Reprinted from the ACJ - November, 1998
You step out of work at the end of a long, busy day. As you drive home, the travails of the day drift out the window, with the oldies you sing along with. All seems, if not right with the world, at least manageable.
Unconsciously at first, you sense the smell of smoke and the wail of sirens. Rounding the corner to home, a red strobe pierces your eyes and the utter confusion of the scene rips you out of your short-lived relaxation. A neighbor's house is on fire. As your car crawls past, you ask the red flashing face of the traffic cop, "Is everybody OK?" "Don't know," he says, "still trying to locate everybody."
As autumn moves in, shop doors come down, the heater fires up, and another winter season shows up on the doorstep. With the welcoming warmth of the fireplace, wood burning stove or furnace also comes the danger of fire. October was Fire Safety Month, so November is just about the right time for us procrastinators to look at some of the points of fire safety.
Consider the flammables in the shop. Gas, oil, fuel tank liner, paint, compressed gas, natural gas and all that paperwork piled where your desk used to be can provide more than ample fuel to sustain a fire. Look at the sources of ignition: cars, pilot lights, torches, heated tanks, and that still-smoldering Chevy carcass the new guy put the battery in yesterday. The potential sources and fuel for a fire are everywhere, at home and at work.
You try to follow all the suggestions. You install smoke alarms on all floors of your house and in the office at work, have the furnace checked, sweep the chimney, secure the oxygen and acetylene tanks separately, and use explosion proof wiring in the paint booth. You even chased the cigar-chomping customer out of the fuel tank coating room. And like clockwork, every two months you empty the oil-soaked rags overflowing the garbage can. What else is there to do?
Let's start with fire extinguishers. You need to have them, need to know where they are, need to quit using them as a coat rack. You also need to make sure they work and that everyone knows how they work. Pulling the pin, like a grenade, and tossing the unit into the fire isn't going to do the trick. Install and inspect extinguishers, then train employees (and family members at home) in fire extinguisher location and operation. Nothing kills your concentration while reading the label on the side of the extinguisher like flames making their way up the drapes.
Like the cop at the house fire, everyone's main concern is escape. This year's fire safety programs were targeted at school kids, but aren't we all young at heart? The kids were given kits with floorplans on which they could draw their house and map out escape routes. Then the little tykes were instructed to decide on a meeting place outside the home, where all the escaping members could gather, making sure everyone got out safe. Most kids picked Disneyland or the mall. The house across the street might seem a better choice, but not if you're 7.
As the guy says, "Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten." So, in addition to eating paste and pulling girl's pigtails, we can develop our own fire escape routes. At work as well as at home, analyze the possible escape routes for all the rooms in the building. Remember to plan for the escape mechanism. If the escape route involves going out a second-story window, have a rope ladder nearby or other means to get down safely.
At work, develop a method to inform everyone in the building of the fire situation. Intercom, fire alarm or just yelling real loud should do the trick. Be sure to get the attention of people out of hearing range, like in the paint booth or bathroom. Insist everyone meet at a specific location outside, and that no one leaves until all are accounted for. Rescue personnel get rather perturbed risking their lives in a burning building searching for the one guy no one has seen. Especially if he is sitting out back in his truck, smoking a cigarette watching the show.
Not often is something this important this easy. It's not like complying with OSHA regulations. This procedure makes perfect sense and you don't have to have a law degree to accomplish it. After instructing everybody on the plan, only one task remains: the practice run. The only way you will know the escape plan will work is to give it a try, without the fire.
Take a few minutes at the end of any given day and call out a fire alarm. Time yourselves to make sure you all get out in short order and meet at the designated spot. If something screws up, like forgetting the guy in the bathroom, you have plenty of time to rethink the procedure without the emergency situation.
If the cooperation is less than enthusiastic, here is a helpful hint. Make the meeting place the tavern across the street, last one there buys. Ding, Ding, Ding.
The above article was written by David M. Brown, Chief Engineer of Johnson Manufacturing Company, Inc.
and is published by JOHNSON with the expressed approval of the National Automotive Radiator Service
Association and the Automotive Cooling Journal. Other reproduction or distribution of this
information is forbidden without the written consent of JOHNSON and NARSA/ACJ. All rights reserved.
JOHNSON MANUFACTURING COMPANY
114 Lost Grove Road / PO Box 96 / Princeton, Iowa 52768-0096
Phone 563-289-5123 or Fax 563-289-3825