[FASTLARRY]

FIRE

Anything that can be hazardous to your health or kill you is things you need to know all about. Fire is one of these things.

You are going to be cooking in your house, maybe even cooking on a hot plate in a motel room, and sooner or later you are going to have a fire in a pan. You smother a fire, which is the lesson. Do the wrong thing and you can burn your face and hands, set yourself on fire and even die. You need to move fast before the fire gets out of the pan and on the walls.

I never realized that a wet dishcloth can be a one size fits all lid to cover a fire in a pan! Just wet one, or a small towel, ring out most of the water, turn the stove off and toss the cloth over the fire. When it loses oxygen it goes out fast. Now go for the fire extinguisher and use it if necessary. At the Fire Fighting Training school they would demonstrate this with a deep fat fryer set on the fire
field. An instructor would don a fire suit and using an 8 oz cup at the end of a 10 foot pole toss water onto the grease fire. The results got the attention of the students. The water, being heavier than oil, sinks to the bottom where it instantly becomes superheated. The explosive force of the steam blows the burning oil up and out. On the open field, it became a thirty foot high fireball that resembled a nuclear blast. Inside the confines of a kitchen, the fire ball hits the ceiling and fills the entire room. You have to see the video of this to believe it.
Also, do not throw sugar or flour on a grease fire. One cup creates the explosive force of two sticks of dynamite.

If you drive long enough there is a good bet your car may catch on fire, usually under the engine, caused by a fuel leak. You need to act very quickly on this one. Get off the road fast, run over a curb if you have to, shut the engine off, pull the keys out, or they will melt in the ignition. Open all 4 doors, leave them open, open the trunk, get out the fire extinguisher and try to open the hood fast before it gets too hot. Use the extinguisher to put out the fire, or the towels to smother it.

If you don't carry these simple 3 things, get them in there now. You should have a pair of leather gloves and towels in the trunk, use these. If you can't get the hood open, then accept the car is going to be a total loss, quickly remove any valuable items and clear the area for fear of the gas tank exploding, call 911 and give the fire department instructions where you are at. Normally when they arrive even 5 minutes after the call, the car is gone, so do nothing heroic and stupid, get back and save yourself. While you are waiting for the fire department, call AAA for a tow, your insurance company and enterprise rent a car to come pick you up. Tow the car to your local garage so the insurance company can inspect it, fix it, or get rid of it.

I have been traveling full time since the 60’s and in 3,000,000 miles, yes just about everything has happened to me. I was in two motel/ hotel fires that people died in. It can, and may happen to you, so read all of this, very carefully.

I am on the 27th floor of this 4 star hotel, its 20 degrees outside in Winter, 3am and I am sound asleep, and the fire alarms go off in the hall. I awake, know I have to get out of there fast, I know I may be outside in freezing weather for some time so I call the front desk, they don’t know anything, so I dress warmly. I can hear multiple fire engines coming in the far distance. I test the door, then make it for the stairwell and run down the stairs into the lobby where I hope to hang out, but they want us all to go outside and evacuate the building. So never run down there without full warm clothing in the winter. You might find yourself standing outside freezing for over an hour with no place to go. It was a false alarm, some fired employee starts a small fire in a trash can and trips some alarms to get even. Most will be like this and you have to take each one deadly serious. The key is how fast you can get up and out of the joint. That is what can save your life, taking each one serious and moving your ass before the fire spreads and the smoke gets too thick to get out.

Hotels, being caught up high, out of the reach of the ladder fire trucks, are where a lot of people die. Few ever die in motel fires because they are on lower floors and can get out easier. 5 or 10 deaths is usually the high and there are very few of these. Most of these fires are caused by drunks falling asleep with a lit cigarette in their hand in bed, 25% are arson. I was in a motel fire in the early 70’s that killed a couple of people and the smoke messed up a lot more. By the time I got out of my room, on the 2nd floor, the hall was full of smoke.

Get on your hands and knees, and see how far you can crawl, holding your breath. That is your test. You will be shocked how far you can really get? How to you find the stairs when the smoke blinds you. I got out OK, but from that time on, I always had my escape plan plotted no matter where I stayed. I learned the key is to be lucky and know when the fire begins, hear the alarms, and then it’s how fast you can get out before it spreads and then traps you in. Most of the deaths are from people staying in their rooms.

They make you do an exit plan on a plane, or on a cruise ship, because they know bad things happen. You always do one when you check in any new place.

In 1973 I became a regional manager, then later a National, then an international manager. I was traveling all over the world. Being an upper level sales executive, with an unlimited expense account, everywhere I went, my sales team had been trained to put people like me up in the Regency Hyatt on the top floor with the best view out of a nice suite. It was one of the perks of my success and position.
Salesmen stayed at the holiday inn, the sales manager got a 4 star hotel room.

I became acquainted with this lady in 1978, who was very clairvoyant; she could predict things that would happen in your future. She hung out with a couple of witches and I did not want to be too close to her, but she was a friend, of a friend thing. She tells me, she sees me in a major hotel fire. That was all. I am going, I need, when and where and she does not have that. Oh great, what now. So I am on the road all the time and now everywhere I go I issue instructions I want to be on the ground floor. In major hotels, there is no ground floor; they are all used by restaurants and offices. On most, you are lucky to get the 3rd to the 5th. That is good, because you could jump and maybe survive from the 3rd, but the 5th might as well be the 20th, it’s too high, and if you jump and survive you will never walk again.

Most people don’t know that most fire departments have ladder trucks 30 years out of date, most are less than 100’, that 33 yards, which can barely get up 3 or 4 stories. So if you are on the 5th floor or above, you are fooked if a fire gets out of control.

Most of these low hotel rooms are right over the Disco, and the restaurant where most fires start, and the electrical rooms and some rooms with engines, which have shorts and fires. They are the crap rooms of the place they rent last, only when the place fills up. The noise drives you crazy. I put up with all that crap for 2 years. They would try and talk me out of staying in those rooms.

So I developed a policy, I will only stay on the ground, in a down and out room, meaning when I open up my room door, I see my car. My days of staying in 4 star hotels were over, even though they were paying for it. HQ was used to seeing 2 to 300 dollar rooms coming in and now they are seeing 50. They thought I had been out in the sun too long. I go through all this aggravation for two full years, and no fire. Finally I go BS, fook that witch, and I am in Vegas for a meeting in November 2-, 1980 at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino and I check in and get a top floor with a nice suite to live it up like in the old days. The joint was packed with 5,000 people in the hotel and casino, a 26-story luxury resort with more than 2,000 hotel rooms. It is then, the top spot. That evening as usual, I make a little tour of the top casinos to gamble as most do and Caesars Palace is always on my A list. At the blackjack table I meet this very lovely lady on holiday from so cal that is staying there, and I end up in her room for the night in Caesars. I was awaked early that morning by the sirens as all hell broke loose.

Just after 7:00 on the morning of November 21, 1980, a fire broke out in the Deli, a restaurant. Smoke and fire spread through the building, killing 87 people and injuring 650, including guests, employees and 14 firefighters. I was saved by blind luck? But that was the one, the witch predicted. At 7:00am, everyone was sound asleep which added to the tragedy. People stay up late there, sleep in there.
This fire Injuring 650, including guests, employees and 14 firefighters. While the fire primarily damaged the second floor casino and adjacent restaurants, most of the deaths were caused by smoke inhalation on the upper floors of the hotel. Openings in vertical shafts (elevators and stairwells) and seismic joints allowed toxic smoke to spread to the top floor. So no matter what I did there, stay on the bottom floor, just on top of the restaurant, which shows how dangerous that was, or on the top floor, I probably would have died, so where you say in a place is very important for you to have a choice in. My room I was checked into was in the area where all the deaths occurred.

After that close call, I have never stayed in a big hotel again; I use nothing but smaller motels and only book a down and out ground floor room. If you have to stay at a big hotel for some meeting, then insist on the lowest floor possible. You can get out of the place faster from the 5th floor, than from the 26th.

How to Survive a Hotel Fire
The deadly fire at the Reno Nevada Mizpah Hotel on November 1, 2006 was a tragic reminder of the danger of hotel fires. While hotel fires account for only a very small percentage of fire-related deaths, the potential for massive loss of life exists whenever such a blaze erupts. Hotels present a unique fire risk because they are densely packed with people, who may be sleeping and are likely unfamiliar with their surroundings. Fire can quickly spread through hotel corridors and escaping through a window can be deadly on high floors. Safety measures, such as sprinklers and firewalls, are required of hotels in many parts of the world, and have saved thousands of lives. But knowledge can also save lives. The more you know about dealing with a hotel fire, the better your chance of survival.
1. Pack for survival. Bring a flashlight and potentially a battery-operated smoke detector. Check the batteries on each of these before you leave. The flashlight could save your life if you have to quickly navigate a dark hallway or stairwell. By my bed at night is my flashlight, in case the lights go off, and now and then you will need it for various things. And my gun, in case somebody enters the room to rob me. You do not want any one getting in the room while you are asleep and then sneaking up on you. I carry a device which is a metal wedge that goes under the door. Once it’s activated, if you open the door it pushes the wedge down and sets off a shrill alarm. If there is a sliding glass door I set something on it so if it opens, it will drop and alert me. My luggage carrier is big and heavy and makes a big noise when it falls.
2. The smoke detector can alert you to fires while you're sleeping. On my mans purse I have a small pencil flashlight which puts out enough light to see in a dark room if there is a power outage, and you can open your cell phone which will shine some light to see with. In most parts of the world, smoke detectors are mandatory in hotel rooms, but seriously, when was the last time you tested one? If you don't bring a smoke detector with you, at least make sure the one in your room works. Just bring your own and set it on top of your suite case which you put by the front door at night. Other tips,
3. Get a room in the lower levels of the hotel. If a fire starts, you'll want to get out of the building as quickly as possible. This can be difficult if your room is in the upper floors of a high-rise hotel. When you make your reservations, ask for a room on the ground floor or close to it. If you're not able to do this in the reservation process, request it when you check in.
Evacuation and safety instructions are frequently found on the inside of hotel room doors. Read them carefully.
Learn your escape routes when you arrive at the hotel. If a fire started in your home, you'd probably know the best way to get out, and you'd probably be able to find your way there even in complete darkness. If you can't do this in your hotel, you're risking your life.
o Ask for a map of the hotel at the front desk. If you can't get a map at the front desk, you may be able to find one on the inside of your room's door, depending on where in the world you're traveling.
o As soon as you get to your room, study the map and find the nearest exit. Then find the alternate exits. Walk the potential escape routes from your room all the way to the outside of the building, counting the number of doors between your room and the exits, and noting any unusual features that may help you find your way. Also check for potential hazards or obstructions along the way, and try to make sure the exit doors open. Don't plan on using the elevator.
o Find out if stairwell doors lock behind you. If they do you could be trapped in the stairwell if it is filled with smoke, so you'll want to exercise extra caution before committing to that option. If you failed to do that, then take a couple of small towels with you on your escape, one to block the stairwell door open, the other you soak in water to use over your mouth to filter the smoke, or to deal with anything hot. Never leave your room without taking your key with you. You may find your escape blocked and need to return to the room, so don’t get locked out of it.
o Make sure the windows in your room open. If they do not, locate something in your room that you could throw through the window. My heavy metal luggage carrier is perfect for this. Visualize how you would make your escape through the window, and make note of ledges or fire escapes that might assist you. Two stories is typically a reasonably safe jump--although there is still a good chance of injury--but if the window were your only possible escape route and you were in imminent danger you might need to risk jumping from a greater height. If you can go into a tree, or land on soft ground you have a better chance. If you are jumping into a hard parking lot how you land is vital. You must be aware that protecting your head is vital.
4. Land feet-first. No matter what height you fall from, you should always try to land on your feet. While landing feet-first concentrates the impact force on a small area, it also allows your feet and legs to absorb the worst of the impact. If you are in any other position, try to right yourself before you hit the ground (fortunately, attaining the feet-first position seems to be an instinctive reaction). Keep your feet and legs tightly together so that both your feet hit the ground at the same time.
5. Land on the balls of your feet! Point your toes slightly down before impact so that you will land on the balls of your feet. This will allow your lower body to more effectively absorb the impact.
6. Try to roll. It's in video games, and it works in real life, too. This can absorb the impact greatly by moving your body's force across the ground instead of straight into it. Tuck your arm under your leg and roll your head towards your chest as soon as you hit the ground. Make sure you do not roll after you've 'bounced' off the ground once you've landed.
7. Protect your head on the bounce. When you fall from a great height onto land, you will usually bounce. Some people who survive the initial impact (often with a feet-first landing) suffer a fatal injury on their second impact. Cover your head with your arms. One technique for doing so is to put your arms on the sides of your head with your elbows facing forward (and projecting in front of your face) and your fingers laced behind your head or neck. This covers a large portion of your head, but obviously not all of it. If you have time to get an indication of which way you’re bouncing (and hence which part of your head you’re likely to hit), you can quickly adjust your arms to cover that part of your head.
8. Control the orientation of your body on the bounce. As you would expect, mortality is highest when the initial point of impact is the head. Mortality declines (in this order) when the point of impact is ventral (the front of the body), dorsal (back of the body), lateral (side of the body), and feet-first. Assuming you succeed in taking the brunt of the initial impact feet-first, you should try to control your body upon initial impact and during the bounce so that you land on your side or back on the second impact. Ideally, you should twist your hips to one side or the other immediately upon initial impact. At much lower velocities (such as those experienced with a proper parachute-assisted landing), this motion will help you distribute the force first through your legs, then through your buttocks and shoulder. In reality, you will be going as much as five or six times faster than you would with a parachute and your control over your body’s motion will be severely limited. The key is to stay aware of your body and your surroundings and, even in midair on the bounce, try to get your body to land first on your legs or side.
Locate fire extinguishers and fire alarms and make sure you know how to use them.
9. Put your room keys and flashlight in your shoes before you go to bed. If you need to leave your room during a fire, you want to be sure to bring your keys and flashlight, and while you don't want to waste time dressing, just toss on trousers and shirt fast, shoes on with no socks, and grab your wallet and a coat if its winter. Dress fast, get out fast. Keep them together by your bed, and hopefully you'll remember them. If your hotel has multiple keys for different doors, make sure you know which keys open which doors, and label them if necessary. Bring all keys with you if you have to leave your room, because you may not be able to exit some doors without them. You may also find that your room is the safest place to be, and you'll need your key to get back in.
10. Leave everything behind. If you need to get out of the hotel, don't worry about your personal belongings. If you have your hotel keys and flashlight (and perhaps your cell phone and wallet & ID, if you've placed it with your keys and don't have to look for it), you've got everything you need. Nothing else is important. Everybody should know that, but still people are killed because they waste time trying to pack things up.
11. Stay low to the ground and grab your key(s) and flashlight if you awake to smoke or fire. As soon as you notice signs of fire (including the sound of your smoke detector or a fire alarm), try to stay low. You may not immediately notice smoke, but even a small amount of toxic smoke can kill or incapacitate you, so it's best to stay low--smoke will be thicker further from the ground--to play it safe.
12. Feel the door with the back of your hand. Don't open the door without first feeling it. The back of your hand is very sensitive to heat, and by using it you also won't risk burning your palm or finger tips. If the door or doorknob is hot, the fire is probably right outside. If that's the case, don't open the door. Even if the door isn't hot, get ready to slam the door quickly shut if you need to.
13. Stay in your room if the fire is in the hall blocking the exits, or if the hall is filled with heavy smoke. Even if flames are not present, thick smoke will kill you, so unless your room is on fire or also filled with heavy smoke, you're probably better off staying inside.
o Climb out the window and jump if it is safe. If you have a ground-floor room, you can probably just climb out the window to safety. Remember you should not attempt to jump from higher than two stories unless your life is imminently threatened. You should also not jump if you can see dangerous obstructions below your window, or if there is fire outside your window. If the conditions are right, and you are certain that you cannot easily or safely exit the building through the halls, do not hesitate to use the window. Otherwise, wait as long as possible for rescuers to come before jumping from a window. If you are on the 3rd or 4th floor, begin tying sheets together and to the corner of your bed, test them so they will hold and not pull out under weight. This could later allow you to leave a burning room, and lower yourself down 2 more stories where help could see you and get to you with a ladder, or make your jump easier to survive.
o Place wet towels at the bottom of the door and around any other cracks around the doorway. The wet towels will help keep smoke out of the room.
o If there is smoke present in the room, open the windows and turn on the bathroom vent if available.
o Check the phone. If you are able to make a call, notify the front desk of your whereabouts. If you can't reach the front desk, or after you have talked to them, try to call the fire department--dial 911 or the particular country's emergency dispatch number--to let them know where you are. Give them your name, room number, cell phone number; tell them you will hang a sheet or article of clothing out the window as a beacon to rescuers.
o Fill the bathtub with water. Use an ice bucket, trashcan, or suitcase to throw water onto the door or any other hot surface or spot fire in the room. If you have a fire extinguisher in the room, or if you're able to safely get one from the hallway, keep it close at hand and be ready to use it. Be prepared to begin dousing the walls or door with water using your ice bucket. Be your own fireman. You can pull water faster out of a filled tub, than trying to fill it from the sink.
o Create a mask by wetting a towel or article of clothing and tying it around your nose and mouth. Remember, smoke inhalation is deadly, and most fire fatalities are caused by smoke or toxic gas inhalation. Do all you can to minimize the amount of smoke you're exposed to? If it gets bad put a large towel over your head that is soaked with water. Get in the tub and soak all your clothes and shoes, and your hair, then they are less likely to catch on fire.
o If fire or smoke is present outside your window, close the window, tear down the curtains or drapes, and move combustible objects away from the window. If you are trapped in your room the fire department will have the fire out fast, but the smoke is what will kill you. If you see smoke coming in you need to seal your room. Carry a roll of duct tape in your suitcase. You can seal the seams of the door, the window, or even the AC overhead vent. That alone could save you.
14. Head to the nearest exit if the hallway appears safe.
o Bring your key(s) and flashlight with you, and bring your moist-cloth mask.
o Close your room door behind you. Closing the door will help to keep smoke out of the room, which could save your life if you need to return to the room.
o Stay low. If even the slightest amount of smoke is present, or if it is dark and you cannot tell if smoke is present, crawl in the hallway. It's important to understand that while the air may be reasonably safe to breathe near the floor, one breath of the toxic air that may be lurking higher up could kill or incapacitate you. There can also be substantial temperature differences in just a few vertical feet. You may not be able to tell if the air above you is poisonous or superheated until you have already breathed it in. By then it could be too late. Stay low.
o Stay near the wall as you make your way through the hall. The wall can be your guide down the hallway, so try to keep in contact with it. In addition, other hotel guests may be running down the hall, and you're more likely to get trampled if you're in the middle of the path.
o Count the doors to the exit, and stay on the same side of the hall as the exit. If you've planned your escape route when you checked in you should know how many doors you have to pass, and you'll be able to find the exit even if you can't see a thing.
o Take the stairs to exit the building unless the stairwell is filled with smoke. Use the handrail to guide you and to help you keep your footing. If heavy smoke chokes the stairwell, you have no choice but to get to another exit or go back to your room. Do not try to rush through the smoke unless your return route is blocked. The smoke will probably be extremely toxic, and you don't know what you will run into further down the stairs.
o If you find that flames or heavy smoke blocks your way after you have traveled down the stairwell, you can either try to get back to your room or get to the rooftop exit, if one is available. Not all stairwells have a rooftop exit, and even if you can get to the roof, be aware that the fire department may not have a ladder truck or helicopter readily available to reach you. Smoke rises and that may not be the place to go to. What's more, the exit to the roof may be locked and usually is. If you checked it out earlier, you should know whether an exit is available. If you're not sure, try to make it back to your room, where you can either wait for rescuers or attempt to jump from the window. If you are locked in the stairwell, or if the path to your room is unsafe, hope that you can get out on the roof. Once there, close the door behind you to avoid creating a chimney effect that will draw fire and smoke upward more rapidly.
o Await rescuers on the windward side of the roof. Try to signal firefighters, and wait for help to come.
15. Get medical attention promptly. Even if you feel fine once you escape, you could be injured or you may suffer complications from smoke inhalations or burns. After the adrenaline-pumping experience you've just been through, you may not even notice a potentially life-threatening injury. Ladder trucks enable firefighters to rescue people from upper floors, but they may not be able to reach you on the roof, and these trucks are not always readily available. Most of them are 30 years out of date and broken down. Most smaller cities don’t have the quarter million to buy a new one. They only reach up 100’, 33 yards, and rarely above the 4th floor.

Tips
• Every fire is different. While these guidelines can help you survive a fire in many cases, there may be situations where you need to do things differently, and you may need to make difficult decisions. No amount of planning can guarantee your survival in a fire, but the more prepared you are, the better will be your ability to make life-and-death decisions.
• Place your smoke detector on the inside of the door to your room, near the top (you can hang it on a hanger if it doesn't have a magnet or adhesive). Be careful not to put the detector near air-conditioning or ventilation ducts, as the air coming through these may prevent smoke from reaching the smoke detector.
• If the smoke detector in your room doesn't work, get it repaired or insist on another room, particularly if you haven't brought your own backup. Push the button and test it.
• If you know that the stairwell doors will lock behind you, essentially trapping you in the stairwell if you can't make it to the ground-floor exit, try to prop the door open. That way you'll at least have some chance to make it back to your room if you find that you can't make it down the stairs. Keep in mind, however, that other people will also be trying to exit, and in the confusion there's no guarantee that the door will still be open when you get back to it.
• If you catch on fire, remember to stop, drop, and roll. Don't panic. Drop to the ground and roll to extinguish the flames. If possible, cover your face with your hands to protect your nose, mouth, and eyes.
• Especially when traveling in countries that don't mandate fire prevention precautions, try to stay in modern, high-end chain hotels to minimize the risk of fire. That said, your chances of escaping a small one-story hotel are better than those if you're staying on the top floor of an ultramodern high-rise.
• Keep your cool. You've got to keep calm to do everything.
• If you notice a fire alarm control system, such as a panel or a keypad (similar to a security system) make sure it is powered and nothing is wrong with it. If something is not right, notify the building staff.

Warnings
• Do not assume that all hotels will have the same safety features you may be accustomed to. In some parts of the world, even "standard" features such as smoke detectors and fire extinguishers may be absent, and older hotels in particular may not have up-to-date safety features. Flame-resistant building materials are also not standard in many places, so fires may start especially easily or travel particularly quickly.
• Unless the stairs are absolutely unsafe, never use the elevators during a fire. Elevators may malfunction during a fire; elevator cables may melt; the elevator car may quickly heat up to lethal temperatures; or the elevator doors may open onto a hallway engulfed in flames and smoke--and you'll have no way of knowing until the doors open. If you use a wheelchair or otherwise cannot climb stairs, insist on a ground-floor room.
• If the exit doors are connected to an alarm, don't test them when you're just checking out the exits. If you set off a false alarm, the whole hotel may erupt in panic, and you could be held responsible for any injuries or fire department costs that result.
• Don't break a window unless you can't open it. You may need to close it later to keep smoke out.
• Some smoke detectors are connected to fire alarm systems. Ask the building staff about the detector before you do anything, and if necessary, they will test it for you.

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