MARC JACOBS
Hutch Post
Hutchinson Fire Department fire chief Steven Beer took time on Friday to discuss winter fire safety.
Beer was asked about the "conceived" lower number of structure fires within the city. "Our numbers are pretty consistent from year to year," Chief Beer said.
Fire safety is the concern for Chief Beer. When asked about fire safety, Beer said that the biggest change that he has seen in his career is that we are now teaching fire safety at all ages.
Beer continued, "When your smoke alarm goes off, you have two minutes to get out of your house. So that's not a lot of time to grab an extinguisher, try to put a fire out. It's basically get your kids, get your family members, try to get your dog or whatever and get out."
Winter brings another set of concerns. Do your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors work? "If you don't have a smoke detector, get ahold of my community risk reduction Fire Marshall Cain. He'll hook you up with some programs we have," said Beer. "Smoke detectors are your eyes and your nose in the middle of the night while you're sleeping."
"Same with this time of year with gas appliances. We've run a bunch of furnace issues already this year and so having a carbon monoxide detector that is working in your home is very important," said Beer.
Beer also touched on kitchen fires. He said, "Our number one fire issues is kitchen fires due to unattended cooking."
But, the second thing they see this time of year is space heater fires. Beer said, "Space heaters plugged into power strips. And these power strips aren't designed to have these big amperage draws out of these little power strips."