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Post by raybar on Jul 21, 2013 17:00:13 GMT -5
The Warner Bros. Fire Department conducted a live-fire exercise for the Search & Rescue team, of which I'm a member, this morning. They (the firefighters) set fires and we (the S&R volunteers) put them out using both A-B-C chemical extinguishers and also CO2 extinguishers. We got to handle fire hoses and spray water around last time.
Anyway, please make sure that your home and car fire extinguishers are charged and ready for use. The life you save may be your own. Or mine.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2013 3:00:20 GMT -5
Thank you, Raybar. This is so really, really important. We have nothing but expired fire extingushers in my home. Also, another important topic would be to describe the two different types of smoke detectors and why we need both. What really gets me is when there is a house fire reported, they always stop at saying that the cause is still being investigated, and then they never report about it again. That would be such an eduational thing for folks to know how and why fires have been started. We get so much info about disaster preparedness as in hurricanes, and floods but hardly anything about preventing everyday kind of things that can go wrong in our dwellings.
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Post by faskew on Jul 22, 2013 7:15:47 GMT -5
Our local FD often reports a cause fairly early. Most apartment fires around here seem to be started by cigarettes. In many cases, the smoker was drunk and died while passed out. (Happened in a duplex about 5 doors down from me a few years ago.)Every summer we also get lots of grass fires due to people throwing cigarettes out of their car windows.
I don't have the actual numbers, but my guess is that about half the fires in Austin have something to do with cigarettes. Or maybe that's just my bias. 8-D
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Post by russell on Jul 22, 2013 18:00:17 GMT -5
Hi Lily
We've actually got three types of 'smoke' detectors over here. I'm setting up our new house and we are using all three. There's the radiation types that apparently detect small smoke particles for fast fires and the optic one's which detect dense large particles from smouldering fires faster then there's the heat detectors which we are using near the fire in our kitchen so the smoke you get when adding wood won't set it off. It's triggered by air temperatures above about 65 degrees. We are using hard wired and interconnected one's so if the alarm in the garage under the house goes off all of them will sound so we'll know something is going on.
CYA.
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Post by pat on Jul 22, 2013 18:07:17 GMT -5
Hey Russell,
Nice to see you.! How's the house coming along? Hopefully things are progressing nicely and you and the family are enjoying the results of all the hard work!
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Post by russell on Jul 23, 2013 17:05:41 GMT -5
Hi Pat
Things are progressing too slowly but we're getting there. We have three bedrooms working plus a bathroom, the laundry and the toilet but the rest is still a work in progress. At this stage all of the kids are in except for our youngest son plus my wife and I, we're all still in the shed but we've got the guy in soon to do the kitchen benchtops so by the weekend we'll also have a kitchen up there. It's starting to look like a real house bit by bit. We've started laying the floor boards in the main living area so that's the next area we'll get going, hopefully by Christmas we'll all be living in there. As I said too slow but progress is being made. It is a great spot to live though!
How's life treating you?
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Post by pat on Jul 23, 2013 18:03:51 GMT -5
Mike and I are well, thank you. Just returned from visiting our son and his family in Chicago. Hope the kitchen is completed very soon, that will make it feel like a home! Is the weather hampering work? It's winter, but I'm not sure how warm or cold it is, or if you have completed all the exterior and are now working totally on interior finishes. And not to hijack Ray's thread, remember a fire extinguisher for the kitchen in addition to the different types of heat, smoke and fire detectors you are/have installing/installed.... Nice to see you, Russell, always is. My best to you and your family.
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Post by russell on Jul 24, 2013 18:19:06 GMT -5
It's been cold and there is some exterior work still to do but the house is completely weather proof so we have no problems working inside in any weather. The only down side to that is that it gets cold in there as we don't have any heating yet. Good fire in the shed but nothing in the house. The wood fire for the living space is sitting in a corner waiting for the flooring and hearth at the moment so it's not helping much. We've got a chipboard floor and we're laying recycled floor boards over it so even the floor is sealed up and ready to walk on.
I haven't sorted out a fire extinguisher yet. We've got a fire blanket for the kitchen and I've got an old extinguisher up there but I'll add a decent new one once we get things up and running. The house is designed to be very hard to burn since we live in a bush fire area but the cupboards are all still timber so that much would still burn. We've got a bush fire sprinkler system and fire hoses as well if needed but nothing beats an extinguisher on the spot when the cooking gets out of hand.
They tell me now what they'll install the bench tops this Friday so we can do finishing touches this weekend and we'll be cooking in there by next week. I can't wait for that.
We're off to visit my in laws in the next few weeks. That'll be our second trip away in the last year as we've been so busy doing the house. I'm looking forward to that. We used to go away a few times a month!
All the best to you and yours Pat from the mob down under.
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