| The Case Against
Window Decals by a former Deputy Chief
Window decals, we've all seen them -- window decals
designed to alert firefighters to the locations of children's
bedrooms. I have been asked several times why we do not have these
for the public, and I know the public has asked some of the
firefighters for them. Because of several safety issues, Plainfield
Fire Department as well as NFPA does not recommend the use of these
decals. Here's why:
1. Plainfield Fire
Department's educational philosophy is to teach proactive quick
response to a fire situation for people of all ages. These decals
could give you and your family a false sense of security and may
imply it is safe for children to wait to be rescued, rather than to
respond immediately on their own. Children, even at a very young
age, can be taught the basics of home escape planning: responding
immediately when the smoke alarms sound, knowing two ways out of
every room, crawling low under smoke, and gathering at a meeting
place and calling the fire department (911) from outside the burning
building.
2. The window decals signal
an area of vulnerability in the home. This could put the children
and/or the entire household at risk from intruders.
3. We are also concerned
about the safety of firefighters who may enter a bedroom with a
decal on the window to search for trapped children, only to learn
later that the children had changed rooms, grown up, or moved out.
As firefighters, we all know what we do when we enter a burning
building to search for occupants, we go right or left, along the
wall and search each room along the way. To lead people to believe
we would rush straight through a burning building to a room with a
window decal on it would not be a good thing.
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