Happy Trails!

After over 60 years of combined service, Lieutenant Edgar Hall and MFF Bill Lucas will be celebrating their last day on the floor today. The members of Company 1 "A" shift will be hosting a well deserved last-shift luncheon for the both of them today.

I would like to wish both of these individuals the best of luck in their future retirement endeavors!


Stay Safe,
 
Bill

Fire & Carbon Monoxide Risks During Cold Weather

As many of you are all too aware, winter is HERE! With temperatures well below the seasonal average, and looking to be here for the foreseeable future, I thought it would be a good time to remind all of you of some of the risks during cold weather.

I am really concerned that many people sometimes turn to drastic measures to heat their homes – especially if money is very tight. This can prove to be very dangerous! Even traditional alternative heating sources, such as a fireplace or space heaters can be dangerous if not used properly.

The winter months are traditionally a peak time for house fires and carbon monoxide poisonings in Montgomery County. Please take a moment to click on the below links and learn more about how to protect you and your loved ones:

Fire/Carbon Monoxide Risks During Cold Weather

Winter Fires: Safety Tips for the Home

Stay Safe and WARM!

Bill Delaney
Program Manager - Community Safety Education
Division of Community Risk Reduction Services
Montgomery County Fire & Rescue

Shovel Around Fire Hydrants

Just to show everyone I practice what I preach, I have shoveled around 2 hydrants in my neighborhood. Now Fairfax County Fire Station 32 will have an easier time finding a water supply just in case something bad happens. Fire does not take a day off!

Twitter Updates

Looks like one heck of a storm is here and will be for many more hours!  There is a BLIZZARD WARNING until 6 PM tonight!

If you do not have Twitter, you can look to the left of this posting and see all of the latest Twitter updates.  This Blog's Twitter section updates seemlessly with the actual Twitter update so check in occassionally to see what might be up.

If you are physically able to do so and it is safe, please make sure you shovel around any fire hydrant's that may be close by! This is a huge help to us!

Stay safe and warm today!

Bill

Holiday Candle Safety

This week and next will no doubt see an increase in candle use. Flameless battery powered candles aside I want everyone to remember that candles, when lit, are an open flame and can be dangerous if not used properly. With that in mind, I would ask that you take a moment to watch and listen to the below presentation on Candle Safety.



I am also including a link here: Candle Safety to a safety tip sheet that covers basically the same information for your review.

I wish all of you a Happy and SAFE Holiday season!

Best Regards,

Bill Delaney
Program Manager - Community Safety Education
Division of Community Risk Reduction Services
Montgomery County Fire & Rescue

A Holiday Twist To Our Door to Door Outreach

Every Saturday afternoon, the women and men of MCFRS go to various neighborhoods in their communities knocking on doors, handing out fire safety information, and offering to check resident’s smoke alarms (see From Our Fire House to Your Home). This past Saturday, the crew at Fire Station 17 – C Shift took a creative approach in attempting to get safety information out to the public we serve.  They visited several Christmas Tree sale lots and distributed our door hangers to be given out with each tree sold.

If you happen to purchase a Christmas tree in the greater Laytonsville area, you may find an important reminder to test your smoke alarm attached to the tree.

Stuff The Truck

Great event at the Giant Food at Montrose and Rockville Pike that we are helping out with. It is called Stuff the Truck and the goal is to collect food for the Food Bank. The Fire Chief will be here shortly to contribute and our personnel from Station 23 will be here helping and handing out Holiday Fire Safety information.
Fox5 is here providing live updates and our Chief should be on at some point between 8:30 and 9. So tune in and watch if you can not stop by. If you are stopping by, please bring a non-perishable food item to donate.
Stay Safe,
Bill
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

An Extra Effort After A Fire

I wanted to make everyone aware of an extra effort made by personnel assigned to our Fire Station 31 yesterday. Our fire trucks were sent to Tobytown Drive for smoke coming from a town house. Units arrived on scene to find fire in the flue of a malfunctioning furnace. The fire was extinguished and fire fighters found flue from furnace to be significantly clogged.

Based on these findings, they planned a door to door saftey check in the neighborhood that same day to try and make sure smoke alarms were working and that homes did not have any carbon monoxide buildup (which can result from a clogged flu).  See the Google Map street view below as this is a new feature we are trying.  You can walk the neighborhood as well.  (If no map is visible it is because there is a high volume of traffic on the Google site.  Just click on "View larger map" link and it will come up)

View Larger Map
Led by Captain Troy Lipp, crews from Enging 731 and Truck 731 walked door to door to each home on Tobytown Drive and checked the homes (and around the furnaces) for carbon monoxide emmisions and made sure each home had working smoke alarms.  They also made sure to distribute furnace safety information to all 25 homes on the street.


All in all MCFRS personnel:

MET WITH 14 OCCUPANTS


DISTRIBUTED LITERATURE AT: 25 RESIDENCES


TESTED: 24 SMOKE DETECTORS


INSTALLED: 3 NEW SMOKE DETECTORS


INSTALLED: 2 NEW BATTERIES

Many thanks to Captain Lipp and the crew at Fire Station 31 for being proactive and attempting to prevent any future 9-1-1 calls and making 25 homes in the county just a little bit safer for the holiday's! 
 
As always, I hope everyone out there STAYS SAFE!  Bill Delaney

Holiday Safety

The holiday season is upon us and everyone out there knows what that means – an increased fire risk! You may want to call me Scrooge but, before you fault the messenger, please take a moment to review some of the important safety information below. No mater what occasion you observe it more than likely involves candles, cooking, and/or trees.

Our friends at the Home Safety Council have some fantastic tips, with some pictographs (like to the right), that highlight steps you should be taking to protect you and your loved ones during this special time of the year. Please take a moment to click on the links below and learn more so that you have a happy and SAFE holiday season!

Stay Safe!  Bill Delaney

Candle Safety

Trim the Tree Safely

Tips for Holiday Electrical Safety

Cooking

From Our Fire House to Your Home

One year ago, our department initiated a proactive fire safety campaign designed to ensure that all county residents have working smoke alarms in their homes.

How, you might ask, would we be able to accomplish our goal? Simple! By going directly to your home!

Every Saturday afternoon, the women and men of MCFRS go to various neighborhoods in their communities knocking on doors, handing out fire safety information, and offering to check resident’s smoke alarms. If you are in need of a new smoke alarm or just a new battery, we will install them for FREE! If you are not home you will find a little something on your door knob (look to right of this article) letting you know we were by with a list of safety tips and a number to call if you would like us to stop by your home on another day to check your alarms.

What we have found is we are actually going into roughly 20% of the homes whose doors we knock on. Of that, roughly 50% of those homes do not have a working smoke alarm! The good news is that they will before we leave!

Why is it important to have working smoke alarms in your home? About two-thirds of home fire deaths occur in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms and they can reduce your risk of dying form a fire in your home by almost half!

Here are some updated numbers from our door to door campaign through the end of November:

Homes Visited: 31,417

Smoke Alarms Installed: 972

Batteries Installed: 1119

So there are about a couple of thousand homes in Montgomery County that are now a little bit safer as a result of our program! Do not wait for us to stop by your home. Take a moment now to “Put A Finger On It” and test your smoke alarms to make sure they are working!

Stay Safe,

Bill Delaney
Program Manager, Community Safety Education

Health Care Fair @ JFK High School

I am attending a health care fair at JFK HS in Silver Spring all day today. It was organized by a group of students here and I am very impressed with the program they have put together.

I have interacted with roughly 300 students thus far and provided them with important fire and injury prevention information. A bit of a surprise is the amount of very good questions they have as most high school age kids tend to think they know it all or it is not important (me 30 something years ago).

They seem very engaged and want to know more for themselves as well as their families. Hopefully many smoke alarms will be tested and home escape plans developed tonight!
Stay Safe,

Bill Delaney
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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld