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Hi, I'm
 Catherine Breault and I'm with the King 

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County Fire Chiefs Association
 and this is our holiday safety house.

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This house is designed to show us
 some of the hazards

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that you and your family might encounter
 this holiday season.

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We're going to look at ladder safety,

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including lights
 and how to properly position your ladder.

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Every year, 

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fire departments across the country
 respond to numerous calls for people

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that fell off of the ladder
 and suffered some injuries.

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A fall from even four feet up
 can actually be life threatening.

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We're going to move this around 

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and see if we can't make it
 a little bit more stable.

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There we go. 

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That's much better. 

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Now it is stable. 

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It is going to be a lot safer for me to
 climb.

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Now that I'm up here you can see I have a lot more room to work

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and be able to access my lights
 and fix them.

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And then also,
 I'm not leaning out over the ladder

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anything that would be unsafe. 

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So this ladder is definitely 

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the proper height
 for being able to work on these lights.

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We're going to look at generator
 safety and carbon monoxide poisoning.

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Carbon monoxide poisoning is a deadly gas.

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It can be something
 that builds up in your home.

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And when using a generator,
 we never want to use them inside.

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Inside a shed, garage
 or any other type of environment.

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Carbon monoxide actually builds up
 incredibly fast when using a generator,

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and today
 we're going to demonstrate that for you.

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So as you can see,
 we are not that far from our portable

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generator and the carbon monoxide levels
 got dangerous within a minute.

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So if your portable generator is located
 anywhere near your home or somewhere

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that's not properly ventilated, 

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you can experience those signs
 and symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning

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fairly quickly. 

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We want to look for dizziness,
 loss of consciousness, fatigue, vomiting.

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Any of those signs and symptoms we want to
 get out of the house immediately.

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If you're using a portable generator,
 always make sure it's far enough away

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from any type of open window door
 that it's safe to use.

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We recommend about 15 feet. 

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We're going to go inside
 and look at heater safety.

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You may want to hit your home
 with a portable space heater,

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but before you do so, we want to make sure
 you're operating these in a safe manner.

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first off, make sure you plug
 this directly into the wall

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and do not plug this into an extension
 cord or a power strip, as

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that can be a fire hazard. 

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The other thing,
 too, is make sure it's placed 

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at least three feet away from anything
 that's combustible,

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whether that be blankets,
 curtains or pillows.

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Also, make sure that children and pets
 are a safe

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distance away from the heater
 as it can cause burns.

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We're going to look at cooking fires
 and some of the dangers

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we might encounter in the kitchen
 and how to prevent them.

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So while we're cooking,
 especially if we're cooking with hot oil,

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you want to have a lid nearby,
 have it ready.

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And if you do get a grease fire in this
 pan, never, ever throw water on it.

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If we throw water onto a grease fire, it's
 going to cause it to flare up.

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Get up into your cabinets. 

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It's going to splash out
 onto your countertops

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and it can create a big fire,
 so never throw water on it.

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The best thing to do for a grease
 fire is to grab your lid

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and come at it from the side
 and slide it over your pan.

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Now you have a tight fitting seal
 and all fires need oxygen to burn.

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And when you put this lid on it, you're 

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depriving that fire of oxygen
 and it will go out pretty soon.

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We're going to look at electrical safety
 around our Christmas tree.

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A lot of people
 tend to use some some kind of weird,

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you know, 

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extension cords
 and maybe even multiple prong adapters.

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And we just want to avoid those
 as much as possible.

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So we're
 just going to remove these out of here

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and clean it up a little bit. 

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And then what we really want to do
 is we want to focus on

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plugging those directly into a plug bar.

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And last of all, we're going to look
 at our smoke detectors and candle safety.

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If you are deciding to light actual
 candles, what you want to make

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sure is that they're not placed too
 close to combustible objects.

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So what we'd recommend is that you move
 this candle away from the object,

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but also make sure that it's not too close
 to the edge where it could fall off.

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Additionally,
 when we have children around the house, 

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they may be running around
 and they like to tug on things.

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So you want to make sure that kids
 aren't able to tug on the tablecloth

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where the candle would then
 fall and start a fire.

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It's really important
 that with smoke alarms that you have one

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installed in every bedroom, in your house,
 on every floor of your house

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and in the hallways, right outside
 sleeping areas.

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Now smoke alarms for testing. 

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They should be tested every month. 

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And the way to do this
 is to press the button on the smoke alarm,

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which I'm going to demonstrate now.

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Wait for it to chirp just like that. 

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And now we know that the smoke alarm
 is working correctly.

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So we might be doing this holiday
 safety house

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because we think of hanging lights
 and other things.

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But actually, these are safety hazards
 all year round.

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We get up on ladders
 to clean out our gutters.

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We use our generators.

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Inside we're always cooking. 

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We talk about fire extinguishers inside.

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That's something
 you should have in your house, 

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no matter what time of day you're cooking. 

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And we have a mnemonic that we use. 

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It's called PASS. 

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It's pull, aim, squeeze, sweep.

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So they all have this little tab in here
 that the first thing you want to do

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is pull that out. That prevents

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when it's in from you accidentally
 discharging your extinguisher.

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So you're going to pull that out, 

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you're going to take your hose
 and aim it at the base of the fire.

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You're going to squeeze the handle
 to discharge the extinguishing agent

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and then you're going to sweep back 

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and forth at the base of the fire
 to put that fire out.

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If you don't get it out right away again,
 exit the home and call 911

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and get the fire department coming. 

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We just want to make sure everybody's safe
 this holiday season.

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We're all getting together. 

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We're all joining with families. 

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The COVID pandemic is still ongoing.

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We want to enjoy each other,
 but we also want to make sure we're being

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safe about it.

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Watch CityStream Tuesday nights at seven

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on the Seattle Channel or find us
 anytime online at SeattleChannel.org.