For Red Cross, calls for help running ahead of last year
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By Alma Gaul | Wednesday, December 26, 2007 |
Patricia Fuehring, who was burned out of her Carbon Cliff, Ill., apartment in November, celebrated Christmas in her new apartment. With her are her children, Sophie and Jason Posten, and boyfriend Jason Posten. (Larry Fisher/QUAD-CITY TIMES) Buy this Photo
Patricia Fuehring and her children enjoyed Christmas, happy to have a home in a three-bedroom townhouse in the Mansur Wood Living Center in Carbon Cliff, Ill.
About a month and a half ago, Fuehring was one of dozens of residents who fled the large apartment complex off Illinois 84 during a major fire there. She and her children lived for about two weeks in a hotel before being resettled into a unit unaffected by the fire.
They are among 567 Quad-City area residents who lost their homes to fire since January who have been helped by the American Red Cross of the Quad-Cities, Leslie Anthony, director of communications, said in a recent report.
Of those, 327 lost their homes since July 1, almost a 90 percent increase from the same time last year, Anthony said. They are from Rock Island, Henry and Mercer counties in Illinois and Scott, Muscatine and Louisa counties in Iowa. The report does not include recent fires, including Tuesday’s fire in Davenport, which the Red Cross responded to.
In the Quad-Cities and nationally, home fires are the single biggest category of disaster relief for the Red Cross, she said.
In a year when California wildfires and flooding in the South and Midwest captured headlines, home fires accounted for about 93 percent of all Red Cross disaster responses, she said.
“This is a disaster that has been increasingly problematic for the Quad-Cities area,” she said. “So far this fiscal year (July 1), we have spent $120,000 on disaster relief. Of that, $20,000 was spent on the Mansur Woods apartment fire alone. Our budget for the entire year is $147,000, so we are well on our way to surpassing our budget.”
There is no single reason that accounts for the increased fires, she said, and Fire Marshal Mike Hayman of the Davenport Fire Department — which answers more calls than any other Quad-City department — concurred.
Many are because of careless disposal of smoking materials and food left cooking on a stove, they said. This time of year, unattended burning candles and space heaters add to the mix, they said.
The Carbon Cliff fire was attributed to a breaking light bulb that sparked curtains.
Most house fires could be prevented if people living in the houses were more careful, Hayman said.
Recently, for example, the Davenport department responded to a fire caused by a space heater. A pet had chewed through the cord, and it was spliced and left on when no one was at home, sparking a fire that spread to a waste basket, he said.
Fires caused by faulty internal wiring do occur, “but they are not as common as you might think,” Hayman said.
Fuehring, who was nearly nine months pregnant when she ran out of her smoky apartment building without shoes or a coat, has been overwhelmed by the generosity of the Red Cross and the Quad-City community. She salvaged her kitchen utensils and much of her clothing, but all of her living room furniture and bedding has been replaced with donated goods.
“I was amazed,” she said. “It was incredible. Everybody helped out.”
Fuehring, a waitress who is not currently working, is the mother of three children, Charlie Bell, 6, Jason Posten, 1, and Sophie Posten, 1 month. Sophie was born Nov. 27, just 19 days after the fire.
For Christmas, Fuehring bought a tabletop Christmas tree and received toys through the Toys for Tots program.
About 200 firefighters from 10 different departments responded to the blaze.
All people originally displaced by the fire have found permanent housing in the sense that they are no longer living in a motel, Anthony said. They may still be seeking different quarters for the long-term, however, she added.
FIRE SAFETY TIPS
-- Install smoke alarms inside and outside each sleeping area, right outside the kitchen and on every level of your home.
-- Plug only one plug in each electrical outlet.
-- Run extension cords only on top of floors and carpets, not under them.
-- If an adult smokes, urge smoking outdoors only. If someone smokes indoors, provide large and deep ashtrays. Make sure all smoking materials are extinguished before leaving the room.
-- Check upholstered furniture after parties for ashes that could be slowly smoldering and cause a fire later.
-- If you have a portable electric space heater, keep the heater at least three feet from combustible/flammable items and turn off the heater when family members leave the room or are sleeping.
-- Keep electrical appliances, such as hair dryers and curling irons, unplugged when not in use.
-- If you use an electric blanket, make sure it is turned off when you get out of bed.
-- If a fire breaks out in a microwave oven, keep the door closed and unplug the microwave. Don’t try to remove burning containers from the microwave.
-- Never display lighted candles in windows or exits.
-- Inspect fireplaces and wood stoves. Built-up soot and creosote is highly flammable.
-- Have one or more working fire extinguishers in your home.
-- Plan your escape route should a fire occur.
-- Never leave a stove unattended and remove combustible items (cookbooks, oven mitts, etc.) from nearby. (54 percent of all December fires are cooking-related.)
-- Review fire dangers with children and remove matches and lighters from their reach.
-- Clean out dryer vent; one in 25 home fires are dryer-related.
For more information on what to after your home has been damaged by a fire, call (309) 743-2166.
Source: American Red Cross
FIRE STATS
In the United States:
-- A residential fire occurs every 79 seconds.
-- 3,380 civilian fire deaths occurred in 2002.
-- 18,245 civilian fire injuries occurred in 2002.
-- About 79 percent of all fire deaths occur in the home.
-- Nationwide, there was a civilian fire death every 156 minutes and a civilian fire injury every 28 minutes.
-- There were 401,000 residential fires in 2002.
Source: National Fire Prevention Association
Q-C volunteers helped in wildfire, flood areas
While house fires accounted for about 93 percent of all Red Cross disaster responses nationwide in 2007, flooding and wildfires also demanded attention.
Overall, there were more than 230 large-scale disaster responses nationwide, Leslie Anthony, director of communications for the American Red Cross of the Quad-Cities Area, said in a recent report.
Here is a look at the top five disasters, based on the number of families served, the amount of services provided and the cost to the Red Cross:
1. House fires, taken collectively.
2. Southern California wildfires, October. The Quad-City area sent 13 volunteers to San Diego and Los Angeles to help, the largest deployment of volunteers for a single disaster this year.
3. North Texas and Midwest floods (Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma), June. The Quad-City area sent four volunteers to Kansas, three to Oklahoma and one to Texas.
4. New England Nor’easter (a storm that hit New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire), April.
5. Midwest flooding (Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin and Oklahoma), August. The Quad-City area sent four volunteers to Rockford, Ill., and five to Wisconsin.
Alma Gaul can be contacted at (563) 383-2324 or agaul@qctimes.com.
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