Thanksgiving kicks off the winter holiday season…..and raises a safety issue not often thought about.
The holidays often draw families together. Houses often are crowded with relatives. It’s a time when a lot of people live in or sleep in houses that are unfamiliar to them. But if a fire breaks out, unfamiliarity with the layout could mean tragedy. State Fire Marshall Randy Cole recalls a Lake Ozark woman telling about losing two family members in a fire at a relative’s home, saying her family didn’t know how to get out and did not know where to rendezvous after escaping. The woman says two of her family members died when they went back into the burning building looking for some who had gotten out but was somewhere else.
Cole says it’s important people know where the exits are at relatives’ homes and to talk about rendezvous points outside.Cole says people think something like this will never happen to them. But he says they need to think about what they’ll do if a fire alarm goes off in an unfamiliar place.
Download Bob Priddy’s story (:62 mp3)
