| The
Case Against Window Decals by Deputy Chief
Don Bigger
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.
- Don Bigger, Deputy Chief.
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