It was 80 degrees on Oct. 31, but cold temperatures are coming. It was supposed to be at or around freezing on Sunday morning, Nov. 3. Whether we are ready for cold weather or not, our heating systems must be ready, or we will literally be left in the cold. The level of service needed for your heating system depends on a few things: •What type of system do you have? •What is the age of your system? •What preventative maintenance did you do at the end of last year’s heating season? •If applicable, when was the last time that…

In the past couple of weeks, fire units have responded to a number of fire incidents, but there are two that I want to focus on. The first fire occurred in a crawl space involving a hot water heater. The second fire occurred in an attic. The attic and the crawl space are, in most cases, the highest and lowest spaces in the home. Both of these spaces are rarely visited by homeowners or occupants, unless access is easy, and even then, most people avoid these two spaces. With the exception of a lightning strike to a roof, most attic…

Bow season began on the first Saturday in October. With hunting season upon us, we must make every effort to take all of the necessary safety precautions. I always thought that I was a safe hunter until a tree stand broke underneath me in November 2002 on the second Saturday of black powder season. An outdoor activity that many people enjoy put me out of work until the middle of January 2003. There was one thing that I did right that day, but there were many things that I did wrong. The right thing was: I signed in and put…

Oct. 6-12 is Fire Prevention Week. This year’s theme is: “Not Every Hero Wears a Cape. Plan and Practice Your Escape.” This year’s emphasis is on the life-saving actions of families who develop a home escape plans and practice them with everyone living in their home. Evidence shows that today’s homes burn faster than those built in the 1960s and ‘70s, and that humans can inhale with minimal breaths toxic smoke from home furnishings. I have talked about home escape plans many times, but if one family reads this article and institutes a home escape plan for the first time,…

Medical calls constitute 80-to-85 percent of responses for fire departments that do both fire and ems service. In other words, 8 to 8.5 out of every 10 calls are medical in nature. As the population increases and ages, the number of calls for service increases. I can remember, in the late ‘70s to early ‘80s, that Fire Station No. 1 ran 500 calls in a single year, which ranked it as one of the busiest stations in the county. Now, that number is probably 4 to 6 times greater. I will keep the math simple, if the number of calls…

With the exception of the year-round schools, all other area schools started the fall 2019 session on the Tuesday after Labor Day, Sept. 3. Schools starting means school buses picking up children, school zones being active, increased traffic, and, in some cases, walkers. These changes require that each of us drive with heightened awareness. For some, it will require a complete change of driving attitude. When driving in and around county schools, we all must expect delays, especially when school starts and ends. Incidentally, the start and end times are different from one school to another. The point is to…

The day started out as any other day but rapidly turned into one of the deadliest days in American history. Terrorists hijacked four passenger planes in Boston and used them as weapons. Two of those planes were flown into the World Trade Center towers in New York, one was flown into the Pentagon and one reportedly destined for the White House crashed in Pennsylvania. The target at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, during World War II was military personnel and the ships and aircraft that made up a large part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The target on Sept.…

Although they will never see my article, my words to the St. Louis firefighters who rescued four children, all 5 and under, are: “Job well done!” Those firefighters were dispatched to an apartment fire after a passerby noticed smoke coming from the second floor. Firefighters did not know that there were four small children in the apartment, but they did their job and did it well. They conducted a primary search of the fire apartment, found the four children, three of which were in cardiac arrest. One child was in a closet, one was in a doorway and two were…