Health and Safety Tips

The Woodward Fire & Rescue Department reminds everyone to check your Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors once a month to assure they are working properly. The battery powered units should have the batteries replaced twice a year, just remember - when you change the time on your clocks for Daylight Savings Time, change the batteries in your detectors.

Make your home safer - install smoke detectors on each floor level and outside each sleeping area.

Plan escape routes from your home - determine at least two ways to escape from every room of your home. Practice these plans with everyone in the household. Select a location outside your home where everyone can meet after escaping. If you must exit through smoke, crawl and stay under the smoke. If you are escaping through a closed door, feel the door first to see if it is hot. If it is do not open it, use another way out. Once you are out, stay out !

Summer Tips

When temperatures and humidity are high remember to stay hydrated. Drink several glasses of water a day. This is even more important for young children and older adults, they are the most vulnerable to heat related injuries.

The temperatures inside automobiles or even improperly ventilated houses can reach over 100 degrees very quickly. Please do not leave any children or pets in an unattended vehicle for even a few minutes. If you have friends or neighbors who may be susceptible to the heat, check on them regularly to ensure their health and safety. If you are concerned about someone and would like our assistance, call us and we’ll go by for a welfare check. We want everyone to stay safe.

When using the backyard barbeque remember to keep the pits a minimum of 10 feet away from walls, overhangs, balconies, and other combustibles. To do otherwise, is unwise, unsafe, and against the Fire Codes. Also remember that the ashes from these cookouts may hold their heat for several days, and can still cause ignition to other combustibles during this time. Dispose of them properly, and do not store them on decks or near walls.

When using gasoline powered mowers, edgers or trimmers do not fill these with fuel when the motor is hot. The motors and exhausts are hot enough to ignite fuel vapors and can cause a flash fire that can easily burn anyone within several feet of the equipment.

Winter Tips

Furnaces and heating units should be cleaned and checked to insure they are operating properly prior to use.

Fireplaces should be cleaned and checked at least once a year. Soot build-up from previous fires, bird and insect nests need to be cleaned out, and the fire box and flue should be examined to assure there are no cracks or gaps that could allow heat or flames to pass through and cause a fire in the walls or attic spaces.

Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors should be checked monthly, and if they are battery powered these should be changed twice a year.  An easy way to remember this is to change these when you change your clocks for Daylight Savings Time.

When operating space heaters, do so safely. Always follow the manufacturer’s recommendations. Ensure that gas heaters are properly ventilated, electric units are powered by the proper wiring, and that all heaters are kept away from combustibles, including clothing.