Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Hey Guys,
I posted this in the beginning of the season before we switched to Abby's, so I thought it was worth repeating again.

If there is a hydrant near your house.....for your own and other's safety, please shovel or snowblow around it.  If your house is on fire, the pumper only has between 500 and 750 gallons of water in it, which is only about 2 minutes worth.

My question is this.  If YOUR house is on fire, and YOUR family member is trapped, when the fire engine pulls up to your house, do you want them to spend the first two minutes putting out the fire and searching for your love ones, or do you want them to shovel out the hydrant they need.

I see many times when a driveway is cleaned out and the hydrant 6 feet away from the driveway is buried in snow. Like the people think it is MY job to find it and clear it.  We try to do it, but we cannot do the over 500 hydrants in even our small city every time it snows.

Also, please keep your walks and steps clear, and check out your elderly neighbors walks and steps.  Precious time is sometimes lost because we cannot get a ambulance guerney into the house.

One last thing.......we need to see your house number if you want us to find your house.

Help  your fire dept. help you.

thanks,

Frank D.

Good points Walt.

Without getting on a whole fire safety thing....my main point is that wintertime brings on a whole set of obsticles that could easily be solved if people think ahead.

Clearing hydrants is obvious.  You would think that clearing driveways, walks and steps would be too. 

You are ten times more likely to need an ambulance then a fire truck. Can the ambulance crew get a guerney into your house, or do they have to slowly tromp through the snow while precious time is being wasted.  If your house is ok, what about the elderly neighbors house?  We are our brothers keeper.

A bigger problem, not snow related, is how cluttered many peoples houses are with junk......How far can a guerney go in the average cluttered house? Not far.

Well, forgive me for preaching here....I do not want to get off topic on a forum decated to OPE.   Just thought I'd remind people to keep things clear for emergency services.

Respectfully,

Frank D.

Very well stated Frank,

I did sort of steer left onto the fire safety portion, and EMS is far more likely to be needed.  I see lots of houses going up in flames on the news each day because of Kerosene heaters, fireplaces, etc. and decided to throw in some other stuff. 

Thanks for making us aware, and thank you for your service to your community.

Best Regards,

Walt