This conversation has been edited slightly for clarity.
Runzo: My name is Scott Runzo. I work for the city of Dillingham as the fire department coordinator.
Sutherland: Thank you for being here.
Runzo: Yeah.
Sutherland: You're here to talk about ways that we can stay safe and stay warm this winter. What are some of the risks that arise as we head into winter?
Runzo: One thing that we know is that we will have a fire this year. We've had 12 incidents of fire. And going into the winter, it seems like our fire load increases, and that's mainly due because of heating. So I want to talk about that. How do we make that safe? Take a few minutes to look around and see if we're as safe as we could be.
Sutherland: So walk us through home heating. How can we make sure that we're heating our homes responsibly?
Runzo: For home heating the first thing is maintenance. Our boilers are older here, and we don't have the services to come out and maintain them a lot, so a lot of people do it. That's okay. Just Is it getting done? Are we making sure we're not leaking fuel, making sure it's just venting properly, which is a huge one on a boiler, and making sure the maintenance is being done.
And smokestacks. We have a smoke stack fire every year, and it's because they just haven't been cleaned in so long, and fire builds up. And when fire gets to a certain temperature, it kind of explodes in those vent pipes. So it can be very simple to do it yourself, order a brush and you can do it pretty quickly, pretty easily. And then look around your boiler. Say, you know, are there other things that can fall on the boiler? Are there ignitable things around the boiler? That might not be the cause of the fire, but if the fire starts, it's going to spread really quickly when there's so much junk around the boiler.
Sutherland: How often should people be doing maintenance and care on their boilers?
Runzo: Once a year, you know, once a year to look at it and just give it that once look over and we can say, yeah, there's too much stuff around it. Yeah, it's good to go.
Sutherland: What other things can we do?
Runzo: Wood-burning stove, that's another thing. The big thing is that there is still maintenance on that. And wood-burning stoves, their piping will build up quicker. And then when you do have a hot fire, or you're burning for an extended amount of time, the stuff gets to the temperature that it didn't burn before, and it just flashes over. So it is important to clean the pipes in your wood stove. Another thing is what's around your wood stove, and again, what can fall on the wood stove. It's something to be aware of.
And I'll go right into electric appliances. We all use electrical heaters. We probably have them under our desk here. I have one at the office. It tips over, it just keeps going and burns a hole in the carpet. One of the major fires we had here was someone who left their heater going in their Arctic way. They left and the dog or the wind or something knocked a jacket over it and ignited the fire. So just look around. Make sure the cords aren't frayed. We will continually use them throughout the winter and it's a good time just to stop and look at it.
And I will always do this. Smoke detectors, smoke detectors, smoke detectors. And did I say smoke detectors? The one certain thing we know in fire safety is smoke detectors save lives. When was the last time you checked your smoke detector? Hopefully, most of you are saying, I did it on my birthday, or I just did it. But I always say, be an obnoxious friend, and when you go visit someone, check their smoke detector for them. Kids die every year. There's been a lot of fire fatalities in Alaska this year. It's the highest in five years, and I would imagine smoke detectors would have saved lives.
Sutherland: Friends check friends' smoke detectors.
Runzo: That's a new one. We should have a shirt for that.
The first thing we really want to focus on is prevention, and that is smoke detectors. That is checking your heat, and that is having a family escape plan. There are so many things that are involved in prevention. A lot of the time, in rural Alaska, we don't have a lot of resources coming our way when we have an emergency. That's why when I talk about prevention, I really want us to take it to the next level. That is the way to protect the greatest amount of people. My friend used to tell me ‘You're the first first responder.’ First responders are the police and the firefighters, but you're the first first responder on the scene when it's happened. You're there, and you're the person who knows the house and knows what we can do to prevent fires, to prevent medical emergencies.
And, there's a gap time. So it's from the time you have a fire in your kitchen or any emergency, you dial 911, and there's a gap there. You might have two minutes, you might have 20 minutes. So what do you do in that time? That's where we think about making sure people are safe. Making sure it's safe if you're going to try to rescue anybody. Being on the phone with 911, and giving them good information helps us be more prepared. And then afterward, in the emergency, what are we going to do if we lose the power in our house? Are we going to have a place to go? And Dillingham is usually great, and it comes together as a community, but just to be thinking about those three things. And if you have issues that you don't have smoke detectors, contact us. We do have some resources that we can direct you to.
Sutherland: Is there anything else that people should know heading into winter?
Runzo: Yeah, dark safety, I call it. It's getting dark. And this covers a couple of things that I want to highlight. It's just driving in general. It gets dark a lot earlier. Um, use your lights. Drive slower. Be careful. The other thing is, with school buses, we have them there on the road twice a day. All of us have had experiences where you drive around the corner and you see a shadow and it's a child or somebody waiting there. And the simple solution is, to purchase or locate small reflectors to keep on the kid's backpacks. And it's just not the kids. You see a lot of other people walking into town on the side of the road and they are very dark, very hard to see. So just be aware of that, and be aware of the school bus. Give them a lot of opportunities to get the children loaded and try to be patient. I follow one home, and they're getting off each side of the roadway and running across the roadway. So make sure you definitely stop for school buses.
Sutherland: Is there anything that we're missing?
Runzo: Just winter preparedness. If you're going to go out and snow go and stuff like that, be prepared. Every year we have people go out and get injured. Be prepared to be out there in the cold. Every year, we have seasoned people who go out and experience the cold in a different way, whether that's an accident or anything. So dress wise, be prepared to have an emergency kit and be able to contact someone when you're out there.
Scott Runzo is the Fire Department Coordinator for the Dillingham Fire Department. Runzo will be back next week for another segment on safety and health in Bristol Bay.