
photo courtesy of the Village of Ridgewood
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Every year during Fire Prevention Week, the Ridgewood Fire Department holds a timed fire drill contest at all the public schools. This year’s contest was full of action, as always! The school that shows the biggest improvement in their fire drill time compared to the previous year wins the highly coveted white fire helmet—a symbol of fire safety excellence that the winning school gets to display until the next year’s contest.
And guess what? For the second year in a row, the Glen School took home the top prize! They managed to shave an impressive 20 seconds off their 2023 time. Congrats, Glen School!
Members of the Home and School Association (HSA) were lucky enough to ride along with the firefighters in the fire trucks and watch the drills firsthand. After all the excitement, HSA members, school officials, and village administrators gathered at the Fire House for a lunch where they discussed all things fire safety.
Now, if you’re a fire safety nerd like me, you probably already know that every year Fire Prevention Week has a theme, and this year’s theme is a big one! The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) announced that the theme for October 6–12, 2024 is “Smoke alarms: Make them work for you!”
So why the focus on smoke alarms? Well, the stats are pretty shocking. According to the NFPA, the majority of home fire deaths in the U.S. happen in homes with no smoke alarms or non-working smoke alarms. In fact, having working smoke alarms reduces the risk of dying in a fire by more than 50%! But the reality is that three out of five fire deaths occur in homes without working smoke alarms. That’s why this year’s campaign is so important.
Here are the key fire safety tips to remember from this year’s campaign:
- Install smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside sleeping areas (like the hallway), and on every level of your home, including the basement.
- Make sure your smoke alarms meet the needs of everyone in your home, including those with sensory or physical disabilities.
- Test smoke alarms at least once a month by pressing the test button. It takes only a few seconds!
- Replace your smoke alarms if they are 10 years old or if they don’t respond when tested.
One big reason people are at risk is that they tend to remove or disable smoke alarms when they start beeping due to low batteries or other issues. If that’s you, it’s time to fix the problem and not remove the smoke alarm!
If you want to dive deeper into Fire Prevention Week or find some great resources for kids, parents, and educators, check out the official Fire Prevention Week website at fpw.org or head over to sparky.org and sparkyschoolhouse.org for more fun fire safety tools.
Fire Prevention Week is celebrated across North America every October and has been around for over 100 years, making it the oldest public health observance in the U.S. Local fire departments, schools, and community organizations really bring it to life each year with events like our fire drill contest here in Ridgewood.
So, what are your thoughts on this year’s fire safety theme? Have you tested your smoke alarms recently? Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe for more community updates and fire safety tips. Stay safe, everyone.
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House is Vagiano’s campaign manager missing from this picture? Did you listen to JJ’s podcast- Keith took all the credit for sustainable jersey award, while all the work for that was done by the volunteer residents of the village who care about the sustainability, while Kazmark basically is advocating for cutting 100s of trees and polluting waterways with crumb rubber. That’s a politician, not a ‘manager’.
No that’s a shit head.