SIDS stands for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Every year, many infants die in this way. I am not going to provide any clinical aspects or findings of this syndrome. My intent is to write about this in a way that helps to educate about this syndrome. Although it can occur at any time, the highest incidence seems to be in winter. The bottom line is that a seemingly normal child is put down for a nap and never wakes up. Some would say, you lay them on their back, you lay them on their stomach, you lay them on their…
Browsing: Fire & Life Safety
As we pass from 2018 to 2019, be vigilant to prevent a fire in your home. I am giving each of us the benefit of the doubt that we have been mindful of fire safety up to this point. There are still cooking-related fires that are displacing people from their homes every day. The reason for this is that the heat, fuel and oxygen are present on a regular basis. If there were other rooms where heat and fuel were together, then fires would occur there as well. Unless we want to live in a hotel room or move in…
The perfect storm, pun intended, came together last Friday with the pouring rain, lots of traffic and the effect of the time change. People’s driving has become worse and worse, especially on Fridays, due to people in a hurry, people who lack patience, people who take chances at other’s expense and darkness that falls at rush hour. A logging truck apparently lost his load on I-85, causing a traffic snarl at I-85 and Route 1. It would have been a great area to avoid, but I happened to be going right there. When we left, I decided to bypass all…
I was talking with a retired firefighter recently about a fire that he experienced in his home. He shared that as he and his wife had just laid down the night before when they both began to smell something burning. They got up and investigated and found that the control panel of their dishwasher on fire. He told me that brand of dishwasher has had numerous recalls, but they did not include his. I am certain that they cut the power by shutting off the breaker, and the fire was controlled. He said it was pushing black smoke. He said…
It is hard to believe that Christmas is almost here. This is a season of joy and happiness as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In preparing for this celebration, we adorn our homes, inside and out, with decorations. In some cases, folks become part of a “tacky tour.” No matter how many decorations are put up, I cannot stress enough the importance of taking intentional steps to prevent injury or death to you and your family members. Let’s begin with the outside decorations. If you choose to put up lights, check them for proper…
You might say, he just wrote an article on this subject and you would be right. The problem is that the first article was the result of a fire lieutenant losing his life when his fire unit was struck by a tractor trailer on I-295. You would think that this tragedy was enough to cause immediate and effective change. The fact of the matter is that our highways present the greatest hazard to public safety workers, whether fire, police or EMS. On Nov. 18, a fire engine was struck on Chippenham Parkway and a police cruiser was struck on a…
You probably saw the same news footage that I saw recently when a mother dropped her child out of a third-story window of a multi-family dwelling to neighbors waiting below. The building looked like a garden-style apartment building, which means that the only door leads into a common breezeway in the middle of four apartments. As I watched some footage on Facebook, there were three or four adult victims who had to exit through third-story windows after neighbors got a sheet and caught each person as they dropped. Leaving an apartment through a window happens because the space has become…
I do not think that a statistic has ever come out naming Thanksgiving as the top cooking day of the year, but for the sake of this article, we will treat it as such. I am getting hungry just thinking about all that will be fixed for the feast. The problem is that with more cooking comes an exponentially higher probability and possibility of an unattended cooking related fire. As you have heard me say, 3.7 out of every 10 residential fires, whether single-family or multi-family, occur in the kitchen. The disadvantage to multi-family dwellings is that you can do…
This morning, I visited with a friend who had fallen from a tree stand. Due to the nature of the fall, he does not remember anything about the incident. One thing he said was that it all happened in a split second. His experience reminded me of when I fell from a tree stand in 2002. I can remember every detail as if it happened yesterday. Hunting season has been in for a while, but better late than never on this safety message. I look at tree stands, trees and my actions when climbing tree stands differently since my accident.…
Every year from June 1 to Nov. 1, coastal states and adjoining states must be prepared for a land-falling hurricane. In other words, it is not when, but where. I cannot explain it, but North Carolina is in the bull’s-eye every year. I am not counting out Florida or the Gulf Coast, but for the sake of my point, I am going to center in on North Carolina and coastal Virginia. Authorities have made changes and improvements that allow for a rapid and efficient evacuation of coastal areas. While in Southport, N.C., last week, my wife and I had a…