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I’d Never Really Thought About The Firefighters

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{The following post is sponsored by Kidde.}

This is my second year as a Kidde Ambassador. Kidde makes safety equipment, like smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, and fire extinguishers. As an ambassador last year, I helped spread the word about different things we can all do to keep our families safe from fire. But looking through those posts, I left something huge out of the equation: Many of the same things we can do to keep ourselves safe can also save a firefighter from getting hurt (or worse).

  • If you prevent a fire from starting, firefighters don’t have to go to your house.
  • If there is a fire, and you’ve set up an emergency meeting place with your family, you’ll be able to tell the firefighters if anybody is still trapped inside. If nobody’s inside, the fire can be fought from the outside, with much less risk to the firefighters.
  • If you keep your floors clear of clutter, firefighters will have an easier time feeling their way around your house in the smoke.

Firefighters are often referred to as heroes, but I’m not sure how much people really understand about what firefighters do. Recently I got a tiny taste of what it feels like to be in a fire – without the heat or the noise or the heavy gear, just the (fake) smoke. And that was hard enough.

I met with the Kidde team in DC last month to kick off this year’s ambassador program, and I got to spend some time with some firefighters in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and learned a bit about what they do and how they train.

SelfishMom trying on firefighter gear

I needed help getting dressed…thank goodness Captain Riley was there!!

First, I got to try on some firefighter gear. I already knew that their gear was heavy. I’ve heard that lots of times. But let me tell you, hearing about it and trying it on are two totally different things. Not only was the equipment heavy, it was also cumbersome. Just trying to turn my head and see to the side was difficult. And the gloves made it so hard to pick anything up, even something as big as a fire hose nozzle – forget about smaller stuff.

SelfishMom in firefighter gear

I could barely get my leg up onto the truck, the gear is so restrictive!

Then, without the gear on (thank goodness!), we headed to a training facility that these firefighters use, called the #MarketPlaceProject. They fill it with water vapor, and once the building is filled you can barely see your hand in front of your face. The building, which used to be a bank, is set up like a two-story house, with furniture, windows, and doors.

#MarketPlaceProject

We went to the second floor with this firefighter, Capt. Fletcher.

SelfishMom with Captain Fletcher

Once the building was completely filled with “smoke” and we were in place, the local fire department was called to this “fire,” where they entered through the second-floor window in the room in front of us, and we could only “see” them with the help of thermal imaging devices. At one point they were literally at our feet, working on saving a dummy, and we couldn’t see them. It was frightening.

 

Once the firefighters had exited the building out of the window with the dummy, back onto their ladders, the “smoke” cleared and we could see where we were for the first time. I had no idea I’d been standing right next to a desk. And I thought about one particular room in my own house, which is a disaster. At one time we used it as a play room, with my son’s table hockey game and lots of toys in bins. But over the past year or so it has devolved into a dumping ground, with bikes and boxes and crap everywhere. I have no idea how firefighters would feel their way around all of that if they entered from those windows.

#MarketPlaceProject

This is what the first floor of the training facility looked from the second floor, once the “smoke” had cleared. We couldn’t see any of that on the way up the stairs.

What firefighters do is incredibly dangerous, but each one of us can help make their jobs easier and safer. Over the next year I hope to share a lot of valuable information with you on just how to do that.

For now, make sure that your smoke alarms work! If they don’t, or if they’re more than ten years old, please replace them! Kidde makes a great line of smoke alarms that have a sealed-in ten-year battery. You never have to change the battery, so you won’t hear those annoying beeps telling you that the battery is low! (At least, not until the ten-year mark, when the alarm will tell you that the unit needs to be replaced.)

If you can get yourself and your family out of your house in case of a fire, the firefighters won’t have to go in, and that’s the best way to keep them safe.

You can learn more about fire safety on the Kidde Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. And from checking back here for more posts from me!

Chris Rubenstein

Friday 1st of May 2015

Hey Amy, thanks for the advice. I read somewhere that ionization smoke alarms are frown upon by some fire associations because due to their likelihood of being a nuisance, many people remove the batteries rendering them inoperable. Also they don't detect the types of smoldering fires that photoelectric units do, which are typically more dangerous. Thanks for responding. Nice website too.

Chris Rubenstein

Wednesday 29th of April 2015

Very cool that you were able to become a Kidde embassador. So what's your take on ionization smoke detectors?

Amy Oztan

Thursday 30th of April 2015

@Chris Rubenstein: Well, you need both (the other kind is photoelectric, for anybody else reading this). We have a big house, and while we do have both kinds scattered throughout, most of them are photoelectric. Kidde makes both kinds, including some units that have both sensors in one unit, but I don't have any of those. http://slf.sh/1dw9luE

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