Blog About Safety

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.

What is that, you ask?

The “It Won’t Happen to Me” syndrome is, basically, denial. I won’t get into a really bad car accident and be rushed to the hospital. I won’t have a heart attack, even though there is family history. Yes, tornadoes, mudslides, hurricanes, forest fires… are around here but it won’t hit my house. There are terrorist attacks in large cities and at large events but it won’t happen when I’m there. My house won’t catch fire…

The list could go on and on. None of us wants to think about anything bad happening. However, if we don’t think about it, how can we prepare for it?

The answer is to think about these things long enough to be prepared. Once we have a plan for emergencies and disasters, we can go back to living our happy lives. But we have to plan !!

According to Ready.gov -

1. Get a Kit / To-Go Bag
2. Make a Plan
3. Stay Informed

There is another blog post that explains the details of what is needed – Make a Plan, Get a Kit, Stay Informed.

EverybodySafe.com can be used for the third item on the list. Part of staying informed is informing others on your status. Let them know if you are hurt by sending an alert, or if you are OK by sending an “I’m OK” message.

Don’t put this off any longer. Let’s go out and enjoy life, knowing that we will be prepared in the event of an emergency or disaster.

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.

Accidents happen every day, in the car, at home or outdoors, They happen when we are doing the activities we do every day, either in work or play. Other types of emergencies happen daily also, illness and natural disasters as examples. What do we need to do to be ready for something like this to happen? Do we even want to think about it? The answer to that is no, most people don’t want to think about something bad happening. The best thing would be to get prepared, take precautions to stay safe, then don’t worry.

So what do we need to be prepared?

1. Have an emergency plan. Think about what you need in general and any needs specific to you.
2. Have a disaster/emergency kit. Get everything together and keep it in a safe place.
3. Have a way to notify people in the event of an emergency or disaster.

How will people you care about know that something has happened to you? How will you know that an emergency has happened to someone you care about? Sign up for EverybodySafe.com to be sure everyone is notified in an emergency.

Are you concerned about getting the flu? Does it scare you that high cholesterol, heart attacks, cancer… run in your family?

If you worry about these things, what do you do to take care of yourself? Do you go to the doctor for regular checkups and talk to him or her about your concerns? Do you make sure to get a flu shot each year? Do you exercise, eat healthy, take vitamins? Many times the worry is worse if we don’t do anything to take care of ourselves.

For me it works better to make these changes in small steps. If I went from not exercising at all to a one hour workout every day, I’d never make it. Starting slowly, then increasing works much better for me. Currently, I’m starting yoga. It may not seem like much, but my muscles need to be stretched since I sit at the computer for too long each day. I’ll take yoga once a week for the first couple weeks, then go twice a week. I’m also adding a yoga stretch to my routine a couple of times each day. That only takes a few minutes, but makes a huge change in how I feel. I’ve done this type of change with many things over the years.

Preparedness in our own healthcare means staying on top of things and being in charge of our own health. This includes things like knowing your complete medical history and what a physical exam should include. There is a great book with a guide to all of this written by J. L. Richardson, M.D. The book can be found at http://www.mypatienthandbook.com/

The more we are prepared for, the better off we’ll be. More preparation and less worry and stress is the goal.