WEST VALLEY CITY FIREFIGHTERS RESPOND TO A POTENTIALLY DEADLY SITUATION

West Valley City Fire Department, responded to a carbon monoxide call this morning. When the first crew arrived they found a 17 year old unconscious and a 16 year old near unconsciousness. The teens were transported to Intermountain Medical Center. Other family members were evaluated at the scene and advised to be checked at the hospital. "We feel very fortunate that the other family members were able to call 9-1-1, this could have had a very different outcome", said Captain Steve Briley. After crews ventilated the home they investigated the cause. Apparently a water heater that was in the same room that the teens sleep had fallen or been displaced causing the ventilation pipe to come off and fill the room with carbon monoxide. 

We would like to take the opportunity to remind everyone to have your appliances properly installed and periodically checked. West Valley Fire recommends that every home have a working carbon monoxide detector. 

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Carbon monoxide is often called the silent killer, carbon monoxide is an invisible, odorless, colorless gas created when fuels (such as gasoline, wood, coal, natural gas, propane, oil, and methane) burn incompletely. In the home, heating and cooking equipment that burn fuel can be sources of carbon monoxide.
Safety tips

Carbon Monoxide safety tips

• CO alarms should be installed in a central location outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home and in other locations where required by applicable laws, codes or standards. For the best protection, interconnect all CO alarms throughout the home. When one sounds, they all sound.
• Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for placement and mounting height.
• Choose a CO alarm that has the label of a recognized testing laboratory.
• Call your local fire department’s non-emergency number to find out what number to call if the CO alarm sounds.
• Test CO alarms at least once a month; replace them according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
• If the audible trouble signal sounds, check for low batteries. If the battery is low, replace it. If it still sounds, call the fire department.
• If the CO alarm sounds, immediately move to a fresh air location outdoors or by an open window or door. Make sure everyone inside the home is accounted for. Call for help from a fresh air location and stay there until emergency personnel.
• If you need to warm a vehicle, remove it from the garage immediately after starting it. Do not run a vehicle or other fueled engine or motor indoors, even if garage doors are open. Make sure the exhaust pipe of a running vehicle is not covered with snow.
• During and after a snowstorm, make sure vents for the dryer, furnace, stove, and fireplace are clear of snow build-up.
• A generator should be used in a well-ventilated location outdoors away from windows, doors and vent openings.
• Gas or charcoal grills can produce CO — only use outside.
• Download these NFPA safety tips on Carbon Monoxide   

We hope you find these tips helpful,

Thank you for helping make our community safer!

Fire Marshal Bob

THE HEAT IS ON!!!.... NOT JUST A GREAT GLEN FREY SONG

SUMMER IS HERE AND WEVE SEEN SOME VERY HOT TEMPERATURES. HERE ARE A FEW TIPS TO HELP US KEEP OUR COOL IN THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER.

Extreme Heat: A Prevention Guide to Promote Your Personal Health and Safety

1. Extreme Heat: A Prevention Guide to Promote Your Personal Health and Safety
2. Extreme Heat: A Prevention Guide to Promote Your Personal Health and Safety Continued
3. Extreme Heat: A Prevention Guide to Promote Your Personal Health and Safety Continued

Highlights

• Elderly people (65 years and older), infants and children and people with chronic medical conditions are more prone to heat stress.
• Air-conditioning is the number one protective factor against heat-related illness and death. During conditions of extreme heat, spend time in locations with air-conditioning such as shopping malls, public libraries, or public health sponsored heat-relief shelters in your area.
• Get informed. Listen to local news and weather channels or contact your local public health department during extreme heat conditions for health and safety updates
• Drink cool, nonalcoholic beverages and increase your fluid intake, regardless of your activity level.

Heat-related deaths and illness are preventable yet annually many people succumb to extreme heat. Historically, from 1979-2003, excessive heat exposure caused 8,015 deaths in the United States. During this period, more people in this country died from extreme heat than from hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes combined. In 2001, 300 deaths were caused by excessive heat exposure.
People suffer heat-related illness when their bodies are unable to compensate and properly cool themselves. The body normally cools itself by sweating. But under some conditions, sweating just isn't enough. In such cases, a person's body temperature rises rapidly. Very high body temperatures may damage the brain or other vital organs.

Several factors affect the body's ability to cool itself during extremely hot weather. When the humidity is high, sweat will not evaporate as quickly, preventing the body from releasing heat quickly. Other conditions related to risk include age, obesity, fever, dehydration, heart disease, mental illness, poor circulation, sunburn, and prescription drug and alcohol use.
Because heat-related deaths are preventable, people need to be aware of who is at greatest risk and what actions can be taken to prevent a heat-related illness or death. The elderly, the very young, and people with mental illness and chronic diseases are at highest risk. However, even young and healthy individuals can succumb to heat if they participate in strenuous physical activities during hot weather. Air-conditioning is the number one protective factor against heat-related illness and death. If a home is not air-conditioned, people can reduce their risk for heat-related illness by spending time in public facilities that are air-conditioned.
Summertime activity, whether on the playing field or the construction site, must be balanced with measures that aid the body's cooling mechanisms and prevent heat-related illness. This pamphlet tells how you can prevent, recognize, and cope with heat-related health problems.

What Is Extreme Heat?

Conditions of extreme heat are defined as summertime temperatures that are substantially hotter and/or more humid than average for location at that time of year. Humid or muggy conditions, which add to the discomfort of high temperatures, occur when a "dome" of high atmospheric pressure traps hazy, damp air near the ground. Extremely dry and hot conditions can provoke dust storms and low visibility. Droughts occur when a long period passes without substantial rainfall. A heat wave combined with a drought is a very dangerous situation.

During Hot Weather

To protect your health when temperatures are extremely high, remember to keep cool and use common sense. The following tips are important:

Drink Plenty of Fluids

During hot weather you will need to increase your fluid intake, regardless of your activity level. Don't wait until you're thirsty to drink. During heavy exercise in a hot environment, drink two to four glasses (16-32 ounces) of cool fluids each hour.

Warning: If your doctor generally limits the amount of fluid you drink or has you on water pills, ask how much you should drink while the weather is hot.

Don't drink liquids that contain alcohol, or large amounts of sugar—these actually cause you to lose more body fluid. Also avoid very cold drinks, because they can cause stomach cramps.


Remember.....

          Be Smart..... Be Safe...... BE READY!
                                                                         Fire Marshal Bob