In this culture of super viruses, terrorist threat, and just scary stuff in general it really doesn?t feel as safe as it used to. I don?t want to turn off my younger readers with that old ?I remember when? line?even though I do. Because I remember those times I find myself in an age group now that is at greater personal risk. Please if you are under 50 don?t quit reading?there?s still plenty of risk to go around, trust me. But I do find myself in a very unique position, I am a fire safety professional studying and working on solutions to problems that relate to?me. I guess another way of looking at it is that I really am my own worst enemy.

What I am going to talk about is how you can avoid and even eliminate one of the most common fire hazards you face in your home every day; kitchen fires, more specifically stove top fires. This isn?t a new hazard it?s been around forever. What is new is the fact that there are now convenient ways to eliminate this old enemy and when you do that, it benefits everyone.

If you?re a parent you can keep your children safer, even when you are not there. If you?re an adult child you can do something so that you don?t have to worry about Mom or Dad forgetting something on the stove and risk burning their house down, or worse. If you?re a senior, you can make changes that will keep you independent and in you own home longer.

I?d like to back up for just a minute and give you some perspective on what I do and how the fire service is organized. You deserve to know how the modern fire service works so that you will know what level of service you can expect from us.

I am a ?Public Education Officer? my task is to keep the public safe. Now, on the surface, that might seem like a redundant job description. Because after all, isn?t that the fire service?s only roll anyway? Humor me for a minute and I?ll explain. While in fact, keeping the public safe is our overall mission we get there in any number of ways.

When you look at your local fire department you see the big red, or yellow, or green fire engines and trucks, yes there is a difference between the two. You know that if there is a fire or emergency that engine or a rescue is going to respond to help, this is what we do. Anytime you think of the fire service generally you will picture red lights, sirens, and Kurt Russell. Those of us who have been around for a while are having some serious trouble living up to that last image. Not our fault, or his, he?s a good guy?and actually has some strong local ties in my jurisdiction. He can?t help it if he?s pretty?sorry buddy, but I digress, comes with my age.

Back on point, the fire service is made up of divisions that fall into two basic categories. One is suppression, and the other prevention. There are other divisions within a fire department, but they generally exist to support these two main functions.

We?ve already talked about suppression and exposed my petty jealousy of Kurt Russell. Suppression puts the wet stuff on the red stuff, and the band-aids on the boo-boos, technical rescue, and disasters, basically most anything that goes wrong out there. They are there for you when you need them. In my department even though I?m in prevention I am still line certified. If they do need an old man to help, they call me. Which reminds me, I should give them a call, apparently they?ve lost my number.

I have enormous respect for the men and women in suppression. They do a tuff dangerous job that gets more and more technical every year.

The other main division is prevention, that?s where I work. We try to keep the injuries and fires from happening to begin with?they haven?t made a movie about us yet, Kurt?call me.

Businesses know about us because we?re the ones that cost them money. We are called inspectors, and we have the right, within our jurisdictions, to go into a business and make sure that they are doing the kinds of things that will reduce the chances of fire, or if one does happen, that they have adequate fire protection systems and exits to get people out. Not as sexy as flying down the street hanging off a fire engine?but from the standpoint of saving lives much more efficient. No one?s ever died in a fire that didn?t happen.

Now I?m actually going to get to my job, public education. Within the prevention division you have enforcement and education. Enforcement is the commercial inspection side that I just explained to you, (no movie). Public education is the portion of the division that works with the general public. We are the ones that try to keep you safe in your own home, (also no movie). We talk to you in school, we offer programs for children who play with fire, talk to seniors, do television spots, and basically try to keep you thinking about your own safety. We look at the risk factors in our communities and develop programs to try to reduce those behaviors that are getting folks hurt, or worse.

Public Education is traditionally a very small portion of the average fire department, if we exist at all. In many departments, public education duties are relegated to line firefighters or as an additional assigned duty for an inspector... don?t get me started.

OK, here?s where I get statistical, sorry it?s what I do. Nationally over 85% of all fire deaths occur in your home where you feel the safest. In my jurisdiction it?s closer to 100%, I cannot remember our last commercial fire death. Now that may mean that the 60?s were better to me than I thought, but I?m reasonably sure it?s because it?s been a really long time since we lost anybody in a commercial occupancy.

Why is that? It?s really very simple, an inspector is allowed by law to come into your business and tell you what to do and our inspectors do a great job. But you will never see me knock on the front door of your home and ask to come in and then write you up for fire hazards, blocked exits, or faulty wiring. Your home is your castle and you have the right to be as unsafe as you want too, even though your castle may be attached to someone else?s.

This is why the United States doesn?t do too well in the home fire safety category when compared to other developed nations in the world. With our freedoms come some risks. That?s the very nature of free choice, and personally I wouldn?t have it any other way.

Does this mean that we as Americans have no interest in staying safe and protecting our families, of course not. What it means is that we are busy and inundated daily with things to do, places to go, soccer practices to make. Fire although devastating when it happens, simply doesn?t make our radar map.

So that?s what public education officers do. We try to get fire safety on your screen. We try to change behaviors, communicate about fire hazards, and even work legislatively. We also try to inform you about new products on the market you can install in your home that will save your life. These products do this by; preventing fires in the first place, warning you so you have time to get out, or actually stopping the fire after it?s started. Generally it?s nice to shoot for a combination of all of these things. That?s? really what I would like to get into today. I?d like to share a few things that you can add to your home so that if something goes wrong, or you make a mistake, you have something in place to save your family and your home.

When I started this article I talked about risk, and how I remembered the old days and that they were somehow better. The truth is, when it comes to safety in your home, the old days were just as bad as they are now, actually worse. There are codes and standards that modern houses are built to so that they start out safer.

These codes are developed in much the same way that a stop sign or light at a busy intersection gets installed. When we?ve had large loss fires in the past we evaluated them and came up with engineering or code fixes to keep the same thing from happening again. An example of that are doorways in commercial buildings. If you go into a business that serves more than 50 people the doors always open outward, it?s a code requirement. That?s so in the event of a fire you can still open the door even if there are crowds pushing against you.

Since your home is your castle, our main option is to ask you to do things to keep you safe. We want you to think about safety and be more aware. We give you information, sometimes to the point of overload. We are also reminding you of things that are sometimes not all that pleasant to think about. We try to keep our messages positive but they are still based in tragedy. And like all information we need to keep reminding you, so you will be constantly vigilant. That is a tall order for us, and for you.

No one can be constantly vigilant, even the Lone Ranger took a break between episodes. I know that?s true because I?m pretty sure if he hadn?t Tonto would have kicked his rear. He was the one that was always coming out on the short end of the stick with the bad guys. Nobody needs that kind of constant grief.

The point I?m trying to make is we want you to do the best you can, but any number of things can get in the way. Life for one, we are busy, most families have both parents working and kids are alone more. Also, as we get older other issues get in the way. Medications, eyesight, memory, attention span?oh look a butterfly! Anyway, constant vigilance works great in the comics but it is not a realistic expectation for daily life and I hate that.

I?ve spent the last 18 years of my life pushing that very concept. But now I have a new one; ?Use Reasonable Vigilance and Buy Stuff you can afford that will keep you Safe if you forget and Screw Up?. I?m trying to get this message on our Bureau letterhead but the Chief is resistant.

So let?s talk about some products on the market that you can use to eliminate some of the hazards you face. I am going to focus on things that are fairly new, but well tested and effective. Smoke Alarms you know about, some of these other things you may not.

First lets talk about home fire sprinklers. When most people think about them they think; ugly, expensive, really wet, and they will flood my house for no reason at all.

Wrong on all counts. They are now extremely affordable. Sprinklers can be enameled at the factory the same color as your ceiling, no matter what color that is. They are also less obtrusive than your smoke alarms. If there is a fire only the sprinkler head over the fire reacts. They also use a heck of a lot less water than we do with our fire hoses. The chance of a sprinkler head in your home going off accidentally is statistically so low that it isn?t even worth worrying about. Let me put it this way, if one did go off by accident, you should probably buy a lottery ticket. The bottom line is once installed, they protect that house as long as it is standing. I am a sprinkler zealot.

There are a number of ways to find out about sprinklers, your local fire service, the National Fire Sprinkler Association, American Fire Sprinkler Association, or the National Fire Protection Association, (NFPA). You could also try your local plumbing contractor or union. There are some systems that they can install.

There are a couple of other products available that are more localized to kitchen fires. Remember they are one of the major causes of fires in the home, particularly unattended cooking on the stovetop. In fact it is such a major re-occurring problem for the fire service that it is this year?s theme for NFPA?s Fire Prevention Week. Kitchen fires affect everyone, either by causing a fire, serious burn injury, or in the case of Senior citizens, they can be one of the main factors in losing their independence.

There are two technology fixes that I would like to discuss here. One is a device about the size of a tuna can that is magnetically attached to the underside of your stove hood. This product will drop dry powder to put out a fire on the stove once it occurs. They are a one-time use device and are very effective in putting out a fire before it spreads off the stove. These will work regardless of whether your range is gas or electric. The name of this device is ?Fire Stop? and you can find it on the web at www.williams.pyro.com

The last device I would like to talk about is a technology that I am particularly focused on. Mainly because it prevents the fire before it starts. This also greatly reduces the chance of burn injuries because they also eliminate flair ups.

This device is called Safe-T-element. These are cast iron burner plates that attach to the existing burners on an electric stove. They are then attached to a circuit board that is mounted on the back of the stove. Once installed, you can literally (please don?t, but you could) put a piece of paper on the burner, fry a pan of chicken on top of it and the paper will never catch on fire. I?ve seen them work and it is amazing technology. Because they are cast iron they also provide an excellent even cooking surface so there is no loss in cooking efficiency, and they save energy.

The way they work is by cycling the electric burner off and on keeping the cast iron plate at a constant optimal cooking temperature, even on high. The result is that they stay hot enough to cook, but will not allow grease to reach a high enough temperature to ignite.

As a fire educator I am very excited about this product. They are available now and are very affordable. If you are interested they can be seen on the web at, www.safetelement.com.

Our mission in the fire service is to be there for you when you need us and to give you the tools to help keep you and your family safe. If you have any questions about the different devices discussed in this article feel free to give me, or your local fire department a call.

If you would like to get more information on ?Safe-T-element? you can check out their website at; http://www.safetelement.com If you have questions feel free to send me an e-mail at ediment@fire.ci.portland.or.us

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