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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| This Biannual in Emergency Preparedness, Part 2 |
| 2016-03-20 |
| by swksvolFF As a follow-up to last week's general home inspection and basic storm preparedness, this is again a running forum. It is my impression that many here at Rantburg have been, in some form or another, in a tight spot. There are no bad questions. Challenge or disagree, this is the time for a person to find out if the idea is sound or Good Idea Fairy pellets. Emergency Escape from a Structure We talked about last week. Again, it is up to you to assess and ass out of your own unique situation. I will bring up some general guidelines. Two ways out of every room. There was good discussion about those of you who have multiple story houses about having an escape ladder. Remember, it is the smoke/fumes which will do a person in before the heat. The smoke itself will be hot in its own right. Stay as low as possible, even crawling, as the situation dictates. It could be your stairwell has turned into a chimney. In any structure, it could be an outlet fire right outside the bedroom door. You have to assess occupant's ability vs. window. Physical fitness, physical height, mental ability. Bless us all, but if you have a young one who freaks out over spiders and has not practiced an escape then we have a problem. Infants, aged, physical and/or mental disabilities, even temporary illness must be considered. You must be honest, even if only to yourself. The occupant must be able to unlock the window, remove any obstacles such as a screen, open the window by themself, and maneuver through. Do not guess this one, actually practice it. If occupant must escape via emergency ladder or other apparatus/technique, practice that as well as safely as possible. I know, "train to failure then beyond," but perhaps the first time a person is on a rope ladder unattached to the ground it should not be off of the side of your house. Next choice is breaking the glass. **stop for a second** Let us take a look around first. Now, let's say it is night time and the power is out, you and whoever else is trapped are in the room for an escape. Do you have a flashlight? Did you shut the door? Did you block the gap(s) between the door and jam? Those actions will buy you time and not only keep you from stepping on Legos, that flashlight will help you find your way out and can signal for help (why having a dedicated flashlight for each bedroom is good for even just power outages). That window isn't opening when it has before...try the locks again, just because. So, we are breaking the window then. If your plan is to give it the Peoples' Elbow you have surprises at a very bad time. I know someone who did it wrong and he ended up at the hospital and could have lost something. Obviously we do not want to end up looking like the losing entry at a BBQ, but try to avoid unnecessary injury - there is plenty going on already, right? Never mind if the next step is swaying down a ladder. Here is a video, take a look and see what works and what does not. Remember, we are in our PJs in a dark room which is starting to smell like smoke and the smoke detector beeping is starting to cause a headache. We will start here. Obviously most of us do not have such a nifty tailor, and only the really cool kids have a fireman's pike in their bedroom (technically, what he has is not a pike, looks like a hammer of sorts). There are various opinions on how to break a window, sometimes all are right, discuss. He started in a top corner, go across, then down the sides along the sill. We want to go through this window so go across the bottom as well to knock out that glass. He is off to the side - for some reason broken glass tries to get to a person, try to limit your exposure. Hey, this is the fun part. Go into a room and play MacGyver. All we are trying to do here is break the glass while limiting the chance of glass getting on us. Got a lamp? Dresser drawer? How about throwing a trophy and breaking the glass then using a clothes hanger to clean the edges? A glass punch is effective but again that takes us close to the glass so perhaps some good gloves as well. Talk it through, have fun with the kids - we are not trying to give them night terrors, and make sure they know not to practice breaking the window. Seriously, make sure they know not to practice breaking the window. Now this only works for regular olde glass glass. If you have that triple pane stuff, or storm rated, whatever, read the manufacturer's instructions. There may be a certain corner which has to be hit first, and may require a dedicated, specialized tool. Make sure those windows open easily every time, otherwise you are waiting for a heavy power tool from the rescue truck, the time to deploy, then the actual work. That is a lot of weight on the wrong end of the balance. Before exiting the window, place something over the bottom sill so you do not scrape yourself on any broken glass. A bed comforter is the best example, a rug would work, anything to protect yourself as best as possible. Shelter in Place OK, now we are officially having a bad day. Let's not make it worse. I will leave it to a more poetic writer to describe what it is like in full SCBA performing search and rescue. We are hot, we are dumping adrenaline, it is noisy, and we have very limited visibility. For the kids: do NOT hide in the closet, do NOT hide under the bed, or worse in the bed under the covers. Make sure you did not lock the door when you closed it - check for heat first, this is no time to throw hamburger on a hot skillet - use the back of the hand and try the door before testing the doorknob. Lay flat on the floor as close to the door as comfortably possible. If you think you hear the rescue team, this is a time it is ok to scream like a banshee. Be findable in case you freeze (perfectly understandable) or pass out (fumes from today's household are very dangerous). This is no time to lose it, it may be an endurance test. Panic and/or constant yelling will not only wear you out, you will inhale fumes at a higher rate. Perhaps you have a whistle in the ziplock baggie containing the emergency flashlight? Y'all who make it outside to the rally spot, if someone is missing it is up to you to tell the responders somebody is in the house, where s/he/they might be, and how to get there. Do NOT go back into the structure, let the people with the equipment and heavy tools do their work. The trick is to keep thinking. That is not necessarily the same thing as not panicking, bad things are happening. It doesn't necessarily mean go as fast as possible, that is how mistakes happen. You have to be efficient with your time and you will give yourself the best chance possible. I'm not going to lie, I have a couple mental tricks I use when I feel my gears start to slip. Mine is mine, but it could be scripture, it could be spelling your name backwards, heck it could be trying to imagine what a frog fart sounds like - whatever works. The best is practice. If you have that rhythm, that muscle memory. Practice can make up for a lot of shortcomings. Never give up. Have a plan, but be flexible. It is my experience things rarely go exactly as planned; make one of the few things to go right is everyone lives. At this point the forum is open, especially for y'all in urban settings - I have no practical experience in apartment complexes etc. Thank You. Link is to Fire Safety Source - Escape Ladders Not an endorsement, but a good place to start. |
| Posted by:swksvolFF |
| #2 A simple change in the weather - an otherwise dry climate suddenly receiving a lot of moisture and causing the sill to swell, or an ice storm - may make a window difficult to open. Or, like I had to, on account of being in scorpion and black widow territory, in addition to brown recluses, an old window had to be sealed. If I were a guest in my house, had to get out, and did not know that window is sealed, I have at least practiced 'what could I use?' Or at a hotel, office, restaurant, so forth. Personally I think a hammer is a great choice. Someone without much strength can strike with the claw and break a window out, and the armpits, if you will, and other surfaces can be used to clear shards from the sill. Just want to make sure that we are off to the side and striking as high and to the edge as possible so chunks of glass are not falling on our hands/wrists/forearms/face. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2016-03-20 12:40 |
| #1 For small kids/pets, they make harness/bag systems that you can use to lower them to the ground. The most important factor in this is that you are physically able to lower them all the way, not halfway and then drop them. They are especially useful in multistory apartment buildings but my wife and I are considering getting one for our two story house for the munchkin. I hadn't thought much about breaking the window, since there's alot of furniture I could simply break to use but the wife would have trouble with that. Given I have 4 hammers, moving one upstairs to the munchkins room isn't a bad idea. We also plan on having a fire extinquisher in each bedroom. Lots of good useful information in these discussions. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2016-03-20 07:37 |