Quote of Beauty

Apartment Fire Safety Tips

Because families in apartment complexes live so close together, there are special areas of concern when it comes to fire safety.

Apartment complexes are simply a series of small, connected homes. It’s important to remember that what you do in your apartment can affect people living six-doors down, or even in the next building.

Special hazards that affect people who live in apartments:

• Often, there is only one way in or out -- no back door.

• Stairways are often built entirely of wood. If the stairwell or walkway is on fire, you may not be able to exit through the front door.
• Congested parking can mean blocked fire hydrants and/or blocked fire lanes. (A ladder truck can be 8 – 9-feet wide, and 50-feet long. A blocked fire lane can slow down response time.)
• An apartment building is, in effect, a very densely populated neighborhood. (If the downstairs or next door apartment is on fire, it can spread quickly to adjoining apartments in a matter of minutes.)
• Without properly working smoke alarms, it make take a lengthy amount of time before finding out that another part of the apartment building is on fire. Consequently, this could cut your chances of getting out of the building alive.

Safety Tips

Make sure you have smoke alarms that work.

The Fire Code requires working smoke alarm(s) in every apartment unit. Existing apartments require smoke alarms in the hallway outside sleeping areas. Newly constructed apartments now require them IN the sleep room, as well. Remember to check the batteries once a month, and replace the batteries once a year.

The apartment complex is required to have a fire extinguisher within 75-feet travel distance.

If extinguishers are not provided outside the apartments, then each apartment is required to have one.

The Fire Code states that no person shall use fixed or portable barbecues in or under any attached covered patios, balconies, covered walkways or roof overhangs.

When in use, barbeques should be located on ground level and be a minimum of 10-feet away from combustible surfaces including buildings, structures, covered walkways and roof overhangs.

Don’t park in front of fire hydrants and don’t park in fire lanes.

Respecting the fire restrictions may literally save your life. When friends visit, be sure to remind them to park only in appropriate parking areas.

Never leave smoking materials burning. Never smoke in bed.

In 2001, the most common cause of apartment fires was careless disposal of smoking materials.

Make sure there’s a number on your apartment door.

If there isn’t, contact management.

Keep a copy of your apartment number and apartment building number, inside your apartment, near the phone.

The information will then be handy for babysitters, and it will be there if you panic.

Complex owners and managers need to be sure gated driveways are accessible to firefighters.

75-percent of multi-housing complexes are now gated. Work with the fire department to make sure access requirements are met.

Don’t run extension cords under carpets or from unit-to-unit.

They can easily overheat. Extension cords are for temporary use only. They are not to be used as a substitute for permanent wiring.

Get acquainted with disabled folks in your building.

If there’s a fire, they may have extra difficulty getting out. You may be able to help them, or you can direct firefighters to the disabled person’s apartment.

What To Do If There’s a Fire

• Once out – STAY OUT! Do not go back in for ANY reason.

• Call 9-1-1 from a safe location.

• Give the dispatcher as much accurate information as you can.

• Get out of the apartment.

• Try to let neighbors know to get out. Help elderly and disabled folks or families who have many children.

• Have someone meet the firetrucks when they arrive, if it can be done safely.

• Keep the fire lanes open.

• If you can’t get out, use a mobile phone to stay in touch with 9-1-1 dispatchers. Shine a flashlight or wave a sheet out the window to alert firefighters that you’re trapped.

• Stay calm.

Words of Wisdom

Winter Preparedness Checklist

By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home

When wintry weather blows, will your family be prepared?

Winter brings special seasonal challenges to an organized home. Winter storms can make navigating roads and walkways hazardous; power outages and snow days highlight any family's readiness for cold weather.

Take time now to review your family's emergency preparedness with this Winter Preparedness Checklist. It'll help you prepare your home and automobile for cold-weather hazards.

Out and About

Will your home welcome winter visitors safely? Get ready for snow, ice or rain on walks and driveways with:

• Snow shovel
• De-icing compound
• Waterproof floor mats

The Inside Story

Household emergency supplies should include enough food, water and supplies to last four days without power or help. Check your home emergency kit against this basic checklist:

• Food that doesn't require heating or refrigeration, such as canned meats, soups and stews, cereal, and energy bars
• Manual can opener
• Paper plates, cups and plastic utensils
• 1 gallon of water per person per day (allow enough for four days)
• Flashlights and batteries
• Battery-powered radio
• Battery-powered clock
• Cellular phone
• First-aid kit (printable first-aid kit checklist)
• Four-day supply of prescription medicines
• Blanket and cold-weather clothing for each family member
• Pet food and additional water for household pets

On The Road:

Winter transportation can mean ice, snow, and hazardous roads. Road conditions can change in an instant. Before traveling, give cars a winter preparedness exam:

• Check antifreeze
• Check and replace older batteries
• Remember to keep the gas tank near full to avoid freezing water in the fuel line
• Check tires and spare tire for proper inflation

Make sure automobiles contain the following emergency supplies:

• Bag of sand, road salt or non-clumping cat litter. The bag's extra weight means better traction, and the contents can be spread under slipping tires.
• Ice scraper
• Jumper cables
• Small shovel (to dig snow away from wheels, or scatter sand on roadway)
• Tire chains (every driver should practice putting them on)
• Flares or reflective triangle to warn other motorists if you break down
• Blanket
• Flashlight and batteries
• Gallon jug of drinking water
• First aid kit

When traveling by car, include emergency food and clothing for each traveler. Pack supplies in a backpack in case you need to abandon your car.

An emergency backpack should include:

• Jacket, hat, gloves and sturdy, snow-proof boots for each traveler
• Nonperishable food
• Cellular phone
• Money

The Passion Flower grows at Villa Medici

The Passion Flower Legend

The story relates that in 1609 Jacomo Bosio, a monastic scholar, was working
on his extensive treatise on the Cross of Calvary, when an Augustan friar,
Emmanuel de Villegas, a Mexican by birth, arrived in Rome.
He showed Jacomo Bosio drawings of a wonderful flower, ‘stupendously marvellous’, but Bosio was unsure whether or not to include these drawings in his book to the glory of Christ, fearing that they were greatly exaggerated. However, after receiving more drawings and descriptions from priests in New Spain and assurances from Mexican Jesuits passing through Rome that these astonishing reports of this lovely flower were indeed true, and when finally he saw drawings, essays and poems published by the Dominicans at Bologna he was satisfied that this marvellous flower did exist.

He now considered it his duty to present this ‘Flos Passionis’ flower story to the world as the most wondrous example of the ‘Croce triofante’ discovered in the forest. He considered the flower to represent not directly the cross of our Lord but more the past mysteries of the Passion.
In Peru, New Spain and the
West Indies the Spanish descendants still call it the ‘Flower of the Five Wounds’. Bosio observed that the bell shaped flower took a long time to form, then after staying open for just one day, it closed back into the same bell
shape as it slowly faded away. He wrote, ‘It may well be that in HIS infinite
wisdom it pleases HIM to create it thus, shut up and protected, as though to
indicate that the wonderful mysteries of the cross and of HIS passion were to
remain hidden from the heathen people of these countries until the time
preordained by HIS highest Majesty Bosio’s passion flower shows the crown of thorns (corona filaments) twisted and plaited, the three nails (stigma) and the column of the flagellation just as they appear on ecclesiastical banners. He writes that the insides of the petals are tawny in Peru, but in New Spain they are white tinged with rose-pink, the crown of thorns having a blood red fringe, suggesting the ‘Scourge with which our blessed LORD was tormented’. He describes ‘the column [androgynophore] rising in the centre of the flower surrounded by the thorn of crowns, the three nails at the top of the column. In between, near the base of the column is a yellow colour about the size of a reale, in which there are five spots or stains [stamens] of the hue of blood evidently setting forth five wounds received by our LORD on the
cross’.

The colour of the column, crown [ovary] and the nails is clear green and the crown is surrounded by a kind of veil of very fine violet coloured hair. There are seventy two filaments (crona filaments) which, according to tradition, is the number of thorns in the crown of thorns set upon Christ’s head. ‘The abundant and beautiful leaves are shaped like the head of a lance or pike like the spear that pierced the side of our Saviour, while the underside of the leaf is marked with dark round spots signifying thirty pieces of silver’, that Judas was paid to betray Christ.

Here is our passion flower brought in by one of our very own Mr. Chaikin! Thanks it was so beautiful it did not look real!