GREEN VALLEY-MORGAN FIRE DEPARTMENT:

“Smoke Alarms: A Sound You Can Live With”

 

The Green Valley-Morgan Fire Company, Inc. is again teaming up with NFPA for Fire Prevention Week. This year, Fire Prevention Week is October 3 -9, 2010. This year’s campaign focuses on making sure all smoke alarms are working, knowing what they sound like, and what you should do if an alarm is sounding. The most important things you need to know are smoke alarms save lives and they should be in every home.

• Install smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home.
• For best protection, use both photoelectric and ionization technology.
• Test smoke alarms at least once a month using the test button.
• Replace the batteries at least once a year.
• Replace smoke alarms every 10 years.
• Make sure everyone can hear the sound of the smoke alarms.
• Have a home fire escape plan.
• Know at least two ways out of every room and have a meeting place outside.
• Practice your escape plan twice a year. Remember to practice your escape plan in the dark at least once, because you never know when a fire will occur and the darkness creates a whole new perspective in your home.
• When the smoke alarm sounds, get out and stay out.

The Green Valley – Morgan firefighters will be handing out information to the kids at Fairview School during Fire Prevention Week, but if you would like some fire prevention information for your family and relatives, please feel free to contact any Green Valley – Morgan firefighter and we would be glad to get that information to you free of charge. For more information on “Smoke Alarms: A Sound You Can Live With”, visit www.firepreventionweek.org.

 

THANK YOU to everyone that came to Green Valley on August 7! It was a beautiful day to be outside and our annual picnic was a big success because of everyone that came out to support us! We hope you had a chance to meet some of your local firefighters. This is the second year we’ve joined together with the tractor pulls and it seems to work well for both organizations. A special “THANK YOU” goes to everyone that donated prizes, time, and/or money for the annual firefighters’ picnic. The Green Valley – Morgan Fire Company certainly appreciates all of the time and effort it takes to have a successful picnic. The families and friends of our firefighters are always there to “fill in the gaps” at the picnic and throughout the year, and to you we owe our deepest gratitude and THANKS! We’re going to do this all over again next year, so mark your calendars for Saturday, August 6, 2011 at the firehouse in Green Valley! If you have any comments or suggestions on how we can improve our picnic, please talk to a firefighter and let us know so it can be discussed at one of our meetings.

We also want to thank everyone for their cooperation during a fire or emergency event. It makes our jobs much easier and safer when we get good directions to a specific location and vehicles pull over on the road to let us through. Always remember that we appreciate your desire to help your neighbors and friends in any way and understand your concerns for them, but we ask that you keep the fire scene clear of any traffic and/or parked vehicles. It might be an inconvenience, but with a little patience and understanding everyone can stay safe and return home afterwards. Please keep in mind that several of our firefighters respond in their own personal vehicles to the fire calls, sometimes because of proximity to the location, sometimes because there aren’t enough seats in our fire trucks! Being in a rural area, we often have to haul water from a distance away. Our fire trucks need to be able to get in and out of the scene in an orderly manner to keep our firefighting efforts running smoothly. You also may have seen fire trucks driving past that are from different areas. NFPA and the operations of the fire service have changed greatly in the past few years, and it’s not just for the big cities anymore. We are all working together to provide support to one another when there is a large fire. The main reason behind this is safety for fire personnel on scene; a firefighter line-of-duty death is something that no one wants to see. The other reason is to “leave no barn empty”, which means if there is another fire in the same area at the same time, the response to that call should not be hindered because of the first call – there will always be somebody nearby to come to your aid! Although we may use our neighboring departments more often, and vice versa, the Green Valley – Morgan Fire Company does not bill for any incidents we respond to, regardless of the location. The firefighters of the Green Valley – Morgan Fire Company are doing everything we can to remedy any situation we are called to and we continually train and keep up to date with all of the new fire service regulations for the safety of everyone.