Safety product: Todd’s Fire Drill

Hi,

If you trust a school to educate your children and to house them you wouldn’t want to worry about fire in the dormitories of colleges and boarding school. 

Statistics for US schools (U.S. Fire Administration National Fire Data Center, 2007) reveal that there were no reported school related fire deaths for the year 2006-2007.  Why is this?  Why is it that Canada and European schools have similar statistics?  It is because of the government enforced fire safety policies that are strictly monitored.  Fire drills are required at least once a month.  Fire evacuation routes have to be posted.  In most schools there is a required sprinkler system, or fire escape.  The report quoted above credits the fire drills as the largest contributing factor to the safety of the students in schools.  Yet, when there is a school related fire death reported, they tend to be in boarding schools in these countries.  Why?  The answer unfortunately is simple.  The one thing that happens in a boarding school that does not happen in a regular school is that students sleep in their own beds.  Sleeping is the only listed contributing factor to school related fire deaths in these countries.

School inspections include examinations into fire safety in these countries.  In most cases those reports are also available online.  Past concerns are also reviewed and examined in these reports.  Even schools in Korea have stringent rules on fire safety (Korea International School, 2007).

Yet, there are still many schools in Africa, Asia and, South America, where state required inspections do not exist or are not as strict have had large death tolls related to boarding school fires.  On April 15th 2008, a fire ripped through a dormitory in Buddo Junior Primary School, a boarding school in Uganda.  Nineteen girls as young as 12 and two adults were killed (OLUKYA, 2008).  On March 26, 2001 a fire killed 59 boys at the Kyanguli Secondary School in Machakos, a boarding school out (Associated Press, 2002).  In both cases there were serious fire hazards.  Doors were locked.  Windows were barred.  Government monitoring was lax.  The living condition in both cases was poor.

When you look at a boarding school no matter what country, visit the dorm!  Talk to the students, ask questions about fire drills.  Ask the students if they are ever awakened by one.  Its one thing to send your little one to a school known for its academics, its another thing to send your child someplace to live without first visiting the place and people you will trust to care for your child.  Kenya and Uganda are only a few of such places that have had fires with deadly results.

The US Fire Administration (2007) reports that hotels, boarding houses and boarding schools are susceptible to higher incidences of fire because of carelessness, smoking, candles, and simple ordinary home life activities that are not appropriate for a boarding/hotel type atmosphere.  Cooking in electric appliances such as toaster ovens or electric plates, discarding flammable materials such as cigarettes, storing towels and sheets where cleaning supplies are kept are just a few of the things that lead to fires in boarding schools. 

Safety Tip: Remember, if you want your child to be safe in a boarding school, visit the school, ask students questions, and check out the school’s last inspection.  These two tasks will protect your children in their home away from home. 

Do you have a concern or experience related to this article?  If so, leave a comment and share your concerns with others. 

Safe living, Yovette Mumford

Hi,

It may be true that your data and other files are the most important part of your laptop, but surely that doesn’t mean you can afford to lose the laptop either. No matter how inexpensive computers become, nobody really wants to buy a second laptop if they can keep their first one, safe. To prevent your computer from getting lost, you may need to spend a little extra time and money to make sure your laptop is safe from thieves — or a fire.

Laptop Burglary Safe Fire Resistant Model HD-20

One effective way to secure your laptop is to put it in a secure room or even a safe, like a Laptop Burglary Safe Fire Resistant. You may want to store your laptop safely when you’re not using it or not traveling with it. A secure room, like a server room, may be a good place for laptops that stay in the office — but then you may not have access to the server room. Or, you may be keeping your laptop at home.

A Laptop Burglary Safe Fire Resistant provides you with an additional level of protection than a secure room, and that is a fire resistant storage container. If you use one, your laptop is not only safe from burglars but is also reasonably protected from fire and smoke damage.

The Laptop Burglar Safe Fire Resistant is spacious enough for your laptop and a few other things, with its interior dimensions of 20 in. wide x 6 3/8 in. high x 12 in. deep. You can add CDs or flash drives. The laptop safe could also be used to store removable hard drives, if you wish.

The Laptop Burglar Safe Fire Resistant has a ¼ in. thick solid steel-plate door. To protect your laptop from scratches and direct contact with metal, the interior is velvet-lined. It gives 30 minutes of fire protection, when directly exposed to fire.

To control access to the safe, there is an electronic keypad for you to program a four- to eight-digit code. In case the situation calls for it, you can use its mechanical key override features. Batteries power the electronic circuits in the laptop burglar safe fire resistant, and you also have an external power override, just in case. There are pre-drilled holes on the safe bottom to secure it in place.

Remember, physical safety is one of the most overlooked aspects of computer security, and yet, it is one of the easiest things to implement. With the Laptop Burglar Safe Fire Resistant option, you can really keep your laptop (and your valuable data) secure. Life has no reset button, think safety.

Safe living,
Yovette Mumford

Hi,

Every one of us has some important documents to protect. It could be passports and birth certificates, some cash or precious photos. It could be property deeds, business ownership documents, insurance policies. It could even be documents covering your estate plan: a will, a living trust perhaps, durable power of attorney for health care and one for finances, or even written instructions for your funeral or donations of body parts. You obviously want to keep all these documents in a safe place. Naturally, you look for a secure place for storage ─ a safe in your house or office, or even a drawer in your file cabinet or desk. Some people use a safe deposit box in a bank, but that can sometimes pose problems.

Fire Resistant Document Storage Bag

An inexpensive but very effective way to protect such documents from fire is to put them inside a fire resistant document storage bag. This fire resistant document storage bag is quite big ─ at 9 in x 14 in, it can hold legal size documents. With its fiberglass construction, it is built to withstand high temperatures of 1000oF. In terms of fire resistance, it gives as much protection as a fire safe at a much lesser cost.

If you have only one safe in the house, and it is a burglary-resistant safe where you store your valuables, you should realize that such safes cannot do much to protect valuable documents or records against fire. If a fire were to occur, any documents inside a burglary-resistant safe would be reduced to ashes.

You can stuff your important documents in the fire resistant document storage bag and store them in the burglary-resistant safe. In that manner, the documents are protected both against burglary and against fire. By the way, do not forget to let the person who will wind up your affairs know what you have arranged and how to obtain the documents. Life has no reset button, think safety.

Safe living,
Yovette Mumford

Hi,

Those of us who live in multi-level homes or apartments should consider adding a safety product that will come in very handy when you need it most: a fire escape ladder. Many firemen think it is a good idea to add fire escape ladders to second-floor windows. You and your family can use these ladders to escape from a fire, when getting out through the door is no longer possible.

2-Story Fire Escape Ladder

3rd Story Fire Escape Ladder

4th Story Fire Escape Ladder

5th/6th Story Fire Escape Ladder

A fire escape ladder should be a must in every multi-level home. Look for models that are simple to use (even for a child) and can be conveniently stored near a window. Most inexpensive models do not attach permanently to a window, though. At least, get one that you can put under a bed, to make them easy to pull out when needed.

When buying a fire escape ladder, look for a non-combustible ladder; better still, try look for one that bears the mark of an independent testing lab. You must make sure the ladder is strong enough to support the heaviest person in the family.

When you have bought one, don’t put it in a remote closet where it is likely to be forgotten and will do little good. Store it within easy reach so that if it is needed, you can grab it quickly, hook it onto the window sill, throw it down, and make your escape.

The panic-proof fire escape ladder featured here was actually developed by a firefighter. It is guaranteed not to tangle (which can be a problem with other emergency escape ladders). It is very stable and does not sway, because it becomes rigid when someone steps on it. It is so lightweight even a child will have no difficulty at all lifting it. Yet, it is still strong enough to support 600 lbs. It is 12 ½ feet long and fits 14-inch wide windows or larger.

Remember to make everyone familiar on how to use the fire escape ladder safely and properly. Show older children how to attach the ladder and to back out the window to climb down. Keep the route to the windows clear and make sure the windows designated as fire exits are easy to open. Try having a fire drill at night, because the most deadly fires occur at night. Life has no reset button, think safety. Click for more Fire Safety Products.

Safe living,
Yovette Mumford

Hi,
Fire can happen in any season of the year. There are a number of things that can terrify us, but very few situations can surpass the terror of being unable to protect a child when emergencies like fire occur.

Child Safety Blanket

Fire is one emergency that we should always prepare for. Just as we have fire drills and prepare for fire emergencies at work, we should conduct similar drills at home. We need to educate our children about techniques for protecting themselves during these emergencies. We can make sure that they use fire retardant clothes when they go to bed. And, we should have a Child Safety Blanket tucked under each bed, one for each child.

Child safety blankets are fire blankets that protect your child by keeping the heat from getting to your child’s skin. In a fire, children can quickly wrap the 45” x 38” child safety blanket around themselves. It is very light, weighing only 7 ounces, so they should have no problem holding onto it. The blanket can protect them from contact burns and against the intense heat and flames of a fire until they can get safely outside the house.

If you are lucky enough to spot a fire when it is just starting, you can actually use the child safety blanket to put out the fire — the high-tech fibers are that resistant to flames. They had to be, because the fabric had to meet the safety criteria for firemen’s gear of the national fire protection association. Fire departments all over the country and the Emergency Management Services already use the same blankets in their operations.

The child safety blanket is not only good for blocking flames and heat from fires. It also helps to keep the body heat in and around your child. This makes the child safety blanket equally useful in other situations, like camping or boating, when you need to make sure they retain body heat and be protected from the cold. And if a fire should occur at the camp, your child can use the safety blanket to extinguish it.

By the way, in your fire drills at home, make sure the children learn not only to wrap the child safety blanket around themselves but also to have a moist towel or cloth covering their noses and mouths. This ensures dangerous fumes will not get into their lungs. Life has no reset button, think safety.

Safe living,
Yovette Mumford