Plan to stay alive

Sometimes disaster comes in the form of flooding, sometimes as wildfire. And sometimes disaster is when the salmon that are expected don’t return to local waterways.

Some disasters are acts of Mother Nature and out of our hands to prevent. But we can prepare. It is possible to prepare for flooding, for wildfires, for earthquakes and volcanoes.

National Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 7 to 13, is an opportunity for all of us to prepare to survive fire danger.

Last year, the American Red Cross of Alaska responded to 199 home fires. Nationally, Red Cross responded to 63,000 home fires last year — about one every nine minutes.

Each October, we join with local fire departments and the Red Cross to mark National Fire Prevention Week. Though it’s been a quiet summer and fall with regard to house fires, with the approach of winter we anticipate an increase in residential fire danger.

Fire prevention is one part of being prepared: install smoke alarms; test them monthly; maintain a defensible space in the trees and brush around your house; clean your chimney; make sure your stovepipe doesn’t leak; and always empty the ashes from your woodstove away from anything flammable.

Short of a fire suppression system installed in every home and business, there isn’t really a way to eliminate the risk of fire. So make a plan for your family to survive a fire. Plan where each person will go and what each person should do when they hear the smoke alarm sound.

Fire happens quickly, and smoke is blinding and disorienting. So having a plan in place that your family has practiced can help make the response automatic when the alarm sounds.

The Red Cross of Alaska also recommends:

• Installing smoke alarms on every level of the house and inside bedrooms;

• Replacing batteries in smoke alarms at least once a year;

• Ensuring that household members know two ways to escape from every room and where to meet outside of your house in case of a fire. Practice your plan at least twice a year.

• Follow your escape plan in case of fire. Get out, stay out and call 911.

While it’s mostly residential fire calls that firefighters respond to in the Mat-Su Valley, that doesn’t mean only homes are at risk of fire.

According to the U.S. Fire Association, fire is the most common of all business disasters and resulted in $2.4 billion in losses in 2010. The Red Cross offers a free assessment tool for businesses to use to improve their preparedness plan online at readyrating.org.

It’s been a long time since we survived the winter without reporting the death of at least one of our neighbors in a residential fire. Too often in the wake of such tragedies we learn that the person who died might have survived if a working smoke alarm had been near by to signal the danger.

What’s your plan to survive?

Learn more:

For more information about fire preparedness, visit redcross.org.