Airman Lydia Faux 2: Fire Prevention

  • Published
  • By A1C Tiffany M. Deuel
  • 48 FW/PA
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  After my mother's funeral, I went back to my duty station eager to help my friends, Airman 1st Class Ashley Ekaf and Senior Airman Jake Laernu, kick their smoking habits so that they would not have the same fateful end my mother experienced.

Four months later, Ashley was a non-smoker and ten months after that Jake was too. In the 14 months since my mother's passing my friends not only kicked their habits but Jake also got a line number for promotion, I became an airman 1st class and Ashley moved out of the dorms and got married to Senior Airman Eric Noitcif, one of the newest additions to our shop in the past seven months. Things were going rather smoothly so it was no surprise that something was bound to happen to spoil the good times.

Like former Airman Ekaf, Airman Laernu was also married and had been for the past two years. He lives in base housing with his wife Helen and 2 year-old daughter Hannah. Jake works in our shop Monday through Friday, while Helen takes care of Hannah at home. It had been a while since we had all spent an evening together watching movies and playing board games, so one Friday, while we were at work, Helen decided to cook a big dinner for us all and rent movies. The day progressed like any other Friday until we got the call.

There was a fire at Jake's house. Thankfully, Helen and Hannah had made it out safely with no more than a few scrapes and minor smoke inhalation. While Helen had been cooking dinner, the grease became too hot and ignited. Helen was away from the kitchen at the time because Hannah had awakened from a nap upstairs and she had gone to her. Helen was only upstairs a few minutes, but that was more than enough time for the fire to start and spread throughout the entire kitchen. To make matters worse, Helen did not know that putting water on a grease fire would make the fire larger so when she did, it almost burned her face. At that point, the best option was for her and Hannah to leave the house so she scooped up Hannah and ran out. However, if she had been attentive, and detected the fire in its earlier stage while it was still in the pan, she could have slid a lid over the top to smother it.

When we arrived on the scene, Jake embraced his family as if they would disappear if he let go, and they all shed tears. Although everyone was safe, we all knew that we could have lost two wonderful people that day.

Here at RAF Lakenheath, fires continue to be a problem and our firefighters are dedicated to raising awareness and helping prevent these fires from happening.

"Calendar year 2010 [so far] we responded to 10 fires; of those, four were cooking-related in military family housing," said Tech. Sgt. Nathan Elkins, 48th Civil Engineer Squadron fire inspector.

Although fires continue to happen, it has been improving since 2009.

"Calendar year 2009 monetary loss was $220,591. Calendar year 2010 monetary loss was $97, 780," said Sergeant Elkins.

The 48th CES firefighters have implemented many measures to help raise awareness and prevent fires from happening. One of these measures is National Fire Prevention Week.

National Fire Prevention Week, October 4-8, consisted of handing out informative fire safety pamphlets, providing a mock bedroom fire demonstration to intermediate school students, visits from Sparky the FireDog to child development centers, vehicle extrication demonstrations and other events.

48th CES firefighters have done well in informing the public on fire safety and although much damage has been incurred from the fires of 2009 and 2010, thankfully, no lives have been lost.

Sergeant Elkins said, "Fortunately no lives were lost, but this doesn't account for sentimental items that will never be able to be replaced nor the cost incurred by our customers having to rebuild their lives."

It is fortunate that no lives were lost, however just like the story mentioned earlier, things could be much worse; so it is imperative that fire safety be on one's mind as they prepare to cook or do anything else that is fire-related.

Author's note: All characters appearing in this work, aside from Tech. Sgt. Nathan Elkins, are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Fire safety should be of the utmost importance to all people, otherwise they could have a story similar to Airman Lydia Faux's; except their story would be true.

To read more about Airman Lydia Faux, click here.