By: Pamela Stern
On Monday, November 6th Firefighter Rizzi of the New York Fire Department visited Spring Creek Senior Partners (SCSP). Firefighter Rizi gave SCSP a Fire Prevention and Safety Tips seminar. Eleven clients of SCSP attended this meeting. This event helped the seniors learn some life saving fire prevention tips and safety measures that are beneficial to everyone.
Firefighter Rizzi presented to the SCSP members Fire Prevention and Safety Tips that can be used on a daily basis. Some of these tips and preventative measures include:
- Devices for the hearing impaired/sound sleeper that provides vibrations in order to alert them of a fire. There are also devices that are used for people who have hearing problems and are used when they need to be alerted for smoke detection in their homes. Since some people cannot hear the smoke alarms, this device is placed under your pillow when you sleep at night and will vibrate to alert you to wake up.
- Extension cords / power trips are not meant to power large appliances such as hairdryers / AC units.
- You may use baking soda to put out a fire that might be starting in a pot on the stove.
- You must check your smoke detectors every single month to make sure they are working. There are smoke detectors that have batteries that will last ten years, but you still must check this every single month.
- When you first move into an apartment unit, the landlord or the people responsible for renting you the unit must have a working smoke alarm in on the day that you move in. After the first day you move in, it is now the person’s responsibility to make sure it is working from there going forward and to change the batteries or any other maintenance issues that may occur.
- New York City also provides free installations by way of the FDNY to install a smoke alarm.
Rizzi presented the Fire Prevention and Safety Tips to the SCSP clients and also held a question and answer session. This informative and educational event concluded with Rizzi disseminating a fire prevention booklet. “I thought the workshop was informative and beneficial to the clients. A lot of what they spoke about can definitely be used for the safety of the clients and they should be implemented daily. The clients also seemed interested in the information,”said Robin Devonish, NORC Supervisor.
