Run Totals for Bethel Fire and EMS for the Month of February

Structure Fire – 1

Automatic Alarms – 15

Animal Rescue – 1

Kitchen/Stove Fire – 1

Motor Vehicle Accident – 2

Carbon Monoxide/Gas leak – 1

EMS Assist – 1

Mutual Aid – 2

Unauthorized Burn – 1

Smell of Smoke / investigation – 5

Hazardous Materials – 4

Sprinkler activation – 1

Broken Pipes – 1

EMS

There were a total of 103 EMS calls for this past month.

Car 3’s Corner

I wanted to use this months article for something that is always a staple in everyone’s home and hopefully place of work and that is a (working) smoke detector. Either as part of a central station monitoring system, or a stand alone battery operated smoke and CO combination detector these units are an invaluable tool in getting the needed resources to your home or business as quick as possible in the event of an emergency.

In today’s modern construction of buildings, and the materials found in them, the speed in which fire can spread, the heat that’s generated by that fire, the time in which you and your family have to safely make it out of a building, and the amount of loss that can be generated is very different from fires even a couple of decades ago. Consider the average dense foam “memory” style mattress once fully involved can generate the heat energy equivalent to that given off by 60 gallons of gasoline. Thirty years ago you had almost 17 minutes to escape a house fire, it is now closer to three to four minutes.

If you have a battery operated smoke detector, as we have just turned our clocks forward, (That twice a year event where either we are happy to get an extra hour of sleep, or sadly lose an hour), it is also one of the easiest ways to remember to change the battery’s in your home smoke detector, and to keep them fresh. It is critical to protecting your home and more importantly your loved ones.

If you look at our call totals for the month, many times the automatic fire alarms/ CO calls dominate the calls we respond to. Many of these are a result of smoke/CO detectors going off. some are legitimate issues, however most thankfully are not. Please trust me when I tell you we as a department would still much rather respond to something that is “no issue” than to find out after the fire has spread into multiple rooms.

Stay Safe,

Assistant Chief

Brendan Patrick Ryan

Bethel Fire