Norm Kasting, a member of the TIVFD, published an excellent article in the latest issue of The Quarterly titled, “Should I Call 9-1-1 ?” . For those of you who unfortunately don’t receive The Quarterly magazine, published by TICA, this is a reminder that by calling 911 early you will get the trained volunteers arriving at the issue sooner.
Recently we had a question about an alarm sounding at the neighbours’ house where no one was at home. They wandered over, looked in windows, saw nothing amiss, and left. They were able to contact the neighbours the next day, but also wondered if they should have done something differently.
The answer is a resounding YES! There are many reasons a fire/smoke alarm might go off unexpectedly and the luckiest reason is that the alarm malfunctioned. But the other reasons are more serious and could have dire consequences and quite often there will be no indication from the outside of a building as to what is happening inside. Please call 911 if you hear an alarm going off in a house. The TIVFD trains for all types of emergency events including “alarms activated”.
Please don’t hesitate to call 911. The TIVFD would very much rather come out early to what turns out to be a minor event or a false alarm instead of an event that has already become a serious emergency response.
Fire Chief J. Caldbeck
Thetis Island Vol. Fire Dept.