Esplanade Safety Event

Hillsboro firefighters are proud of their equipment and Saturday’s Safety Day event at the Sunset Esplanade, sponsored by KUIK Radio, was a great opportunity for crews to show the public the tools they use to fight fire. Hundreds of children and parents toured Engine 103 and Truck 3 and chatted with our public education team. Firefighters and the safety team communicated the importance of fire safety in the home and distributed materials that focus on two major aspects of home fire safety, working smoke alarms and home escape planning.

Each year thousands of people die in home fires. Four out of every five of those people die in their own homes. When fire breaks out, the key to your survival is immediate escape. Your life and the lives of your family depend on whether you know how to escape from fire. The majority of fatal home fires strike at night while you are asleep. You need working smoke alarms to wake you AND an escape plan so everyone in your home knows how to get out alive!

Safety Steps:
Make sure smoke alarms are installed on every level of the home and that they work. Test smoke alarms once a month by pushing the test buttons. Smoke alarms alert people to fire; families still need to develop and practice home fire escape plans so that they can get out quickly.

Get everybody together and draw a simple floor plan of your home. Plan two ways out of each room. The first way out should be the door and the second way out could be another door or window. Make sure doors and windows can be opened easily.

In a two-story building, plan your secondary escape through a window. If you plan to use an escape ladder, make sure everybody knows how to use it.

Choose a special meeting place for all family members outside the home and mark it on the floor plan. A meeting place should be something that always stays in the same place, such as a tree, telephone pole, or a neighbor’s house.

Have a home fire drill at least twice a year – once at night. Have everybody in the home practice using their second way out as well as their primary route.

For more information on fire and life safety tips, visit www.ci.hillsboro.or.us/fire