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We’ve all heard it
before...”SMOKE DETECTORS SAVE LIVES!” During the early
hours of a November morning, an eighteen-year old woman
was awakened by the sound of a smoke detector. She was
awakened to smoke in her bedroom and throughout the
house. She exited her home and called in the fire, which
was in the basement.
Sayville Fire Department
volunteers left their cozy beds in the wee morning hours
to respond to a reported house fire. Middle of the night
fires are particularly dangerous and cause great concern
to responding firefighters because residents are often
sleeping and do not have enough warning to get out. Everyone should be aware that
the size of a fire doubles every 30 seconds. Fire moves
fast…that means that residents have to move faster! |
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Two of Sayville’s chiefs arrived first and immediately went
inside the house to search for occupants. Luckily, the one
occupant had gotten out safely thanks to being awakened by
the working smoke detectors in the house. The chiefs also
located the fire, which was in the basement, and ordered
firefighters to get a hose line into the basement where the
fire was quickly extinguished. Firefighters opened up walls
to check for hidden fire behind the walls, and several vents
were opened in the roof to check for possible spreading fire
in the attic. These are necessary precautions because often
a hidden fire is smoldering or burning behind walls, in
attics and crawl spaces. No fire chief wants to be called
back to the scene of an earlier fire for a rekindle.
The fire appeared to have started from an outdoor fireplace
that was attached to the house and vented through a chimney
inside the house. The resident told us that she did properly
extinguish the fire before leaving it for the night.
Unfortunately, it seems that the fire had already made its
way out of the firebox and into the home.
Sayville Fire Department Chief Roy Verspoor wants to remind
everyone of the importance of having working smoke detectors
in the house. Every smoke and CO detector in your home
should be tested monthly. In addition, he recommends that
when you change your clocks, you change the batteries in all
smoke and CO alarms. We all changed our clocks back on
November 4th. If you haven’t already changed your batteries,
now would be a good time to do so. Visit
www.sayvillefd.org
for important safety information.
Firefighters access roof
to ventilate and check for fire in the attic
Tower ladder in place for
roof operations. Firefighters preparing to ventilate roof
Firefighters starting up roof saws for
ventilation
Firefighters checking for fire extension in
the walls while another firefighter stands by with a charged
hose line
The outside fireplace which appears to have
been the cause of the house fire
The fire is out and everything is under
control. Now the firefighters have to pack up hundreds of
feet of hose |
