The document discusses people's lack of reaction to fires and delay in evacuating burning buildings. It references a study that found 39% of respondents called 911 before exiting during a fire. Additionally, people often delay deciding to evacuate, which is dangerous since fires double in size every 30 seconds. As a fire prevention officer, the author feels more needs to be done to convey the message to immediately exit a structure if a fire is present, rather than calling for help first, as cell phones now allow calling from outside. Emphasizing this message to children from a young age, like other fire safety messages, could help change mindsets for future generations to improve fire outcomes.

1. One thing that has always baffled me since I started in public safety over ten years ago is
people’s lack of reaction to fire. I can recall several times when I worked as a 911 dispatcher
where people would call in a stove or oven fire and still be inside their home. I can even recall a
time there was a fire at a hotel and I had to convince the clerk to pull the fire alarm pull station to
alert everyone to exit their room. I found it very interesting that “39 percent of respondents” to
Dr. Levin’s study called 911 prior to exiting the structure (Robertson, 2010, p. 145)
As a fire prevention officer, I now can see the need to mention exiting the structure prior
to calling for help is needed to be taught along with all our other fire prevention messages.
Another fact I found interesting, but not surprising, in Dr. Levin’s study is that more often than
not, people “delay before deciding to evacuate” (Robertson, 2010, p. 145). Being that we are
taught a fire doubles in size every 30 seconds, this is a very dangerous trend.
The Station Night Club fire is a good example of the delay to evacuate. I recall watching
the video of the fire during my fire safety inspector class and seeing people not evacuate the
building once the fire had started (Mogadonia1, 2012). I think in this case, many people may
have thought this was just part of the show. “Fire engulfed the club within approximately three
minutes” (History of Fire and Fire Codes).
I feel that as a fire prevention officer, we need to do better at conveying the message of
exiting the structure immediately if you believe something is wrong. In today’s day and age of
cell phones, it isn’t hard to call from outside the structure. This is unlike years of the past when
you only had home phones. This message is one, I believe is lacking in the fire prevention
message. We do a lot to raise awareness about other issues, but this one doesn’t seem to come up
as often as others do.
One way to fix this problem would be to heavily hit the message home, like we have
done in the past with other issues. If we constantly bring up this issues and teach the children
when they are young, as we have with other messages like stop, drop, and roll. I think we can
change the mindset of generations to come by doing this. Hopefully, this would improve the
outcome of fires, to the point where rescues become few and far between to the point where we
only have to concentrate on fighting the fire.

2. Works Cited
History of Fire and Fire Codes. (n.d.).RetrievedfromIowaDepartmentof PublicSafety:
http://www.dps.state.ia.us/fm/inspection/history/History_of_Fire_and_Fire_Codes.pdf
Mogadonia1.(2012, November9). The Station NightClub Fire (GRAPHIC).RetrievedfromYouTube.com:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOzfq9Egxeo
Robertson,J.C.(2010). Introduction to Fire Prevention. UpperSaddle River,NJ:PrenticeHall.