Fires

Jenelle Green

Fires are reported in the U.S. approximately ever 16 seconds according to the National Fire protection Association. With that in mind people need to be prepared. How prepared are you?
Thursday November 1st, the company Masterguard hosted a Fire Safety Seminar at Ruby River on Riverdale road in Ogden that included a free dinner. The seminar lasted about two hours which included giving the guests time to eat, speaking about fire safety, showing the video "When Seconds Count," and finally giving their spiel about the products they offer.
Master guard has been around since 1971 and was started in Dallas Texas. They are the leader in the direct selling industry of residential fire protection. They have educated millions of people and saved thousands of lives. York Hayes is the area safety advisor for Masterguard and is the person who brought Masterguard to Utah.
The presentation began with everyone filing into the top portion of Ruby River. There was quite a large group about 60 people attended the seminar which was great because they usually don't have this big of a turn out. After settling down, the guests were given a choice of chicken, salmon, or steak, which most chose steak. The guests were given time to eat and then the actual seminar begun.
Hayes explained how important fire safety is and how most people are ignorant towards it. They learn it back in grade school but then as they get older aren't too concerned with it.
"People think the fire alarms that come with the house are all the protections they need. Even the newer houses aren't immune. People don't realize when the houses are made most contractors use the cheapest material possible, which is highly flammable," Hayes said.
There was a short news broadcast that was shown which talked about an Iowa man losing his entire family (wife and 2 kids) because of a fire. The man went off to work and came home to his home up in flames.
Hayes explained, "You are ultimately responsible for getting your family out of the house alive. The fire fighters are there to fight the fire. They will do all they can to save you family, but most times they arrive too late."
When a fire starts you have three minutes to get your family out safely. Children die twice as fast as adults because they are small.
There are several misconceptions about fires. The first is that most people think that the fire can't happen to them. Fires don't discriminate. The can affect anyone. The second misconception is that there is plenty of time to escape. Of course this isn't true; once again you only have about three minutes to get out safely.
The third misconception is that only large fires kill. All fires kill. There are two different types of fires; smoldering fires and free burning fires. The most common and most deadly is the smoldering fire because it happens so often and sometimes your fire alarms aren't able to detect these. With smoldering fire the toxic gases are what harm you. The second type, the free burning fire, is dangerous because of the amount of heat and the speed of the fire. With free burning fires the smoke alarms a lot of times won't go off because they aren't made for free burning fires. The heat from the flames melts the detectors in some cases before they have a chance to go off. That is why they are called smoke alarms. That leads into the last misconception which is the smoke alarm will go of in time.
The most common place for a fire to start is in the kitchen. Many fires start in the kitchen because people are negligent with their cooking. They turn the stove and begin to cook and forget they have it that way. Also the basement and the bedroom are other common places.
There are five things to do every six months. First, change batteries and test all smoke alarms. Next clean under and behind the refrigerator and the stove. Third, clean out the dryer hose. Next, maintain fire extinguisher. Last but not least practice a safety plan to get out of the house safely.
After Hayes went over some eye opening information he showed us the video "When Seconds Count." The video stated that in fires children and the elderly are the most vulnerable. Children aren't able to escape on their own and the elderly have a slow reaction time. In the video they did a fire demonstration. They took a home that was going to be demolished and set up cameras in fire proof boxes. The started the fire in a waste basket in the living room. Thirty minutes into the smoldering fires, the smoke detectors still hadn't gone off. After the 911 call it took four minutes for the fire engines to arrive. It was so smoky and dark that the fire fighters had to fight the fire in the house in total darkness.
The reason the smoke detector didn't go off is because they don't always detect the ions that come from smoke. Regular smoke alarms are set off by ions coming from the smoke flowing through the detector however not all detectors can catch the smaller ions that come from smoldering fires.
After viewing the video they had one last thing to discuss, their products. Masterguard said their products worked better than regular smoke detectors. They offered smoke alarms that use an optical camera that takes pictures so that it can recognize the smoke as it is happening. It won't miss the smoke like to Ion smoke detectors. They also offer fire detectors so that if the fire happens to be a free burning fire it will go off, the fire won't just melt the alarm. They last products they offered was a carbon-monoxide detector. Most carbon-monoxide detectors are plugged in, which is incorrect. They need to be at eye level because carbon is lighter than oxygen.
Most people were interested. The main question everyone had was," How much do they cost?"
"Does the cost matter? We are talking about safety here," said Michelle Smith one of Hayes' co workers.
After setting up several appointments, the customers filed out of the restaurant. Some satisfied while others weren't so happy.
"I don't like how they won't give us the price until they come out to our houses. Then its like they are already there and we feel obligated to buy something," said Mike Edwards of Clearfield.
"I think it’s a great idea. They are right, for the assurance of safety, there is not cost," said Emily Parkinson of Ogden.
The seminar itself was very informative and gave great ideas. It is ultimately up the the customer to decide what choice is right for their family.