The news today told a story of twin sisters who received some sad news today.

It was their birthday. When they awoke, they logged into Facebook expecting to see many birthday wishes on their wall. Instead they saw postings that had RIP to their brother and a friend of his. After calling their brother and getting no response, they called their mother. She knew nothing of this either. At that point, the police were called and the story was confirmed. The brother and his friend had died in a car accident the night before.

Our EverybodySafe.com emergency notification service is to let people know when an emergency happens and to alert many people at the same time. While most of us would quickly say that we would rather receive a personal phone call in the event of a death, we at EverybodySafe.com feel that receiving an automated phone call that there is an emergency is better than, as in this case, finding out on Facebook. Worse yet would be not knowing anything at all for a few days.

We’ve heard the sad stories from hospitals, police and coroners that it can take on average three days to locate relatives for someone who can not speak for themselves. This is why we created EverybodySafe.com. Check out our site and let us know your thoughts on emergency notification.

Fire Prevention Week, October 4-10, 2009

Do you know how Fire Prevention Week started? It was started to commemorate the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. Because of that, fire prevention week is always on the week surrounding October 9. There were other very large fires that week, including the Peshtigo Fire in Northern Wisconsin.

The Peshtigo Fire was the worst forest fire in US history.

What we can do now is think about fire safety and prevention. Fire and burn safety tips should be always on our mind. Here are a few tips we should always remember.

• Practice kitchen fire safety
  • Don’t wear loose clothing around the stove
  • Don’t place flammable items near the stove – even if it is an electric or pilotless stove.
  • Don’t leave pan handles hanging over the floor where they can be bumped.
  • Handle pots and pans with oven mits
  • Watch the steam! Steam burns can be very serious.
• Fire safety around your clothes dryer
  • Don’t keep any clothes or flammable items near the pilot of the dryer.
• Smoking
  • Don’t smoke in bed
  • Don’t smoke when you are tired
  • Smoke outside (that will keep you awake and away from flammable items in the house)
• Electricity
  • How is the wiring in your house? Up-to-date?
  • Don’t plug to many things in the same place.
• Candle Safety
  • Stay in the room where candles are burning

Do you have sprinklers installed in your home? Do you have a fire extinguisher?

These are just a few tips that barely scratch the surface of fire safety. There are many more tips that we should be thinking about.

Please add your comments and suggestions for fire safety.

Is your partner on your emergency contact list or will they call your ex?

Making sure ALL of your loved ones know where you are.

If you were sick or injured and unable to communicate your emergency contact information to hospital workers, how would they know who to call? How would your partner or significant other know where you were? Contrary to popular belief there‘s no database of contact information for hospitals to pull from, so EverybodySafe.com provides a way to let everyone important to you know where you are.

It can take up to 18 hours for your family and loved ones to find out where you are, and even then, it might not be who you particularly want contacted.

Our I’m OK service is designed to let your family and friends know that you are OK. There are a few times where this can be used. One is when a natural disaster strikes. Was there a tornado, hurricane, fire, flood…. in your area? Everything is crazy because of so many people hurt or homes damaged? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to let people know that you are OK? That’s now easy to do!! Sign up for our free I’m OK service and add up to 7 contacts and their email addresses. When an event like the ones described above happen, simply go to our site and send an I’m OK message, using your EverybodySafe ID number. The alert goes out immediately by email to all of your pre-defined contacts! One quick note on our system, and everyone is notified. Nice and simple. Sign up for the free service here.

There are many other times where the I’m OK service can be used. What are some ideas of where you could use the I’m OK service? Let us know your ideas and don’t forget to sign up!!

While talking to someone recently, they mentioned that we had a micro-notification system. That was food for thought. We don’t have a mass notification system, that will alert a community regarding a disaster. That is a mass notification system. That system is very important and everyone should find out about the type of system in your area. Sign up for the mass notification system. We won’t always have a radio or television on to hear about what has happened, so getting alerts sent to your phone or email is very important.

Instead, our system notifies the people close to you in the event of an emergency. We alert your friends, family, neighbors and anyone else on your list in the event of an emergency that has happened to you. That is the micro-notification system. This type of system is more personal. It can be used in times of a major disaster, or if you have been involved in a car accident. The accident can be very major to you, but may not be on the news.

Another time when the micro-notification system helps is to let people know that you are OK when a major disaster does strike. Maybe there is an earthquake. Do you have a Mom that worries all the time? Send out an “I’m OK” message with our system to let her and others know that the earthquake did not effect you. Mom will be so releived!

Remember that? Is that something you learned in pre-school? Do you still remember what it is?

When my son was in pre-school, they learned this important fire safety tip. When the class visited the fire department, my son at four years old, demonstrated how this was done to the class and the other firefighters. Today, twenty years later, I asked him what he would do if his clothes caught on fire. After the joke answer (which is always his first answer) he repeated the stop, drop and roll technique.

I asked the same question of some other people. This was not a think about this question, but rather – What would be your first reaction? Many thought that tearing off their clothes would be the first thing they would do. Others would be looking for water, and if there was any nearby, running towards it. Of course that is scary to think about since running would make things worse before anyone made it to the water!

This is why education, and continued education, is so important for all safety concerns. We need to learn this when we are young but we still need to have continued reminders so we remember it.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could prevent bad things from happening? Make the world a better place? That would be wonderful, but it just is not what is happening today. Disasters happen – tornadoes, hurricanes, shootings, accidents, the list goes on. If we can’t prevent something from happening wouldn’t it be better to at least know if someone you care about is either hurt or OK? We have a service for both.

If you are in an accident that has made the news, you can call our 800# and let the people on your list know your status.

Emergencies happen, Natural disasters happen, Accidents happen. Many of these are preventable. For example, many accidents can be prevented by being more careful and using safety precautions. Thinking about how to do something more carefully and taking the extra few minutes to do that can make a huge difference. We are all guilty of carelessness. I’ve pulled a chair over to step on to reach something high rather than getting the stepladder just because the chair is closer. How much more time would it have taken to get the stepladder? In reality, that would have been 2 or 3 minutes total, to get it out, set it up, and put it away. Compare that to days or months or more to recuperate from an injury caused by falling from the chair. That is one small example in a world of ways that we can be more carful. It is very important to be careful and prepared. Since tornadoes can tear a town apart in minutes, it’s better to be prepared than to be apathetic. Have a plan, get an emergency kit, sign up with us so the people important to you will be notified when something does happen.

Many of us don’t really think about emergency plans. We have the attitude of “it won’t happen to me.”

I was also guilty of in years past. But, the truth is, bad things do happen. Emergencies occur, natural disasters happen, shootings, car accidents, serious illness…. the list goes on. I don’t want to think about these things on a daily basis! Worrying about this is not something we should do either! That causes it’s own stress. I don’t like to listen to the news since there is so much negativism. But, I do want to be prepared.

Letting people know that something has happened if an emergency occurs is part of being prepared. With my EverybodySafe.com account, I have everyone listed that I want to know immediately if something happens to me. Then, with each person, I have the choice of having them notified in different ways.

Make EverybodySafe.com part of your emergency plan.

1. Make a Plan Write up a plan for emergencies & disasters.
2. Get a Kit – Buy or put together an emergency kit. This should include food and water for three days.
3. Stay Informed – Use our system to notify your contacts in the event of an emergency.

Make a Plan – This should apply to emergencies and disasters small and large. It is best to have a written plan, and discuss it with your family. Include where to meet in case of fire or natural disaster. If someone goes into the hospital, have a plan for who will take over certain things for that person, either at work or at home. The plan can also specify one person to take care of medical needs, another person to make sure the kids/pets are taken care of, and so on. Make sure to include the specifics that apply to your household. If a young child needs medication, having a specific person to make sure that child has the medication is better than the child either missing a dose or getting double the medication. These seemingly small items are very important.

Get a Kit - An emergency kit is very important for a natural disaster. Everyone should have enough food and water to last for 3 days. Ready.gov suggests the following for the basics of your kit:

Recommended Items to Include in a Basic Emergency Supply Kit:

• Water, one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation
• Food, at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food
• Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and extra batteries for both
• Flashlight and extra batteries
• First aid kit
• Whistle to signal for help
• Dust mask, to help filter contaminated air and plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place
• Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation
• Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
• Can opener for food (if kit contains canned food)
• Local maps
• Specifics for you and your household, such as perscriptions and eyeglasses

Kits can be purchased or put together on your own. Either way you choose to go, have the emergency kit ready.

Stay Informed – You’ll need to know what is happening and have a way of notifying others. A portable, battery powered radio can keep you up-to-date on the news. EveybodySafe.com can notify family, friends, neighbors and anyone else you specify in the event of an emergency or disaster. A good disaster/emergency plan will include a notification system.