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Each year in the US,
about 12,000 children 14 years of age and under are injured in
residential fires. Preschool children die in fires at twice the
national rate.
It is estimated that a home fire occurs every 66 seconds nationally.
Ninety percent of fire deaths involving children occur in homes
without working smoke alarms. An estimated 92 percent of American
homes contain smoke alarms, but about 1/3 of them don’t work or are
missing charged batteries.
To protect your family, you should:
Have a smoke alarm near, or
inside bedrooms and on every floor or level of your home.
Test the alarms once a
month, and change the batteries once in the fall, and once in the
spring. New 10-year detectors, which use lithium batteries,
cost about $5 to $30 and can be found at most hardware and discount
stores.
Practice different ways to
get out of the house during a fire, and agree on a safe place to
meet outside.
Do not smoke inside your
home.
Make sure everyone in your
family knows the STOP, DROP, and ROLL procedure in case their
clothes catch on fire.
Keep matches and lighters out of reach from children.
"STOP"
"DROP", & "ROLL"
Each
year more than 15,000 people are seriously burned when their clothes
catch on fire. In more than half of the incidents, flammable liquids
or vapors were present on or around the person's clothing. But it
can happen in many ways. A person's loose sleeve may catch fire on a
hot stove. Someone may be working with gasoline or some other
flammable liquid and then light a cigarette. They might spray
lighter fluid on a smoldering barbecue fire and the resulting flames
could catch their clothes on fire. When a person's clothing catches
on fire, action must be instinctive and immediate. There is no time
to think.
The one thing you should never do is run.
To minimize a burn injury when your clothes catch fire, STOP, DROP
and ROLL. Burns are among the most painful of injuries and the third
leading cause of unintentional death in the United States. The
hands, groin, face and lungs are at particular risk because they are
delicate structures and easily injured. The healing process is slow
and painful, resulting in enormous personal suffering.
Certain types of clothing are less flammable and resist flames more
than other types of clothing. Heavier clothing and fabrics with a
tight knit weave burn more slowly compared with loose knit clothing.
Fabrics with a loose fit or a fluffy pile will ignite more readily
than tight-fitting, dense fabric clothing. Synthetic fibers, such as
nylon, once ignited, melt and burn causing severe burns. Natural
fibers, such as cotton and wool, tend to burn more slowly than
synthetic fibers. However, fibers that combine both synthetic and
natural fibers may be of greater hazard than either fabric alone.
Curtains and draperies can be sprayed with flame retardants to
reduce their rate of burning. However, these chemicals should not be
applied to clothing.
The principles of STOP, DROP and ROLL are simple:
Stop, do not run, if your clothes catch on fire.
Drop to the floor in a prone position.
Cover your face with your hands to protect it from the flames.
Roll over and over to smother the fire. Don't stop until the flames
have been extinguished.
If you are near someone whose clothing catches on fire, be sure to
stop them from running and make them STOP, DROP and ROLL.
Then call 9-1-1.
SMOKE DETECTORS HAVE TWO BASIC
PRINCIPLES:
IONIZATION
OR PHOTOELECTRIC.
IONIZATION:
THE IONIZATION
DETECTOR USES A SMALL AMOUNT OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL TO MAKE THE AIR
WITHIN A SENSING CHAMBER CONDUCT ELECTRICITY. WHEN VERY SMALL SMOKE
PARTICLES ENTER THE SENSING CHAMBER, THEY INTERFERE WITH THE
CONDUCTION OF ELECTRICITY, REDUCING THE CURRENT AND TRIGGERING THE
ALARM. THE PARTICLES TO WHICH THE DETECTOR RESPONDS ARE OFTEN
SMALLER THAN CAN BE SEEN BY THE HUMAN EYE. BECAUSE THE GREATEST
NUMBER OF THESE INVISIBLE PARTICLES ARE PRODUCED BY FLAMING FIRES,
IONIZATION DETECTORS RESPOND SLIGHTLY FASTER TO OPEN FLAMING FIRES
THAN DO PHOTOELECTRIC DETECTORS. THE RADIATION SOURCE IN IONIZATION
DETECTORS IS NOT A HAZARD TO THE HOME'S OCCUPANTS. THE U.S. NUCLEAR
REGULATORY COMMISSION (NRC) PERFORMS A RADIATION SAFETY ANALYSIS TO
DETERMINE THAT DETECTORS MEET SAFETY REQUIREMENTS.
PHOTOELECTRIC:
THE
PHOTOELECTRIC DETECTOR USES A SMALL LIGHT SOURCE, EITHER AN
INCANDESCENT BULB OR A LIGHT-EMITTING DIODE (LED), THAT SHINES ITS
LIGHT INTO A DARK SENSING CHAMBER. THE SENSING CHAMBER ALSO CONTAINS
AN ELECTRICAL, LIGHT-SENSITIVE COMPONENT KNOWN A PHOTOCELL. THE
LIGHT SOURCE AND PHOTOCELL ARE ARRANGED SO THAT LIGHT FROM THE
SOURCE DOES NOT NORMALLY STRIKE THE PHOTOCELL. WHEN SMOKE PARTICLES
ENTER THE SENSING CHAMBER OF THE PHOTOELECTRIC DETECTOR, THE LIGHT
IS REFLECTED OFF THE SURFACE OF THE SMOKE PARTICLE, ALLOWING IT TO
STRIKE THE PHOTOCELL AND INCREASE THE VOLTAGE FROM THE PHOTOCELL.
WHEN THE VOLTAGE REACHES A PREDETERMINED LEVEL, THE DETECTOR
ACTIVATES. SMOKE PARTICLES THAT SCATTER VISIBLE LIGHT ARE LARGER IN
DIAMETER THEN THOSE THAT AN IONIZATION DETECTOR SENSES. BECAUSE
SMOLDERING FIRES PRODUCE THESE LARGER SMOKE PARTICLES IN THEIR
GREATEST NUMBERS, PHOTOELECTRIC DETECTORS RESPOND SLIGHTLY FASTER TO
SMOLDERING FIRES THAN IONIZATION DETECTORS. EVEN THOUGH THE AVERAGE
PARTICLE SIZE CHANGES CONSIDERABLY WITH TEMPERATURE, ALL FIRES
PRODUCE A BROAD RANGE OF PARTICLE SIZES. THEREFORE, BOTH TYPES OF
DETECTORS WILL DETECT MOST FIRES. WHILE THERE WILL BE SOME VARIATION
IN THE DETECTOR RESPONSE TIME. THE DIFFERENCES ARE FAIRLY SMALL WHEN
COMPARED TO THE AMOUNT OF ESCAPE TIME THE DETECTOR PROVIDES.
NUMEROUS FIELD TESTS HAVE SHOWN THAT EITHER TYPE OF DETECTOR, WHEN
CORRECTLY INSTALLED WILL PROVIDE ADEQUATE WARNING FOR ESCAPE.
SOURCE: IFSTA
Electrical
It is not
uncommon to see "electrical" listed as the cause for a fire that
damaged a building or automobile. Electricity has the ability to
generate high temperatures that are capable of igniting any
combustible materials near the heated area. Electrical heating can
occur in a variety of ways.
Resistance heating
refers to the heat generated by passing an electrical current
through a conductor such as a wire or an appliance. Resistance
heating is in- creased if the wire is not large enough in diameter
for the amount of current. Fires are caused when a simple extension
cord is overloaded with too many appliances plugged into it.
Resistance heating can also be increased by electrical extension
cords that are wound around the leg of a table or chair to take up
the slack. Be careful as to how you route extension cords so they
can not be walked on or crushed. If an extension cord starts to feel
warm to the touch, unplug it. You may be overloading it.
Leakage current
heating occurs when a wire is
not insulated well enough to contain all the current. Some current
leaks out into the surrounding material such as inside the wall of a
structure. This current causes heat and can cause a fire.
Heat from arcing
is a type of electrical heating that occurs when the current flow is
interrupted. Interruption may be from an open switch or a loose
connection. Arc temperatures are extremely high and may even melt
the conductor.
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