Nice timing: An extra hour of sleep Sunday morning after Saturday’s Halloween hoopla. The end of daylight saving time also serves as a reminder of that annual home-safety task: replacing the batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon-monoxide detectors. 

 If you don’t know how old your smoke or CO alarms are, perhaps it’s time to replace them altogether. A new survey from First Alert found that nearly one-fourth of Americans haven’t replaced their smoke alarms in more than six years, if ever. The company says a typical, well-maintained smoke alarm can provide about 87,000 hours of service: about 10 years. It also recommends testing your alarms once a month.

The survey also found that nearly half of American homes don’t have a carbon-monoxide alarm. Yet this is the time of year when the risk of deadly carbon-monoxide poisoning goes up, as we crank up the furnace and oven and use our fireplaces. Kitchen stoves actually are the most common source of CO poisoning in the home, so don’t forget to use the vent.

Read about the RTFD smoke alarm program

http://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_303231513.html

Stay tuned for further….

October 24, 2009 in the mid morning, the RTFD went out to a report for bells ringing at the Comfort Inn Hotel located on Theater Drive in the township.  The Duty Chief (Ober) went on the air just as Engine 3-1 (Heffelfinger) followed behind.  The Duty Chief arrived on the scene with nothing evident on side Alpha and established the “Comfort Inn” command.  As the Duty Chief started inside for the investigation, he encountered smoke on the ground floor of the establishment.  This assignment was put out as a smoke in a building bringing additional resources to the scene.  Engine 3-1 arrived and their crew went to investigate the cause.  Engine 3-3 (Guizio) was given the assignment to reverse lay if needed for a water supply.  Truck 3-1 (C. Meyers) arrived shortly after and was placed on side Charlie/Delta of the building.  As crews inside investigated, they found the cause to be a dryer fire that caused the smoke throughout the facility.  The Comfort Inn command downsized the assignment to Engine 3-1 and Engine 3-3 and sent back all other units.  As the crews where cleaning up, they came across the family and their dog that was saved by the RTFD from the previous 1st due fire from this past week.  The RTFD was glad to see that dog was doing well under the circumstances.  All units where placed back into service just over 20 minutes into the incident.

Yesterday @ 1546 hours the RTFD went out to a report of an auto into a house located at 300 Hostetler Road.  The Duty Chief (Ober) arrived on the scene with the same report but took the incident up to a double entrapment.  The Duty Chief established the “Hostetler Road” command with our Deputy Chief (Meyers) taking the forward command.  The Rescue Squad (Guizio) arrived shortly after and went directly into operations by handling patient care and taking the complete roof off for patient extrication.  Engine 3-1 arrived and placed a safety line in service for precautions as well assisted the rescue crew.  Extrication time was within minutes of the assignment and the RTFD handed over the patients to the awaiting East Hills EMS for transport.  All 3 units where placed back into service just over 45 minutes from the initial report with total staffing of 13 at the incident and the RTFD had two full crews standing by at 1321 firehouse for any other incident if it would occur.

Today @ 11:53 hours the RTFD went out to a report from communications for a house on fire located at 171 Gerry Lane in our 1st due response area.  Duty Chief (Ober) went on the road within seconds of the report with Engine 3-1 (Guizio) and Truck 3-1 (Ellsworth) following behind.   The Duty Chief arrived  on the scene and established the “Gerry Lane” command and gave the update as a working house fire with fire evident in the kitchen area with possible entrapment with one vehicle located in the driveway.   Engine 3-1 was first arriving and was given the assignment to handle a primary search.  Captain Guzio and his crew gained entry into the first floor to handle the operations as the Truck arrived and was set to handle fire suppression and assist with primary search.  The crew from the Truck ran the 200ft line from Engine 3-1 and put a quick knock on the fire and contained the fire to the kitchen area.  The Rescue Squad (Meyers) arrived shortly after and handled the secondary search and completed overhaul operations.  Engine 3-3 (Ream) arrived and handled the water supply operations.  As crews handling the secondary search, then started to vent the house as this was being completed, they found a dog located in the house and immediately took it outside to start reviving the animal.  O2 was placed on the dog and was transported by our Duty Chief to the closest veterinarian hospital in which was located in our 1st due.  The dog is recovering at this time at the hospital from the incident.  All units where placed back into service with having a knockdown time of  8 minutes and total staffing of 14 volunteers.  Not bad for a first due daylight house fire with minimal staffing..We still can get it!

This was the first house fire for the new wagons (Engine 3-1 & 3-3) since  they have been in service..it’s on!

October 11, 2009 in the early morning around 0315 hrs the RTFD went out to a report of an auto accident with entrapment located on Eisenhower Blvd near Old Walsall Road.  3 Assistant (Ober) as well as 3 Captain (Kabler)  arrived on the scene confirming the report of one entrapped with partial ejection with the vehicle on it’s roof.  With the Rescue Squad having a slight mechanical issue in the beginning of the incident, Engine 3-2 arrived on the scene first.  The tool from Engine 2 went in service to take the drivers side door off.  At that point the Rescue Squad, Engine 3-1 and Squad 3-1 arrived to assist with extrication of the patient.  Engine 2 pulled a handline and placed it as a safety line until the incident was completed.  All crews started to stabilize the complete vehicle by working the air bag system in place and shoring up the vehicle.  As the driver side door was completely taken off,  the patient was extricated and handed off to East Hills EMS after 10 minutes into the incident and was transported to the local trauma center.  Engine 3-3 handled traffic control by shutting down the roadway.  All crews waited on the scene until Richland PD handle their auto investigation.  All 3 units where placed back into service just over an hour with 3 Chief (Shaffer) handling the “Eisenhower Blvd” Command and having  a total staffing for the incident at twenty six members.