The office of the Stokes County fire marshal has started a fire-safety program to help people with physical challenges, the need for which was underscored recently when an elderly blind woman died in a fire at her house in Walnut Cove.
On Oct. 31, firefighters in Stokes County responded to a fire at the home of Naomi Slate, 84. The fire was the result of a rotating electrical heater sitting too close to a draped tablecloth, said Frankie Burcham, the county's fire marshal.
Slate is an example of someone who could have benefited from the program for the physically challenged, Burcham said.
Although Slate knew the layout of her house, she was most likely not aware that the heater was too close to combustible material, he said.
As part of the program, someone from the fire marshal's office will visit a person's house and make sure the smoke detectors are working, look at the placement of portable heaters and post emergency numbers.
Burcham or someone else from the office will sketch a layout of the house and include such information as where the physically challenged person spends time during the day and sleeps at night. When 911 is called from that home, that information will show up on a dispatcher's screen, Burcham said. The person's physical challenge will also be listed.
"If a sheriff's department deputy goes to a place where someone is hearing impaired, they know that they can't get to someone by banging on the door," Burcham said. "This gives them the information they need so they can better react when they get there."
Burcham said that the program is similar to Tot Finders, a national fire-safety program that alerts rescuers to the location of a child's room.
"We deal with a lot of elderly folks and quite a bit of our population has physical challenges," Burcham said.
The program is free to anyone with a physical challenge.
"People just don't know or don't think about the fact that they need to be prepared for an emergency like a fire," he said.
lodonnell@wsjournal.com.
727-7420
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