island city connections we have an exciting show for you this month this entire episode is dedicated to the holland fire department and we are thrilled this morning to have chris turney with us our captain of the fire department and we're here he is here to help us learn about all the upcoming community events and other things that we can use at home and in regular life about by your safety because none of us want to be a public safety how do we think about being careful at home and do we have like fire hazards in our house we may not even think of as fire hazards that you've seen the bad results of and you can kind of help us avoid  a look at the city hall and this is probably something that would carry over into other communities as well as throughout the state of michigan a cooking fire still tend to be the leading cause of fires you know i would say in the state of michigan and i believe our local dad i would reflect that as well  careless cooking and attended cooking those are things that stand out in my mind electrical is always a concern but again that's something you see somebody has to do something wrong there again some has to do something wrong and it was something of a fire in a way  but what we see more of again is this cooking fires maybe cooking it too hot of a temperature in a tent of this making sure that if we do put something on the stove we may we set a time or maybe we spend a little less time those are the two top things we see electrical and we also see see cooking with electrical we see a lot of probably people were loading extension cords maybe using an extent state extension cords or for temporary use we find people using them as a substitute for permanent wiring maybe you need a receptacles in that wall maybe you've been running the air conditioner has been very hot this summer and people are utilizing window window units to right cooling in their homes overloading that particular type of extension cord asking it to do something it wasn't designed to do over time that generates heat and if we bury that under a rug or other or other items that might be in the room that he doesn't have enough to dissipate and that causes  we reach a temperature where something does start to burn so those would be two primary things i would look at other items we've had a history in the past within the city of holland include the use of candles we've historically over the last year or so we haven't had a lot of or today or whenever they choose to tune in here that's right you know and they're watching right yes so those are great things to remember i never would have thought to check an extension cord or whether it's able to handle whatever you're extending it for  designed we've got extension cords here on the on the floor to the for our set up today and those are designed for certain amperage certain appliances in certain vices may draw more current or use more energy than the cord is rated for and that can cause overheating have an electrician come in and put that in there but we do understand that there are necessities that do exist but just make sure your extension cord is of sufficient size and rating to carry the current needed to power the device share  while we probably should have smoke detectors in our houses and now all the louis every time there's a fire the news they usually say there was a smoke detector but it wasn't plugged in or wasn't the batteries were defunct or maybe there wasn't a smoke detector what do you recommend then and how do we test what we do there should be no excuse why anybody in the city holland and some of our surrounding areas should not have we're probably going to throw this i don't know if that's going to throw us off  today that it's real life shouldn't have a smoke detector they're available they're low cost we can provide access to those we've actually been able to provide access to smoke detectors or grant programs and other items so there's no reason why anybody should not have them so if they don't have them please contact us we may be able to find a way to secure there's some funding to have that done or at least on a temporary basis provided with a battery operated smoke detector and the concern with those is that they are a mechanical device they do need to be inspected and maintained what we suggest is that people do that on a monthly basis do that by simply visualizing be sure to their own put it up make sure the battery is there and also use the test function that's built into the smoke detector a smoke to do that however there is a test function that's built into that that allows us to test the alarm ok yeah it doesn't necessary test the functionality of the device but it tests the alarms so do that on a monthly basis probably twice a year you want to make sure that you take a vacuum clean the dust and debris that made cumulate home around the detector my own experience in my own home has been that i find cobwebs and spiders that tend to build homes and those are probably nice places to do that business going  calls about residents that have placed a smoke detector maybe too close to the kitchen what that does it creates of what we call a nuisance alarm yeah if you're supervising your cooking and the alarm goes off the really negates the purpose of having th again that's a kind of a double edged sword that having that detector there in an unintended environment will certainly tell somebody there's a problem or burning the toast or burning or whatever for dinner right but again it does create a nuisance we would ask that people maybe look at where they're placing their detectors and a nuisance alarm leads to people removing the battery or disconnecting it yeah we want to discourage bad habits and improve what we call human behavior as it pertains to fire  it's all about it's all about human behavior we pretty much engineered everything into a building we can to prevent fire short of providing automatic sprinklers in every building the true key to fire prevention lies in the individual to make sure that  they take the information we give them and they put it to good use that sounds like a hard sell that we've we've done everything we could with fire codes and building construction and devices detectors sprinklers fire extinguishers it's still up to the human element to make sure that those are implemented and acted upon yeah my leading to the public to do that and help us with that absolutely it will and you have the number of fires has gone way down as you've done all these things to help with prevention and i guess we all think well it's not going to happen to me and all that would never happen or whatever but you have seen the scenes people are distraught because all i didn't think this is ever happened to me i just didn't think that was that important to watch the pot on the stove or die cando i just kind of fell asleep or you know all those kind of things that happen we don't expect and don't want to be a negative thinker but you have to be a wise thinker to predict and put those kind of habits in your life that will help you avoid those kind of situations right right and it's again you know in our country we were able to of we have insurance th covers those losses but but i think what it does there's a sense of embarrassment there's a true sense of loss there are things in a number of fires that you simply can't replace right and i think if we asked anybody that's experienced a fire of any significance if they could roll back the clock and say if i could have prevented this i would have and that's where we want to be traditionally we look at fire departments and this is something at least in the city how we really try to change the way people think but you know i look at us as a proactive department we're putting our resources in a prevention we're prepared to respond and react the fire but our conversation earlier we know what causes fire we know how to prevent it we know how to mitigate it should it should occur in it's important that we initiate you know take proper action to get the public out there to do their part to prevent it as well we spend a tremendous amount of our time working on prevention initiatives educating the public doing inspections which actually creates an opportunity for us to go into a facility and identify potential hazards extension cords overload or receptacles obstructions to fire protection equipment  block fire doors those types of things help us get out there in front of potential fire not only prevent it but also minutemen mys the the impact of a fire and so we've tried to embody that  the other thing is it's official it makes more efficient use of our resources it allows us to depending on what would you look at this rely more on prevention as opposed to traditional  know going in and trying to put the fire out right well it's like the wellness program at how and hospital they're working against their purpose of taking care of sick people by trying to keep as many people out as possible or community policing in the police department and the fire prevention program and the fire department it's not just a reactive department and when we can be proactive we have a much safer healthier community and we appreciate all your efforts on trying to get into schools and get community groups and help people in renting situations and i know that has made huge differences in the amount of fires that we had you know how and had that huge fire back and eight hundred seventy one i think  had that kind of brings us to fire prevention week i suppose right so we are celebrating that and preventing a fires and how we're going to be doing that what we do on an annual basis we celebrate by having your fire prevention we kickoff parade that this year that will be october sixth and ten o'clock at city hall and runs don't need st culminates down here at the coal park fire station where there will be equipment on display in they'll be a number of other activities going on tied in with  should be able to come away from that event was with was some information even some materials there's also probably some nice fire hats that the kids can get hold of and basically it's a pretty short of it but for the most part it's to the point in  trade to further arjen of getting the public mourning gauge with fire prevention well yeah and with schools being so tightly scheduled with everything that they need to teach in test for these days that it's really important to take your family to these kind of events where children can learn things like stop drop and roll and all those important things that they do really absorb and remember for an emergency situation so yeah that's great that you take time for that and bring your people out there and who doesn't want to be a co behavior that leads up to that do we take an active role in making sure that we are preventing do we use open flames anywhere we don't know we don't use lanterns anymore we use and that's an engineering practice but do discussion that we need to have and i think that that is something that we're ready we stand ready to give the public all the tools that we have in our tool box but we want to invest in that partnership with them to do that and to do that but back to the great fire we do observe that this year beginning october seventh and continuing through october thirteenth is what we affectionately call fire prevention week that is the time we spend to focus on although i would argue that we need to focus on all the time that is a week specifically designated for focusing on fire prevention and that's it also commemorates those those fires the great chicago fire the current eight hundred seventy one but it's a time to focus on a behavior or an action that we need to take and i'm just as guilty as anybody you know i live in a house i have you know i interface with these hazards i have the upper hand of maybe knowing what happens when when i don't address them but firefighters are not immune from this we not able to prevent the fire or not able to minimize the impact of the fire we still need to act so if we're in a residence we do have a fire smoke detector activates what do we need to do we need to get out in this year's focus is looking at two ways out that would be two ways about it out of every room in that house in particular where we're the most vulnerable it would probably be when we're sleeping so bedrooms hallways to and from those times i think that's the area we want to focus on making sure that we know how to get out of it and it's a challenge you wake up out of a slumber and you need to find your way out so being able to practice that you know it sounds a little hokey a lot of people say well not have a fire drill it three o'clock in the morning and wake everybody up but i think we need to start working towards it and somebody me say to me krista be done that with your family and i have to admit no i've not done that we've talked about it we do have a plan but i think if i we need to embody the change we want to see and as a fire service leader public safety confusion of oh if somebody is still in there and the child is wandering in the backyard and nobody knows that it when we say two ways out we're talking about a comprehensive plan and that's where you're going right there that includes identifying hazards identifying everybody's accounted for or you know bob's not here or john's not here whoever's not here and that way we know where to focus our efforts it changes our paradigm quite a bit when we realize that somebody may be  oh yeah the the level of concern goes way up our primary concern is making sure our life is our primary concern our occupants our residents are firefighters and then that helps us do kind of a risk assessment determine how much risk are we're going to have to take to put the fire out or rescue people right yeah right so we're getting excited about fire fire prevention talking to you and thinking about this whole concept what if somebody is not really trained as a firefighter but they'd really like to volunteer to help with the fire department is there any way that people can volunteer right now we are down proximately five what we call part paid or paid on call firefighters were in the process of trying to fill those spots those folks are going through background exam for right now hopefully by the end of the month will be able to make some conditional offers employment but again with any organization special particular volunteer  positions things have changed commitments changed to family and we always try to emphasize that family comes first and we try to respect that you're your primary employment comes first you know being able to provide for your family and be able to provide yourself latitude or the luxury of be volunteering for a community is important as well and with that said we are always looking for people who are willing to step up be a part of our organization and in essence volunteer their services there's a stipend that is provided on the wealthy basis in the lead fairly competitive but again that there's a sacrifice that comes with that so i look at there's a fair amount of volunteers and they go into the spirit of volunteers and is what is important to us but it also we do try to compensate for that so feel free to stop and talk to any firefighter we have on duty and get information can we can probably work with  producer here to make sure we get a phone number up on the screen and feel free to e mail me or my best bet is you know i work better face to face if somebody like to come in and talk to me about those opportunities i welcome that ok i would really prefer  difficult in the past we had written agreements with employers where we were allowed to let with a with allow their ploys to go on duty to respond to fires and it's been more and more more difficult with the you know just in time production and limited staffing that they may have but again this plea not only goes out to interested volunteers but business is companies in our community that can afford to maybe step up and allow their employees the flexibility doing that so you know that's a tough thing to do so i right i know it's part of what makes our community unique in that it does allow them to maybe express a sense of community vomit as well it really helps the reaction time so much and getting to a fire and stopping its multiplication factor in within those first what four seconds or so it's really critical that show up and the more people that are available the faster we can do that and the better we can do that and so we really appreciate businesses that realize the service that they get and can maybe help support this and that's important he said you know we have a limited amount of resources they can get there early on in of the incident you know there may be as simple as five people and we're like quite heavily on our or paid on call personnel that to fill a void in to do in a timely manner and right now we struggle with getting the appropriate number of people on scene in a reasonable time to do that so yeah that's why emphasize city hall residence  we do employ people that from our neighboring townships although they're faced with their own staffing needs to so maybe their efforts are better served with their own community making them yeah we'll be glad to look at anybody who's interest yeah well maybe somebody viewing isn't a firefighter or doesn't really love helping the fires but they're they know somebody and so we hope that the word of mouth can spread and be great well we thank you so much for coming to day camp to any and we welcome that we can see these fire trucks and be a part of this building and probably some of the sights and sounds of being in this building have been part of this taping because that's the real world in the fire department right right here with going and so next we're going to head over to the waverly fire station and we're going to have a good afternoon my name is the tonnage or cook for the holland fire department and today we are doing the bus extrication and with the school season starting back up it is important buses will be traveling the roadways again that we are properly trained to extricate patients from  we just got done doing a classroom portion where we studied different tactics how to gain access into a bus like this now we have a school bus on hand and we will be demonstrating in order learning how to do those techniques that we've learned it's vitally important because abbas is not the same as a car one of the things also we have to worry about today is we only have five firefighters on duty so they're going to have to divide out who's going to do what how do you accomplish it the fastest the safest and the most sensible way to do it they will also have to figure out what the hazards are is the best safe how many patients do we have how many ambulances are we going to  the major thing we have to worry about is traffic police officers going to shut the road down how many police officers do we need to help us those are all sound like things that you would think we'd be learning today but we're going to talk about them as we go amongst the group to call in the resources that we need some of the tactics that will be using those different tools to gain access normally to use what's called the jaws of life but sometimes it doesn't work we have saws all skill soft metal cutting blades k twelve saws which are like a twelve inch abrasive best many different tools that we have to be able to master to gain access in the vehicle today they're going to open up the side we have to make big doors to get in and out of so they're going to use a structural parts of the bus to obtain that goal they're going to crimp the bus pretty means making it stable so that you can work in it work on it without moving causing more danger again you have to remember what i've been called in an accident it's compromise of structural integrity is not all there is something we have to take into effect trainings like this sometimes we have to rely on the community businesses to help us we don't have the funding for the purchase the things the moving around like that so donates vehicles to us all the time to cut up service again with governments getting cut the way they are these people that just donate time labor or materials to us to train to make us the best that we can is outstanding this is a wonderful community that steps up to help us in our time of need people or if you have any questions feel free to call thank you for joining us this month because we have learned a number of insightful things about the city of holland fire department if you're interested in learning more please visit the web site at w w w that city of holland that comes fire and you can also find this episode and a lot of previous episodes that we have done for the city connections program on the city of holland video page and you get to bat by going to w w w dad to me oh that slash city of holland with all of that is confusing just go to city of holland that cam and i think you'll be able to find the fire department and also the vimeo page so we'd love to share all these programs with you whenever you'd like to access them so thanks for tuning