Put yourself in their boots Simple things you can do to help ensure the home emergency services personnel return safely.
On September 29, 2000, Constable John Petropoulos of the Calgary Police Service attended to an alarm at a break and enter in a warehouse in the complaint. John reinforced through a false ceiling, fell nine feet in the dining room below and died from brain damage. He was thirty-two years. There is no security guard in place to prevent it - or someone else - the danger. The alarm turned out to be false.
After the death of John's, members of his class began to recruit John Petropoulos Memorial Fund (JPMF), a nonprofit that educates the public about their role in helping to ensure emergency services personnel to the house safely after each shift.
The safety for those working in emergency services is a shared responsibility. Although they work in high risk professions, most of the risks these workers face on a daily basis may be reduced if communities work together.
Safety Tips Building
"Emergency services personnel does not dictate the emergency," says Sgt Cliff O'Brien, a police officer from Calgary and a director at JPMF.
Think about your workplace from the perspective of a worker of emergencies that may be present after hours, in unknown conditions, with little or no lighting, and more often in situations of high stress or crisis. In other words, put yourself in their boots for a while and see your workplace as they would.
If it is reasonable to expect a person - you, an employee, a visitor, emergency services personnel - to be there, please make it safe. Here's how:
* Make sure that safety rails are in place
* Make sure the gates and open holes in the yards are covered
* Clean up broken glass and other sharp objects and debris
* Verify that hazardous materials are stored safely and clearly identified
* Ensure the corridors and emergency exits are not blocked
* Regularly check your security alarm systems are functioning properly
* Remember to leave a light on at night
Make the change, save a life.
Tips for road safety
Police, firefighters, ambulance and tow truck drivers in North America have been hit and seriously injured while working on the road. Several were killed. Every day, there are countless near misses.
"It is disturbing to work on the side of the road," said O'Brien, "do your job tending to an emergency, when motorists are driving literally a few inches from you, more than 100 km / h. When we got out there, it becomes obvious that even a split second of inattention to a motorist could be tragic. "
Here's what you can do to avoid being part of the problem:
1. Be careful when you're driving.
2. Slow down when passing emergency services personnel working on the road - and give them space to work while moving on as far as possible / practical away from the scene.
3. Yield to Emergency Vehicle (ambulance, fire or police) when it is safe to do so when they approach you from any direction and sound the siren by:
* Immediately move away from the intersection
* Conduct as closely as possible to the right border, or edge of the roadway in both directions
* Pull the right or left on the curb or the nearest one-way street
* Once out of the way stop until the emergency vehicle has passed and check that no other emergency vehicles approaching
4. Do not follow within 150 feet of an emergency vehicle that has its siren or lights operating.
5. Check your mirrors regularly.
Please do your part to help make their dangerous job as safe as possible - because they, too, with families to return home.
Posted on March 15, 2010.
