I was in an antique shop today looking for kitchen gadgets; found 3 table-mount grain mills. The clerk said We can't give these things away, what a ya gonna do with em?....I noticed a safe way to use oil lamps or candles... Someone had used wire to fashion a...call it a basket...to set the lamp in to be hung from above. It seems much safer than sitting on a table, especially if there are children or pets around.

-- Arthur Rambo (buriedetc.@web.net), December 01, 1998

Answers

General safety, especially fire safety, is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL to your Y2K planning. All your Y2K 'insurance' (food, water, fuel, books, etc) can be gone in an instant. So can your loved ones.

If the time comes when you must use your insurance, you must realize that you and your family will be at a much higher risk of fire than under 'normal' circumstances. Candles, oil lamps, kerosene heaters, woodstoves and other such items may save your life in an emergency but without a heightened awareness of the increased risks (and a commitment by everyone involved to learn to use them safely BEFORE they are actually needed), a single accident or inattentive moment can lead to tragedy.

Children who are old enough must be active participants in ongoing and constant fire safety around the house. Children too small to be responsible must never be left unattended.

You must take this responsibility seriously - more seriously than you or your family probably ever have before.

Evaluate not only your own household/apartment but also your immediate neighborhood. Your local fire department typically has classes and/or information which you can use to learn.

Do you know where the fire threats are? Do you know the basic types of fires and how to deal with each? Do you know how to get out of a burning structure? Do you know how to safely store combustibles? Do you know what to do if your clothes catch on fire? Do you have escape plans? Have you practiced them? Do you have multiple 'fire extinguishers'? (commercial extinguishers are good but also something as simple as box of flour, salt, etc. or a handy bucket of water or a shovel in close proximity to dirt/sand. Remember that water unfit for drinking is still great for putting out many kinds of fires (e.g. used dish/laundry water could sit in a buck for a day or so)

You owe it to your family to insist that everyone spend time thinking about these issues and take them seriously.

-Arnie

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), December 02, 1998.

How do you properly store combustibles? We currently have about 20 cans of Coleman fuel and 10 gallons of lamp oil in the garage. Should we keep these in a separate building? Do you have to be concerned about sub-freezing temperatures? Any advice would be appreciated.

-- jo (gotheblues@freewwweb.com), December 02, 1998.

jo: Everyone's situation is different and our solution will obviously not work for everyone, but here's some of what we've done so far:

We happened to have an old unused 12x20 concrete pad located approx. 25 yards from our garage and house. The pad wasn't in great shape but plenty good enough for the intended purpose.

We bought a cheapo storage shed from a local hardware store and spent a weekend putting it up. We built shelves from boards and cinder blocks plus had a couple of cheap shelves for the lighter stuff. All of our highly combustible liquids are stored in this shed - away from the house and garage. The basic idea was to get it away from the house and garage so that fumes would not build up.

We've also been hitting garage sales looking for a lockable large metal container/cabinet for those few items which we cannot allow to freeze. So far no luck but we will eventual find something suitable.

Where glass containers of combustible liquids are involved, we used cardboard or recycled bubble wrap between them to prevent minor bumps from becomming potentially serious spills.

All rags are stored in plastic containers with lids (one for clean, one for dirty). Rags soaked with combustibles are stored outside until they can be cleaned.

Candles will not be burned in decorative holders but rather in older 'junk' cake pans filled with wet/damp sand. Long tapers will be cut in half before burning.

Paper materials, clothes, cloth and other such combustibles are not allowed to pile up.

Every heat/flame source (woodstove, kerosene heater, candle, lanterns, etc) has a defined perimeter inside of which combustibles (liquids, paper, cloth, etc) are NOT allowed.

No open flame is ever to be left unattended - not even for a moment.

We're stocking up on a many batteries as we can afford (both regular and rechargables) since these provide the 'safest' lighting.

The lanterns we'll be buying will be of the sturdy 'hurricane' variety as opposed to the decorative glass oil lamps.

We have installed extra battery operated smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors around the house and garage.

We have purchased a few extra commercial fire extinguishers (look for sales - that's what we did) and are keeping them strategically located. In addition, we will be keeping some 'home made' fire extinguishers handy (buckets of recycled water, buckets of wet sand/dirt, a plastic tub with old flour for grease fires)

That's not everything but it gives you an idea of the sorts of things we've been doing. Maybe some of the others here can help out with this thread... I'm sure I haven't considered everything and would also appreciated any suggestions. Do we have any fire department members present?

-Arnie

-- Arnie Rimmer (arnie_rimmer@usa.net), December 02, 1998.