Friday, April 3, 2015

In Case of Emergency

Kids are pretty capable. More than many people think.

I saw a poster today about kids and emergency preparedness, so when I got home, I looked it up online, and the website is pretty good.

Some people who read what I write online already know that this is something important to me.

When I was a kid, around 8 years old, the house behind ours burned.
It had just been built, and no one lived there yet.
The night of that fire, it was very windy, and I remember watching out of my bedroom window while firefighters fought the fire, and evacuated people from the nearby houses that they thought might be endangered by sparks.
Before that night, I had been deathly afraid of fire.
Since that night, I respect fire, but am not so afraid.

Not long after that, I had the opportunity to take First Aid and CPR at my school. I became certified in both, and have recertified many times throughout my life.

I was one of those people who watched Emergency! on TV, thought Johnny and Roy were the best, ever, and wanted to be a paramedic like them.

Unfortunately, for much of my life, I was told that I couldn't do that. Partly because I was female, and partly because the only people who could do so were either firefighters or in the military.

It turns out- although I did not know this for many years- both of those things were untrue. I believed it as a child, and didn't think to try to find out otherwise.

In September of 2006, we had a house fire.
Thankfully, we were home and awake when it started.
Our smoke detector, although we tested it regularly, did not warn us of the fire. We saw the smoke first.
Because of the location of the origin of the fire, and the amount of heat, I was not able to reach it with a fire extinguisher.

It was one of the only times in their lives that I barked orders at my kids.
They did exactly what I said, what we had practiced doing, with no hesitation.
We all- including four cats and a dog- made it out of the house safely.

The house didn't fare nearly as well.

This is looking in to my son's bedroom. The walls and ceiling in this room were white- like the one area you can see where the ceiling was torn open.

I can say, without hesitation, that if this fire had happened when we were all asleep, it is fairly likely he would not have survived.

Although the fire damage, itself, was limited to a relatively small area of the house, there was significant smoke damage throughout. The entire interior had to be gutted and replaced. It took a long time. I think, if we had to do it over, I'd have torn the house down and started over.

Since that time, our daily lives have changed.
We had talked, before, about maybe volunteering for the local fire department. I thought, at the time, I'd be limited to things like bringing food for firefighters during an emergency. I did NOT know that most rural volunteer fire departments are desperate for volunteers, and there are many, many different opportunities for ways to help. I also, at the time, did not understand that in most rural areas, ALL firefighters are volunteers. I had thought, somehow, that the volunteers kinda helped out the "real" firefighters, which was nice of them and all. I didn't know that often, they ARE the "real firefighters."

The other thing I didn't know was that if I joined the fire department, I'd be able to do something I had wanted to do since I was a child: become an EMT. AND, the training was free.

My oldest son joined the department first.
This was intentional.
We wanted to avoid having our relationship within the fire department be too colored by being mother and son outside the department, so we wanted to establish seniority in the department for him, not me.

A few months afterwards, I joined.

A few months later, he and I both took the EMT class together.

A few years later, when she was old enough, my daughter joined. At first, she insisted she was only interested in firefighting, not emergency medicine. But before long, and once she was of legal age to do so, she also became an EMT.

Both of them became certified as interior firefighters, but I chose not to.
This is the two of them, working together at a barn fire a couple of years ago.

After being in the department for a few years, I also became a certified Fire and Life Safety Educator. Whatever that actually means. :-)

During this time, I realized a few important things.

One is that although very young children are often exposed to fire safety education, through a firehouse tour, or maybe a firefighter comes to their school, that mostly ends by the time the kids reach middle school age. This is unfortunate.

One is that most people, like myself for a long time, have no understanding at all of how the fire service and emergency medical service works.

And one is that most adults have no training for what to do in an emergency.

The thing is, there are some simple things that a person can do in an emergency that make a HUGE difference.
Sometimes, a life-or-death difference.

When emergencies happen, people call 911, and firefighters, an ambulance, and/or police show up- sometimes all three.

But far too often, they show up too late to really help. It takes TIME for them to be notified, and time for them to travel, and in the case of volunteers, they often have to go TO the firehouse first, because most volunteer stations don't have anyone in them most of the time.

Emergencies tend to happen suddenly.
True emergencies- meaning life or limb is at stake, and it is possible for quick action to make a difference in the outcome-  don't happen all that often, but when they do, it is often a bystander who makes that difference, because they are right there when it happens. A bystander can stop bleeding. A bystander can use a fire extinguisher. And a bystander can start CPR early enough that it might make a difference.

In order for that bystander to make that difference, they need to know what to do.

There are LOTS of stories to be found of cases where that bystander was a young child, who knew what to do, did it, and saved a life. Here are a few.

I realized that there is a lot of stuff I "grew up knowing" because I became interested at a young age, that many people DON'T know, because they've never thought about it.

Talk to your child about how- and when- to call 911.
Make plans, as a family, for what to do if you have a fire in your house. Practice them.
Kids learn so much from their environments, but they can't learn something if it isn't IN their environment. This is information that is often entirely absent, because parents aren't familiar with it.

I'm not suggesting such things to scare anyone, but to empower them.
Knowing what to do to help someone is a great feeling.

Here are a few more references, including that website I found today.

Some are kind of "schooly" and may not be appropriate, or they may not fit the interest level of your kids, but they all have some good ideas you can use, especially if you have no idea where to start.

Pay attention to when fire houses in your area hold open houses. Go. Meet the firefighters and EMTs. They should also have lots of printed safety information available.

It may be that one of your kids is like me, and this really becomes an interest of theirs.
Or maybe YOU are, and never realized you could become more actively involved.

If that is the case, leave a comment, and I'd be happy to help you find specific resources where you are.

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