What To Do When There is Smoke and Flames Firemen Jim and Greg visited class the other day and gave a memorable lecture about fire and fire safety. Many of us only know the basic things to do when a fire breaks out. There are many precautions that should made in the event a fire should break out in our homes. However, fires don’t only occur in the home. They happen all over the world in even the most unimaginable places, including on top of water. Fire can happen at any time and in any place. Jim and Greg explained the basic things on how to prepare for a fire but didn’t stop there. They continued on to describe different incidents when fire broke out and how we learned to be more prepared in the event that one should happen. Over the course of this paper we’ll take a look at some incidents of the past and how we learned from our mistakes then finally we’ll talk about fire safety. In December of 1903 there was an Iroquois Theatre Fire. This fire occurred in Chicago, Illinois and is considered one of the deadliest fires to have occurred. More than 600 people were killed even though the theatre was advertised as fire proof. Why do you think that was? Why did so many people die in a place that was deemed fireproof? Let’s consider the theatre setting. In a theatre there is always the possibility of someone or some people sneaking in to watch the show. So exits were locked. When the stage curtains caught fire the entire theatre went up in flames. There were no extinguishers to put out the fire, no sprinkler systems to spray water on the burning building, no alarm to sound when fire broke out and no phones to call for help. This fire burned out of control and cost the lives of hundreds of people. As a result of this fire panic bar exits were installed in buildings so that doors could lock from the outside but people on the inside could still escape in the event of an emergency. In March of 1911 there was the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. This fire occurred in Manhattan, New York and killed about 150 people. It was originated about 10 stories up in a building that manufactured women’s blouses. This building had poor working conditions since the workers were immigrant women working for only twelve dollars a week. The fire originated from the scrap bins that held the pieces of fabric that were no longer needed. It is said that a cigarette may have been tossed into one of the bins and that is how the fire broke out. The women in the building had a hard time escaping and so the lesson learned from this one Better exits came of this and regular fire inspections occurred. Improved working conditions
