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JAMESTOWN, NY (WNY News Now) – It’s fire prevention week, and first responders in the City of Jamestown are doing their part to educate the public on what to do during an emergency.
This year’s theme, “Fire won’t wait. Plan your escape” focuses on the importance of knowing your way out of a home or business, in the event a fire were to break-out. Jamestown Fire Chief Mathew Coon is among those leading educational efforts.
“We do try to do a lot of community outreach at this point of the year,“ explained Chief Coon. “Especially to schools and younger folks, to educate them about fire safety, what it means to look out for fire hazards within their own homes, and how to report emergencies to the 911 system.”
Among concerns this week specifically, is the falling temperatures.
“When we get to this time of year, we’re coming into the heating season where more folks are going to be indoors,” said Chief Coon. “So a lot of what we try to educate folks on this time of year is certainly about heater safety, and making certain they’re not overloading their electrical systems.”
With more heaters kicking on, the Fire Chief would like to remind those at home to be wary of your heating appliances.
“It depends on the type of heating device that they’re using,“ explained Chief Coon. “A permanently installed heating appliance like a furnace, generally doesn’t present a lot of trouble. Sometimes they can give off odors at this time of year, when you are first starting them up because there’s dust in them. Far in a way, probably the biggest risk that we see is people using portable heating devices, and they plug them into an inappropriate outlet or an inappropriate extension cord. That results in a resistive heating in the cords and the electrical wiring of their home, that’s probably the biggest risk that comes with using those types of devices and those are the types of fires we see most during the heating season.”
In the end, Chief Coon believes that education is the best way of preventing future fires.
“The more that we can educate our citizens on how fire prevention, and fire safety is important to them, the more effective those programs are,“ stated Chief Coon
Currently the Jamestown Fire Department is doing community outreach, going out to many schools teaching children about fire safety and prevention.
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