County fire officials stand together for change

Published 12:00 am Sunday, November 7, 2010

LAWRENCE COUNTY — Fire chiefs and other fire officials from the county’s 15 fire departments met at the Ironton Fire department to stand together for change.

Not the political kind of change, but change targeted to saving lives and preventing injuries.

Two hours of brainstorming Thursday evening netted some positive ideas for change aimed to reduce the impact of fires in the county — including sending out a media reminder this weekend for everyone to change their smoke alarm batteries when they change their clocks.

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A working smoke alarm is a tool to help save lives and maintaining the battery is the key to making sure a smoke alarm can do its job when needed. That is change everyone can all live with. All in attendance “approved that message.”

Fire Chief Brad Best suggested that many homes in the county still do not have properly installed and maintained smoke alarm.

“We are always willing to install a smoke alarm for anyone who is unable to afford one or can’t install one themselves.” he said. “In the past, fire departments have been able to obtain a few smoke alarms to help people, but sometimes we need some help buying them.” he added.

Representatives of the Ohio Fire Marshal’s Office traveled from Reynoldsburg to offer state assistance on what has become a troublesome trend in Lawrence County.

The county currently leads Ohio in the number of fire related fatalities and is very high in the nation in per capita fire related deaths.

Frank Conway, chief of the Fire Prevention Bureau from the Ohio Fire Marshal’s Office, told the audience, “Lawrence County has experienced a total of 25 fire related deaths over the ten year period beginning in 2000, including eight in 2010.

In addition to that, statistics show at least 53 civilian injuries and 32 firefighter injuries. Our goal is to work with all of you and the community in every way possible to bring those numbers down, with a goal of zero deaths in the next 12 months.”

Two recent fires in the county resulted in six deaths and several people injured. The human toll is bad enough, but the Prevention Bureau also estimated over $24 million in dollar loss for the county during that same period.

Phil Hardy, chief of the Lawrence Township Fire Department, was surprised by the overall numbers.

“I guess those numbers just add up on you. That’s not a category we want to be number one in as a county,” he said.

Local officials spent two hours discussing possible solutions to this serious problem.

Tom Runyon, chief of the Ironton Fire Department was host to the meeting. “We have to work together to change these numbers,” he said. “This is a county problem and we can work together as fire chiefs and a community to solve it,” he added.

Gary Sherman, fire chief at Coal Grove agreed.

“None of us have the staffing to reach out to everyone, but our departments can partner with others in our community in various ways to be more effective in reaching out with education,” he said.

The chiefs will be reaching out to every area of the county for help in the coming weeks seeking partners in prevention education.

Some of the identified partners include the print and broadcast media, social networking sites, agencies providing in home services to families and at-risk groups, schools, Head Starts, daycares, agencies serving senior citizens, home food delivery services, social service agencies, churches, community groups, among others.

Gil LeBlanc, district chief for Fayette Township added, “These partnerships are definitely going to be critical to reducing the number of deaths and injuries. We can’t do this alone. We need help from our community.”

The public should contact their local fire department to obtain information and a smoke alarm.