The idea behind the Tip Of The Week articles is to inform the reader of laws, police related matters and how to handle certain emergencies. This week we will discuss fire related emergencies when away from home.
The age old adage the medical profession uses appropriately applies to emergency situations, “First thing, do no harm.” Should you find yourself driving down the road and come upon a vehicle that is fully engulfed in flame, do not attempt to drive around it or pull up and park behind it. Stay back a good distance where you and any passengers in your vehicle are safe. Understand that a vehicle has the potential of exploding and sending shrapnel flying the same as an IED or grenade.
Items in the vehicle that will explode are the air bags, wheel well bearings, batteries and gas tanks. Generally a gas tank will not explode but will rupture and leak gasoline vapors which are what actually is burning.
Foremost stay out of the roadway! Those people who do decide they will take the chance of driving by to get where they are going in such a death defying situation also tend to be the gawkers. “Look children, a car is on fire!” They will not see you walking the little old lady back to sit in your car until they have run you both over and wonder what those bumps in the road were.
Do not attempt to put out a fully engulfed car fire with your little emergency fire extinguisher. It will take a fire truck with an inch or inch and a half hose throwing up to a 1,000 gallons of water per minute under 150 pound of pressure to extinguish the blaze. Once a vehicle has burned, nobody will be driving it anymore anyway.
If you drive up on the scene of an emergency and intend to call 9-1-1, stop and ask if there are any injuries. This may make the difference between a response of an unknown injury accident which will result in a fire engine, rescue truck, ambulance and police cars. If it turns out to be just a family in two vehicles pulling over to decide if they want to eat at Big Boy or Bob Evans before they exit then first responders will not need to put their lives at risk just because you panicked and wanted to use your Smarter than the user phone.
The kids at work love to make fun of the old man with his pre-paid flip phone as they check their messages while listening to a 14 year old girl singing about her love life while playing Zombie Thrones IV. My flip phone works just fine when I need to call my brother’s in blue during an emergency.
