Prevent, plan, and practice. Fires can happen at any time, it’s important to act quickly to prevent them.

Fires spread quickly, keeping your door shut can help prevent the fire from spreading. As most of you may know, we have fire inspections in the school every year. When a fire marshal inspects the school, they look to see if there are “doors and classrooms that aren’t occupied and that the doors are less opened. All doors in school should be closed,” said Josh, a fire marshal in Collierville stated. Keeping a door shut can help prevent a fire from spreading.

Smoke alarms is one of the many technologies used by humans to help detect fires. Jessica mentioned, “Smoke alarms should be checked once a month. The chirp your smoke alarm makes can mean one of two things. One, either the battery needs to be replaced, which is why you should replace it once a year. And then two, your smoke alarm actually has an expiration date on it. It should be replaced every ten years.” It’s important to keep track of when you last replaced the battery and when to get a new smoke alarm.

Fire fighters use a bunch of different technologies for many different purposes. “We have pretty cool technology, we have thermal imaging cameras, so those can help us in a few different ways. They can help one locate fires, sometimes fires hidden behind a wall, or it helps us sense heat and it looks like a different color. If someone’s missing it can help detect heat outside,” Jessica Curran mentioned. Fire fighters also use gas monitors, they can be used to test oxygen and carbon monoxide levels. Depending on the monitor they can also be used to detect any harmful gases that you can’t smell or sense in any way.

Many calls that fire fighters get is not only for fires. “Seventy percent of calls we get are EMS related,” Jessica said. In other words, firefights have a significant impact in keeping all of s safe, even in ways we are not aware of.

Therefore, preventing fires, planning for an escape route in a fire, and practicing your escape plan is very important. Staying calm and being able to call 911 is a big factor when it comes to being prepared for a fire.