Special Needs Situations

Is it true? Is summer trying to arrive in Northern Michigan? Well, for a day at least. I am as guilty as anyone when I hope for warmer weather and then, after it has been here for a week, hope for cooler weather! A statement was made to me the other day by a friend. She said that her biggest fear is fire in her home. This fear is not too far out of the ordinary. What is "special" about her situation is that she has a totally dependent child in a wheelchair, a special needs person. I would like to broach a sensitive subject. Please know that I have nothing but the utmost respect for the senior population. As we get older, we become "special needs" to a certain extent. I will try to explain without offense.

Her first question to me was "What do I do, I am so afraid of fire and he is totally dependent on me?" and the next was "What if I don’t hear the alarm?" I explained that fear can be a good thing for it keeps you on your toes; you don’t get complacent. So, fear the fire and make preparations to keep it from happening. I asked her how many smoke detectors she has and what operates them: electricity, battery, or both. She said three, two downstairs and one upstairs and that she thinks they are operated by electricity because she hasn’t had to replace the batteries. There are many issues in this statement. I learned that her boy sleeps on the main level which she refers to as upstairs. The downstairs is actually the basement with a walk-out. So, if the boy sleeps upstairs, why is there only one detector there? She also "thinks" she knows how they are operated but she should definitely know how. Finally, she hasn’t had to replace the batteries. I am not sure of the time period when new constructed homes were required to have detectors powered by electricity with a battery backup and interconnected, but chances are, hers are that type. So I know without any doubt that her batteries are dead and corroding in the unit as we speak, both situations being very bad for proper operation. I explained the importance of having many detectors versus the three she has.

Picture your typical kitchen and the wastebasket sitting beside the counter near one corner. Now picture a discarded cigarette thrown in the wastebasket. The only detector is in the opposite, diagonal corner. Smoke and heat rise so it would have to rise to the ceiling, go across the room, and then set the detector off. This could take up to two minutes. Now place an additional detector above the basket and discard the cigarette. The smoke and heat still rise to the ceiling, but now the detector activates much sooner. Can we ever know where fire will occur? No, so detectors placed every two or three square feet on the ceiling would be the ideal. Is this practical or entirely necessary? Not really, but the concept is the more detectors you have, the safer you are sooner.

Special needs mean your needs are special. Take the detectors we just talked about. "What if I don’t hear them?" Fire safety companies make special detectors for those who are hard of hearing or completely deaf. They usually involve a very bright strobe light that is so annoying, that no one can sleep through it. Some are just a bit louder than normal detectors and some even involve a vibrating device that is placed beneath a pillow. When the smoke activates the detector, the detector activates the vibrating device. So there are alerting devices made for all needs that are special.

You probably have heard this from me before, but I suggested to her that she practice fire drills. Every profession in the world is based upon being prepared. Race car drivers, sports organizations, doctors, truck drivers, teachers, fire fighters, EMS personnel, plus so many others all have to be prepared in order to do their jobs correctly, but most importantly, safely. Even parents can take classes to be better prepared parents. So let’s be better prepared and practice fire drills. She will learn what works and what doesn’t. She said that another one of her children may be able to help, but she is not sure if he can lift his brother. She will learn after the first drill whether he can be a part of assisting his brother or just getting out and removing himself as a concern. Of course my first bicycle ride was the most successful in history. In reality, I fell so many times, my parents just shook their heads and considered a larger tricycle! But I practiced and finally mastered the 2-wheeler. She can master a portion of her fear by having the peace of mind that the family knows what to do in case of fire.

 Remember Dorothy from an earlier article? She did the study with the 8 year-old boy who didn’t wake up to the detector. She will testify that the conditioning of practicing drills will save lives. Did you ever notice how many odors there are in a home? Some are pleasant, but most in my home are not. This may be due to pets. I have two cats and a dog. They are wonderful creatures but also very odoriferous. They smell! What may be even worse than the pets are my socks. So you get the odors idea. So what do you do about your odors? Someone invented aerosols that freshen the air, they work. Someone invented perfumes and deodorizers, they work. Others invented candles and plug-ins. They also work. As this applies to special needs situations, it also applies everywhere else. Is it truly practical or fair to ask that candle and plug-ins never be manufactured again? Is it truly practical to completely eliminate these two items from your home? The answers are no. But, in order for my friend to eliminate the fire hazards from her home, she will have to eliminate any trace of these. I will agree that there are many fire causing items in our homes, but the candles and plug-in air fresheners actually cause the most fires as compared to other fire causing items, so the odds against fire greatly increase by removing them.

Insurance sure is a dirty word to some. The amount of money you pay to avoid paying money is very silly but so very necessary. My friend can attest to the amount you can spend on insurance. So, wherever you can save when it comes to insurance is welcomed. I don’t really know of too many ways to save money, but I do know of one way my friend can be safer that doesn’t cost much. She can have her appliances checked regularly to ensure proper operation. Can we stop all malfunctions by inspection? No, but a great many have been eliminated. Things can be discovered by inspection and only by inspection. Cracked heat exchangers on furnaces can only be found upon inspection. It is those cracks that cause carbon monoxide and malfunctions. Gas pressures can be measured which have to be at certain pressures for proper operation. Records can indicate when it is the recommended time to change certain elements of your appliances. Burners wear, gaskets dry up, bearings which may or may not need lubrication may dry up and so on. Keep close watch of your utility bills to notice any excessive usage. Excessive usage may indicate a malfunction or dangerous situation. Just maybe the older tools that were proposed to be built better were just better taken care of. Our appliances should be no different. There was a period of time, spring I believe, that we seemed to burn out light bulbs with just a flip of the switch. I was constantly changing them. I bought cheap, no, I’m sorry, inexpensive bulbs. (Cheap was not a word in our vocabulary when I worked in the hardware store.) I bought 130 volt bulbs, (made to take power surges of just a few volts above the 120 volt rating in all homes), and expensive bulbs. Nothing seemed to improve the situation. That is until I noticed the electric bill. It wasn’t anything out of the norm, but I was reading it through and found that the company would come right to my home, put a tester on my water heater, and check its efficiency. So why can’t they come out and test something, anything to find out why my home can’t stay lit!? They did, and found most of the lugs and nuts in the panel box to be so loose that bad things were to happen had they not corrected the situation. So have those licensed and insured come and inspect your appliances. It is prevention money well spent.

With the hint of warmer weather in the air, a cool spot for the night may be hard to find. I could not install a forced-air furnace in my home so I have no duct work for air conditioning. All the windows are either crank-out or open to the side so a window unit is almost impossible. So at night, all the windows are opened and fans are placed in them. The wind will close any doors not propped open, so there are odd shoes at each door to do this. This poses two potential dangers, one is the fan, and the other is opened doors. My friend can practice fire safety by considering that portable fans are not too big a concern for causing fires but they have tremendous potential. I looked at a new fan today that was at least an inch or so more narrow than I had ever seen. This really made it unstable. So if they tip over and land flat, there is no air movement to cool the motor and it could overheat causing fire. They are similar to candles, left alone, they can be dangerous. Opened doors are also a practice that should be eliminated. I have responded to fires that started by storing combustible material too close to the furnace in the basement that did major structural damage. There was barely a hint of the smell of smoke upstairs because they had the basement door closed. I have responded to a fire in which a candle was left burning in the basement and, due to the airflow through the open basement door, the fire spread so fast and it destroyed the whole home. So I told her to keep all doors closed at all times. This way, if fire starts in the linen closet, it will stay there longer and give them more time to escape. Can I live with the doors closed in the summertime? Not too comfortably, but I do try to keep as many closed as I can.

We covered some ways to ease her concerns of fire which apply to any situation, special needs or not. Now let’s cover some specific things my friend can do to ease her concerns and become safer. I suggested that her son should have the bedroom on the lowest level in the home. This would permit easier exiting and entering. This may also alleviate concerns with the larger equipment needed for his car such as his bed, shower facility, and other needs. They would probably be easier to bring in the home than if they had to come in a smaller entrance or up the stairs. Special fire resistant drywall exists that can be used in his room or in the mechanical room or kitchen which will help quell the spread of fire. This is another form of insurance that I would much rat her pay than to the agent. The installation of fire sprinklers would certainly go the most distance in making her home safe from fire. They save lives. A retro fit in an existing home can be expensive, but well worth the money. After all, how can we really place a price on human life?

I have gone on long enough even though there is still much to be discussed about fire safety. Thank you for reading and I hope to address this publication again soon. If anyone has any questions, please e-mail or call me and I will answer you promptly. If I don’t have the answer, I will get it.

Jim Carroll
Fire Prevention Education Officer
Grand Traverse Fire Department
Submitted June 04