usual, slam the door, bang on the door and walls and yell to alert other family memliers; then take the alternate route to safety. With careful, repeated drills, even small children can be taught to leave a burning house calmly and safely. Isn't it worth it? EVERY before it. and stove pipes should be FURNACE accumulating oily and bum them. rags YreEMEMRER gasoline ignites easily JlU Handle with care. TTIXERCISE care with lighted candles INSTEAD Home Inspection lial-coni- and decks can provide a relatively safe perch while awaiting rescue. You Can Prevent It. you can Escape It. kept where young children cannot get bold of them? instructed carefully on what to do in case of fire? 3. Are electrical outlets overloaded? 4. Are extension cords run under rugs? 5. Are your basement, closets, and attic kept free from rubbish, oily rags, flammable liquids, large stacks of paper, or etc.? 6. Is gasoline used for lawn mower stored in a strong metal can? 7. After using oily polishing or dusting rags, are they destroyed or else placed in a covered metal can? 8. Is the kitchen exhaust fan kept clean of grease? 9. Has everyone in the family been warned never to use kerosene or other flammable liquids to start a fire in the fireplace? 10. Are charcoal grills used only outdoors? 11. Does every ooe know the telephone number and the procedure to report a 1. Are matches I meauel of laWHM 2. Are babysitter fire? 12. IF THERE SHOULD RE A FIRE IN YOUR HOMS not delay in dialing 8823636 EVERY of Department by giv PREVENT delay location of fire. 17710 do this may save your home or business. ' Did the entire family take part in completing this check list? Help us help minute counts ' o - SAFETY FIRST. LAST AND ALWAYS East Elementary students listen raptly to tips on fire safety from fireman Dennis Ewing. note of when youre in the habit of eating, and change your behavior. If you eat while youre watching TV, give up TV; if you eat everytime you go in the kitchen, dont go near it again. If you automatically reach for There are days when I feel that books and failed. I was on the grapefruit and egg diet for so long tinue to cope with the problems it that my whole family developed permanent tics from getting squirted in thrusts upon me. Take overweight, for instance. the eye. I tried the Air Force diet, but all For years my weight has bounced up and down like a yo yo with the spans I got out of that was air sickness. I getting longer and the bounce get- tried the Olympic Ski Teams regime ting weaker. Finally it has hap- and developed athletes foot. The pened: the string on my yo yo has drinking mans diet left me with a red nose and a permanent case of snapped! AS ITS elasticity limps to a halt, hiccups. MY FAVORITE was the "Eat I am bitter. Ever since "thin has been in, I have been struggling. All You Want Diet, one on which I Looking back it seems I have spent could eat filet mignon smothered in every waking moment of my adulth- mushroom gravy three times a day. I ood on a diet, trying to lose a few gained 15 pounds in one week. Now were into Behavior Modipounds. I have tried every diet in the fication. All you have to do is take Ive had it with life. I just cant t con- a doughnut while you are reading the paper, give up papers, books and magazines. If you have a bottle of soda pop beside your bathtub, give up bathing. Do you see what behavior modification would lead to? THEN THERE is the diet with exercise. My problem is that when I come to the diet part, I decide that Ill eat now and exercise instead. When it comes time to exercise, I decide that Ill diet instead. It becomes a vicious circle. My husband has been very patient with me all these years, giving me encouragement as he continues to munch on Snickers, ice cream and waffles smothered in butter and syrup. But even he seems to have reached the end of his tether. WHY ARE you curled up in a ball like that? he asked me the other night. This is the fetal position. Im V trying to get back to my birth Yes, I was born at the wrong weight, I replied. time. In a few years hence. Im sure It will never work, he said in the secret of staying thin will be disgust. He picked up the latest book solved and the next generation will lying on the bedside table, How to be taking pills that will keep them flatten your stomach. It says here slim, but my generation is the only that these exercises are guaranteed one expected to useself discipline. to work. Why arent you down on I WOULD have been the darling the floor exercising instead of lying of the age of Titian or Rubens. The in bed? ladies they painted and adored had WELL, I SAID with my usual big thighs, pouchy tummies, and amreasoning, If they are GUARAN- ple bosoms. They definitely would TEED to flatten my stomach, I not fit in a pair of Levis, might as well wait until after dinner and neither do I. When I was a kid, the worst to start. Thats when he lost his patience. thing that could happen to a girl was Life is so unfair. My problem is to grow up and run afoul of a that I was bom at the wrong time. WHITE SLAVER. We were warned My mothers generation (the corset night and day about WHITE generation) suffered it is true," but SLAVERS, but nobody ever warned she was expected, yes, even al- us about becoming overweight. Even those who weathered the lowed to develop dowagers hump and matrons middle. In her day it depression got short shrift. We were was not a sign of moral decadence to poor, and all we had to eat was an be flagrantly flabby. apple and a glass of water. Then the rolled around. Did we IM TIRED of feeling guilty goodto times Cherries eat Jubilee and Eggs get of everytime I take a mouthful food; Benedict? No! We an apple and got I If am I going a yet cant stop eating. of water. glass to an early grave, there ought at WERE WE allowed to drive least to be some joy in it. limouI fully expect to be buried with a around in a chauffeur-drive- n No! have We sine? to or ride clutched in my hand. jog skin-tig- calorie-count- er S ht bikes in order to keep in shape. Theres just no justice! Every ma- gazine from "Family Circle to has a diet complete with starvation menus tucked in between recipes for perfect chocolate cake, and lemon meringue pie. Although we heavyweights are in the majority, the whole world is run for the benefit of thin people. The good life is offered only to them. ' When will the fatties rise up and demand equal rights? In my opinion, a fat backlash is long overdue. NOWADAYS, we do have one concession. The maternity smock is in for everybody. Before it came along, the only time I appeared in public was in the winter. I wore my grey coat so long, that the day my husband gave it to the D.I., my kids refused to get in the car with me. Our mother taught us never to ride with strangers, they said. The trouble with diets today is that all they are concerned with is food. The most popular diet regime of the day keeps you in the kitchen all day long preparing your prescribed menu. Give me a diet that never mentions food of any kind, and Ill have it made. 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