Browsing: Fire & Life Safety

As I read a gut-wrenching Facebook post from the wife of Lt. Brad Clark, the firefighter who lost his life on I-295, I can only say that little has changed. The #MoveOver campaign – created to get the word out about moving over when you see police vehicles – ambulances or fire apparatus on the shoulder of a road, must not be a flash in the pan. We cannot allow Clark’s death and the deaths of others to have been for naught. If you drive a motor vehicle, then you are responsible for your actions behind the wheel. I understand…

When we learned to color, we were taught to color inside the lines. When we learned to write, we were taught to stay within the lines on the page. For many, many years, this was how the fire service in America conducted training. I will use Chesterfield Fire & EMS as the example, but this could apply to every department in the region. All training was predominantly done in-house. In other words, Chesterfield Fire trained their personnel in the way that they wanted. At one point, there was even a class called the Chesterfield Way. Cooperation among agencies was the…

I just read a news report of a row house fire in East Baltimore that sent six firefighters to the hospital. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but fire investigators said the fire started in the basement. I cannot remember the last time that I wrote about basement fires. Basement fires are difficult for firefighters to fight, especially if entry must be made from the first floor. The stairwell acts as a chimney for the heat, smoke and fire. You find yourself in a firefight the moment that you hit the stairwell just trying to get to…

Between the daily business plan and the news, I have seen or read about a few fires in our region lately. We may already be there, but I hope that we never get to the point where residential fires are just an accepted part of our day-to-day lives. Every fire should be talked about, and we should determine what caused it, how it could have been prevented and what we do to move forward. Many people, whether they are willing to admit it or not, believe that it will never happen to them. This kind of thinking may make you…

This time of the year, the flu seems to be running through families in much greater numbers. Just before flu season, we are all tasked with the decision of whether to get the flu shot. As a firefighter/paramedic, I always took the flu shot, which has continued in my work as a pastor. There have been years that I may have gotten a sinus infection right after the flu shot, but I have avoided the flu every year until now. It is hard to say where or with whom an outbreak begins. I believe that my family was exposed on…

The area under your house is called the crawl space, since in most cases you cannot walk upright, but must crawl. If it is a livable space, then it is called a basement. The crawl space is usually where the water and drain pipes and wiring runs and where the air handler for your HVAC is found. I have been in some crawl spaces where my belly is tight to the ground and my back is rubbing the floor joists. There is nothing good about fires in this space. A malfunction with electrical wiring or mechanical equipment under a house…

A team of seven, including me, have just returned from a 13-day journey to South Africa. It is summer in that part of the Southern Hemisphere. Warm days, thunderstorms and occasional cool breezes offered us a break from our winter. I call the place where we worked the “land of many boulders.” On the distant horizons are towering mountains like the Rockies. Our task, as always, was to share the gospel wherever we were given the opportunity. This was my eleventh journey to Africa. These words will only scratch the surface of what we witnessed God do. For me and…

I do not know the details of the pedestrian who was struck on Route 288, but we passed through there after it had happened. From the little that I heard on the news, the individual who was struck and killed had been looking under the hood of his vehicle moments earlier. This is one tragedy of many that have happened on the side of a limited-access roadway. Traffic on routes 288 and 895 and interstates 85, 95, 64 and 295, the Chippenham and Powhite parkways and the Downtown Expressway, is heavy, and, in most cases, traveling above the posted speed…

As I watched the late news last night, I saw a photo of the front of a house in the north end of Chesterfield County fully engulfed. I was going to write an article that offered three educated guesses of the potential causes, but my first inclination was determined to be the cause. From my observation, my thought was that the fire started on the outside of the home and progressed inside. The house in north Chesterfield was destroyed on the outside and the inside, displacing the residents. A fire that starts on the outside will get a head start…

In 2004, four coworkers and I were tasked with rewriting the fire department’s policy for dealing with children who set fires. The primary deterrent is parental supervision. Parents cannot overlook this because as long as you have a child who is “playing” with fire, everyone in your family is in danger, especially other children. I know of children who have been hurt or killed by other children setting fires. How does a child become a firesetter? The first piece is access to matches or lighters. Do not assume that your child is not old enough or smart enough to light…

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