Charlie Ragonesi Big Canoe Realestate's Blog

Fire Safety tip II. Why is 20 minutes important

I think as a fire fighter, volunteer, after my first post about fire safety I will post some additional tips. Thank you for your comments on the first one and I hope you were as surprised as I was about remote control fire places.

OK,so why is 20 minutes important? In many rural areas we have urban and wild land interfaces. Simply put many of us like the country and live in rural areas. When a  wild land fire starts, containment is a number one priority. In the South and Eastern part of the US , unlike the West, 90 percent of homes can be saved from burning out if they are prepped. The prepping consists of fire fighters making the home as tough to ignite as possible by an on coming fire. This is where the 20 minutes comes in . When there are multiple homes to protect we spend no more than 20 minutes per home . If your home needs more than that time we move on to others, It is a matter of saving as many as you can. In another post I will list important things for you to do. But think about it. 20 minutes of our prep can 90 percent of the time save your home. Stay tuned.

2 commentsCharlie Ragonesi 706- 579-1098 • June 27 2010 11:49AM

Fire Safety tip, Did you know....????

This is an important post for all of you with gas log fireplaces or stoves. A friend of mine rushes home after a panic call from his wife. It is June 85 degrees and suddenly their gas log fire place comes on !!!.  No it WAS NOT some type of home owner timer screw up. The next door neighbor opened his garage door and the remote control set off the remote control on the fireplace !!! This is a COMMON place problem. If you have a remote control gas fireplace  garage door openers or even cell phones can activate the fire place.

Now what makes this really scary is that these folks were a week away from going on vacation. So if this had happened a week later the fire place would have gone on. A couple of things could have happened, none of them good. Heat would have built  up and possibly caused a fire./ Or A/C comes on and fries the unit as it tries to cool the home. And so on.

So if you have a great gas log fireplace after the season turn the gas off or even better disable the remote. If you are listing a home that is vacant and has one of these things make sure it is secure and off.

3 commentsCharlie Ragonesi 706- 579-1098 • June 25 2010 08:48AM

Wow it got cold !

The wind is howling through the mountains tonight. It has done so for a last few nights. Last week we had snow.Is this a sign of things to come? It isn't even winter yet. If you are reading this post and live in the North Georgia Mountains please make sure your fireplace chimneys have been cleaned.

Also I was on a fire call recently and the home owner took the ashes from his fireplace, thought they were out, and scattered them in the yard. They weren't. Luckily a passerby saw the smoke and we were able to stop a brush fire from getting a lot bigger. I am curling up by our hearth tonight . Please exercise caution. I do not want to meet you for the first time in my fire gear.

7 commentsCharlie Ragonesi 706- 579-1098 • December 12 2009 07:38PM