Institutional Memories for

 High Street Unitarian Universalist Church
 Macon, GA

HSUUC church

- Fire Control Study

Fire Safety and Church Readiness at HSUUC
download the document

May 10, 2008





Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:33:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bob Farquhar <bfarquhar@yahoo.com>
Subject: Tower Room Safety Upgrade
To: Alicia Gregory <amgregory@mac.com>, Beth Collins <qmyrtle@yahoo.com>,
  Dick and Elise Creswell <rwcreswell@aol.com>,
  Dorner Carmichael <dorner@cox.net>,
  Elizabeth Hanson <lhanson@mindspring.com>, Holliday <teeth@mindspring.com>,
  Jane Donahue <janedonahue@cox.net>, Jane Darby <janedarby@cox.net>,
  Tina Clark <tclark1960@gmail.com>
Cc: Baird <revrhett@aol.com>

Greetings again.
Some have asked what the status is with the window.
I meet Wednesday with a window guy from Warner Robins Supply for site survey of window replacement and installation of escape system.  Will advise after I evaluate quote. 
Audio Engineering advised today two week lead time to get material for alarm system.
The following link graphically shows the escape system I've chosen.
http://www.pearlprotected.com/homeowners/ho_works.htm
 
Cheers,
Bob F
 





Fire Safety and Church Readiness at HSUUC
May 10, 2008

Background:  Over the last half-dozen years questions have arisen among a few of our members and friends about a number of different issues related to the Church’s fire readiness and safety.  Chief among these, was the method of egress from the Tower Room (TR) in the event of a fire or smoke originating  from the floors below it.   In the fall of last year, one of us (BG) was asked, on a two and half hour inspection of the Church by Tim Kelly –Sr. Risk Control Representative of Church Mutual Insurance Company, (our fire and liability insurance carrier), if we had fire and smoke detectors in our building and if they were linked to the Fire Department by an automatic call-up system.  BG confessed he didn’t know but would find out and provide him with the information.  Subsequent discussions with current and past church leaders revealed that no one really knew.  Also, over the last eighteen months, a number of church and Building Committee members, had fire related questions and observations come up such as: How many fire extinguishers did we have in the church and where were they located?  Have they been inspected recently? Why was the automatic fire extinguisher over the kitchen stove not armed, and where were the instructions for its operation, etc?

In February of this year, Alicia Gregory the new Board Member for RE, again raised the question of child egress from the TR in the event of a Church fire, which resulted in several quick fix “solutions” to the problem being offered by several of our church leaders .  The Building Committee (BC), knowing the background described above, and concerned that a band-aid approach might not address all the many issues of church fire safety, and might indeed, even be redundant, suggested that the time was right (seven years after completion of the Renovation) for a full and church-wide revisiting of the old thinking & designs, and any new issues concerning fire safety and fire readiness in the church and congregation. The Church’s President Marie Holiday, agreed and asked the BC to proceed with the work as fast as possible.

This report represents the efforts of three BC members; Bob Gray. Fran Steiner, & Frank Gadbois; henceforth the Fire Safety Study Group (FSSG).  In subsequent sections, this report will present brief descriptions of what we did and the objectives of that work, our findings of a very thorough survey of the existing systems & procedures in the church, a summary of likely fire scenarios for a church of our size and condition, and our conclusions and recommendations for the present and future fire readiness of HSUUC.

Study Objectives:  The following list summarizes the FSSG’s objectives:
To survey the Church’s electrical, the heating, ventilating & air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, kitchen appliances and fire detection and alarm equipment and systems to determine what they do or don’t do to generate a fire or to react to the presence of a fire.
To survey  all the Church’s activities, including Worship, Educational (Child & Adult), Program, Social and Community to determine which and how each could create a smoke and/or fire condition and to discover which had developed plans and procedures for any fire emergencies.
To research the origins and likely locations of typical church fires in the US, and in the UUA, relate these finding to our current conditions at HSUUC, and from these, develop the most likely fire initiation locations, their progression scenarios, and to, as best we could, quantify these scenarios for our Church.
Collect some initial cost information for possible additions to our current equipment and systems which, in the future, could improve our fire readiness.
Identify any gaps in our church’s policies and procedures whose bridgement could measurably improve our fire safety and readiness.
Conclude the study with a written report for the President, the Board and any interested members, which will including FSSG’s full conclusions and recommendations  to make HSUUC and all its occupants, vastly better prepared for any possible future fire emergency

Study Activities & Contacts:  Power, Appliances, Fire Alarm & Protection Equipment. The first step to understand our mechanical equipment, fire alarm system and kitchen appliances was to review the technical & installation manuals that were left by the The Chris Sheraton Co –our renovation contractor.  The BC had collected and/or found most of these documents over the last few years with the exception the Notifier Fire Alarm System which took a long search but was finally located in the downstairs mechanical room.  A careful review of this manual failed to reveal  any technical information about the system’s smoke detectors, annunciators, or strobe light alarms. A search of  Notifier’s web site produced some information  but not enough to answer some critical questions.  With information from our renovation architect Kevin Walsh (at 750-7117), we contacted Audio Engineering, (AE at 746-6193), the local distributor for Notifier, and the group who was a subcontractor to our prime contractor, The Chris R Sheridan Co, for the installation of our Notifier Fire Alarm unit.  We invited a visit from AE , and Mike Wells provided a one-hour inspection tour and educational review of our system that was particularly helpful in the many areas (expandability, operation, testing, etc) where the manufacturer’s materials were inadequate or totally missing.  We also asked AE for a quote on expanding our System for more building coverage and new features.  To have a second quote for these possible expansions, we invited another local Notifier distributor –Southeastern System Technologies- (SST) to do church tour, system review and critique.  Mr. Clark Elderkin (at 477-6100) visited the Church for that purpose and was helpful in describing the systems operation, and particularly, in finding one of system’s missing smoke detectors.

Thus, only after these visits, a lengthy search on the Web, talks with our architect, Kevin Walsh and Chris Sheridan’s job boss, Randy Reed, (at 743-15770) and consults with Bob Farquhar and Dick Creswell, did your Building Committee finally believe that we had a complete and accurate understanding of  what the Notifier Fire Alarm system, with its activators and annunciators, did and what it did not do.

An addition part of this study was to completely survey the Church for the full number, and the exact location of our fire extinguishers, fire hand pulls, smoke detectors and annunciators (horns and strobe lights).  At first glance, one might think that this could be done in fifteen minutes.  Actually, it took four visits to Church spread over three weeks, and a total of about three hours.  It was amazing how many of these essential Fire Safety items were hidden away and covered up,

Church Programs & Fire Plans and Procedures.     The important area of HSUUC’s fire readiness policy & procedures was assigned to FSSG members Fran Steiner and Frank Gadbois.  Fran collected information from RE program by having two brief conversations and a longer meeting with DRE Jane Donahue, and by emailing all the RE teachers some questions about RE concerns, plans and procedures for fire readiness.  There were two responses.

Frank solicited information and ideas from the Worship Committee via short verbal interviews with Dorner Carmichael and Hetty Jardine, in which issues related to fire readiness and  plans for a fire prompted evacuation of a Sunday service were discussed.

While the FSSG tried to arrange a meeting for all church leaders and other interested members to discuss any new ideas on fire sources and existing plans and procedures, time conflicts and other factors did not allow for such a general meeting.  We have been successful, however, in having one-on-one discussions and email exchanges with ten to fifteen of our past and present leaders and other members on this topic, and much important and helpful information was obtained.

Church Fire Origins and Estimated Likelihoods. A one-hour plus phone conversation with Kevin Walsh (KW) was extremely helpful in understanding the quantity and quality of thinking and work that went into the design of the renovation structure, the materials of construction of the TR and the complete stairway to Fellowship Hall, the consideration of fire safety in the TR, and the consultation that KW had with Macon’s Fire Marshal.  Kevin also was able to share with us, through his year’s of experience in renovating buildings and new construction of public building (including many churches), his extensive knowledge of fire sources and locations, and the likelihood of typical fire scenarios in occupied and unoccupied structures. Kevin’s input was a major help to this portion of our study.

Considerable information on fire statistics in general, and church fires in particular are available on the Web.  Additionally, these sources were supplemented by data from our insurance carrier Church Mutual Insurance Company’s web site (churchmutual.com). The UUA was contacted, but had no fire frequency or cause data for our UU churches. Two articles were particularly helpful for general demographic statistics: Church Fires; Topical Fire Research Series, Volume 2 Issue 7, March 2002 and Fire Safety At Your Worship Center; The Protection Series, Church Mutual Insurance Co., 2000.

Estimating the statistical likelihood of church fire and injury on a national basis is not too difficult from the above and other sources.  The problem is that these data lump our church with the entire church population of the country  -all denominations and churches of all ages and state of  repair.  Our relative recent renovation, however,  puts us special class or subgroup which will reduce, perhaps in a major way, the likelihood of a fire or injury at HSUUC as compared to national statistics.  Also, estimating likelihoods for fires of specific origins (accidental, arson, etc.) and locations (Sanctuary, Kitchen, Fellowship Hall, etc.) becomes very difficult for our Church because of unique utilization and design factors,  Having said all this, your fearless FSSG has attempted to make what we call quantitative “ “likelihood” and “probability” estimates for the fire origins and locations which we regard most likely for HSUUC.  Identifying these specific origins and locations was accomplished from our own thinking, as well as from discussions with about two dozen of our church’s current and past leaders and members, including Rhett Baird.

Study Findings: Power, Appliances, Fire Alarm & Protection Equipment.  The Church’s original Renovation Committee, our architect Kevin Walsh, Dick Creswell (our church’s Clerk of the Work), and Randy Reed (Thc Chris Sheridan Co’s job boss for our Renovation) did a careful, conscientious, and thoroughly professional job in the design and construction of our 2000-2001 Renovation and its features for fire safety.  Extensive thinking and design work was given to the issues of fire protection, particularly for use of the Tower Room (TR) as a meeting and/or class room.  Some of the important decisions, designs and actions taken at that time were:  

- Designed a fire-resistant stair corridor from the Fellowship Hall (FH) to the Tower Room (TR) by using all steel structural members, special “one hour” fire rated wall board, fire resistant floor materials, and heavy fire rated doors at the FH & TR ends of the stairs.
- Before construction started, Kevin visited Macon’s Fire Marshall for review and approval of his stair corridor design and drawings.  He received approval.
- Designed, specified and had installed a multiple activator & annunciator, central fire alarm and management system which includes four smoke detectors (one on each floor, placed  near the stairway structure, and in close proximity to the HVAC equipment), four hand-pull fire alarms, and eight fire extinguishers.  (See the
Table 1 below for the details and locations of the Church’s full compliment of extinguishers and alarm units).
- Obtained, at completion of the Renovation and Fire Marshall inspection, full approval and our Certificate of Occupancy which is still in effect.


Table 1 (link)



The FSSG reviewed status of the Church’s  HVAC units and equipment, the Kitchen appliances, and our completely replaced wiring and found them all in excellent condition.  With the exception of one kitchen outlet which is not infrequently overloaded by triple duty coffee and hot water making for Sunday’s Coffee Hour, the Church’s power handling and protection breakers are very much up to code and operating properly.

An important additional technical finding the FSSG scratched out (it was not part of the totally inadequate “Operating Instruction” for our Notifier Fire Alarm Control System), is how the system can be used for any fire drill purposes, and how the central control panel can be used for testing each individual sensors and annunciators.  As far as we can determine, the Church has never had a fire drill of any kind, nor have we ever tested our “Fire Control System” to determine if it, and its individual components, still functions (it was tested seven years ago, in the presence of the Macon Fire Marshall as part of our passing inspection for a Certificate of Occupancy).  Audio Engineering recommends that such testing be routinely carried out annually.

Another discovery the FSSG has made is that our “Fire Control System” does not include an automatic call-up of the Fire Department in the event of it being triggered by any of its detectors. This is contrary to what Kevin Walsh and Randy Reed thought they had specified and installed.  Our insurance carrier, Church Mutual’s Eb Reyes (at EReyes@churchmutual.com), tells us that our premium is based on this status but that a discount of $124/year is available if we choose to install this feature.
 
Church Mutual, as mentioned in the Background Section, carried out a “risk control survey” on September 25, 2007.  After a very through (2-3 hour) inspection, Tim Kelly, sent to us his “Recommendation Worksheet” which would, in his words “assist you in making your property and activities safer.  The goal of the risk control survey is to identify potential hazards that can adversely affect your members, guests, employees and building”.  His “worksheet” (a 5 page list) contained sixteen items, all of them rated as “Advisory” (the lowest of three priority levels), that we should correct for a “safer” institution.  One item mentioned Tower Room egress code requirements, all of which we are in compliance.  The only other fire related item was that of the location and inspection of Fire Extinguishers. Since his inspection, we have brought all our extinguishers into full compliance, but we will to do some addition improvements.

Church Programs & Fire Plans and Procedures.   The FSSG interviewed  our minister and almost all of our leaders and standing committee chairs to the startling, but not too surprising result that very little thinking has been given to fire readiness,  or to the need to have plans and programs in place to prepare for a church fire or even a fire alarm (recognize, with the specifics of our system, that each of these events can happen without the other!).   The one exception this broad finding is our RE program, where DRE Jane Donahue has had a long standing policy against open flames in any of the children’s RE programs and ceremonies.  Also, she and RE Board Member Alicia Gregory reopened the important question of TR egress in the event of fire, which, with the support of Marie Holiday, initiated the formation of the FSSG and this study. 

Church Fire Origins and Estimated Likelihoods.   Thinking about fire scenarios for our church (where and how could a fire start) is also in short supply.  This situation is very understandable considering the HSUUC’s excellent record for fire: no incidents (?) damage or injuries in more than eighteen years of occupancy.  However, have we have been lulled, especially since our Renovation in 2001, into a false sense of security?  The FSSG believes we may have by the following data and reasoning.

Church fires in the US are very common.  The U.S. Fire Administration’s most recent data (from the late 90’s) on church fires tells us that the average US Church faces a risk of about one-in-270 of having a “reportable (calling the fire department) fire” (RF) in any recent year.  For comparison purposes, this average annual statistic is one-in-310 (2006 data) for your residential home, and one-in-430 (03-05 data) for your children’s school.   Since the larger the number; the less the risk, you and your children are 15 % less at-risk in their house and 60% less at-risk in their school than  both of you will be when at High Street –in the general average.  Thus, it’s probably worthwhile to spend some thinking on where and how fire might originate at HSUUC.  In doing so, however, it is important to recognize that our recent Renovation makes us outstandingly un-average.


In general, the leading causes of church fire, averaged over the three year period ’96-’98, are, in descending order of frequency:
            Other                33%   
Incendiary (Arson)        25%
            Electrical Distribution        18%
            Open Flame            12%
            Heating            12%

While our source (see page 2 above) did not break the “Other” category down, it probably did not include “Incendiary” items, and thus arson becomes the single largest cause of church RFs.  Also, the complete replacement of our electrical and HVAC systems during our Renovation, almost certainly –at least for the next 15 years- eliminates the Electrical Distribution, Heating/AC, and appliance failure causes as near term causes of a RF at HSUUC.   Additionally, most churches that have RFs do not have the advantage of the early-detection, centralized, Fire Alarm & Control System specified and installed during our Renovation in 2000-01. 

Taking all these factors into account –via a subjective, but quantitatively justifiable analysis- the FSSG estimates that the risk of a RF at High Street Church, in any given year, to be less than one-in-700.  It is important to understand this risk number includes all fires, of any origin (including arson), and includes 
RF’s that are located both inside and outside of HSUUC.

While it appears that a serious RF at High Street is highly unlikely, it would not be accurate or responsible to believe that 0.00143 (one in 700) is equal to 0 (zero).  Thus –even if your eyes have glazed over- we need to take the fire scenario thinking one further step and try to identify which events, programs and sources at HSUUC could generate a RF no matter what its likelihood nor when in the future it might happen. 

Table 2, on the following page, summarizes the nine most likely scenarios from which one will be that of our first and next Reportable Fire (RF) at HSUUC.  While, by necessity, much conjecture and guess-work was needed to complete this table, the estimates were educated and the result of considerable thought and consultation.  The most subjective column data are that for “Injury Probability” (IP), while the best estimate data are that of the “Scenario Overall Relative Probability”.  This last parameter of Scenario Relative Probability, for which Table 2 is ordered in descending value, is simply a way to estimate which of the nine scenarios is most likely (highest probability) and which the least likely candidate for our first RF.  Other important points about these scenarios is that, of the nine, four are intentional (three arson and one a prank, false alarm), and, all but one (lightning), originate from an open flame.  Also recognize that Table 2 shows us that our “Injury Probability” generally is highest for the least probable scenarios.

The one exception to this is the IP for Scenario #1 in the current state of “no staff or congregation training & readiness” (red row).  This IP worse-case scenario envisions a full alarm (from any of five to six causes) in the midst of a Sunday Worship Service, when the children are all downstairs and/or in the TR.  In the seconds and minutes that follow the triggered alarm (with very loud horns, flashing lights, and completely panicked parents, congregants and staff ), a terrible, chaotic scene develops where none of the untrained, inexperienced participants are able to do the right thing.  The result: many children and adults are injured.   But, not injured from the fire.  The stove fire was extinguished in five seconds after the alarm went off by the automatic extinguisher in the hood over the stove.   Folks, this is not an exaggerated hypothetical, the fire literature is, sadly, full of horrific case histories of similar –and worse- real events.   

Table 2 (link)



Conclusions & Recommendations:

Power, Appliances, Fire Alarm & Protection Equipment.  A review of HSUUC’s new electrical wiring and power distribution equipment, kitchen appliances, HVAC, and central Fire Alarm & Control systems has led FSSG to conclude that the 2001 Renovation resulted in a church infra-structure that is to the highest engineering and code standards, and that no major additions or changes are  required to improve our church’s fire safety and readiness.  There are, however, a number of small additions and changes we do recommend which we believe will strengthen our fire readiness.  These are shown as red rectangles in Table 1 and described below which use the Priority Codes (PC) 1=highest, 2=medium, 3=lowest:

Fire Extinguishers:  Fire experts tell us that the most important factors, to minimize injuries from newly ignited fires, is to have nearby two critical things: one, fire extinguishing equipment and two, people trained and experienced in their use.  The FSSG found that we have the first (see Table 1) but not the second.  We recommend strengthening our good fire extinguisher population by adding two (PC1) to the Sanctuary Floor in areas where our Fire Scenario likelihood study (see Table 2) suggest: one in the Rear Entrance Hall and a second in the Sanctuary on the podium platform where the church has the most frequent presence of open lighted candles (ten simultaneously –by actual count- in May 25’s Worship Service!).  Estimated cost: less than $100
Smoke Detectors:  A careful look at Table 1 will show that our installed smoke detectors are all clustered at the “rear” of the Church.  By design, they were placed there to have one on each floor, to “surround” the stairway corridor, and to be near the “mechanical” equipment.  However this arrangement left none in the “front” of the Church.  Because of the possibility of an intentional or accidental fire in the front of the Church, we recommend (PC2) that we consider adding two additional smoke detectors to our central system; one in the upper front hall at the Minister’s Office, and a second in Classroom #1 on the Fellowship Hall level, where a great deal of flammable materials  are stored.  Quoted Cost: $370

Alarms:  Eighteen alarms (the small red boxes mounted seven feet off the floor) are placed in every room space and in all halls in the Church.  These alarms come in two versions: horns + strobe lights = Horns, and strobe lights only = Strobe Lights of Table 1 which gives the location of every alarm.  All alarms are tied to our central Fire Alarm & Control system and are simultaneously triggered by the action of any single “Initiator” (Hand Pulls, Smoke Detectors, or the Flame Detector).  Additionally, the Lights and Horns can be easily interchanged.  The FSSG has concluded that we have more than enough Alarms, but that the Horn vs. Light distribution can be improved slightly.  We recommend (PC1) that the central Fellowship Hall Light be exchanged with the Kitchen Horn, and that the Tower Room Light be changed to a Horn via exchange with a horn in a more horn concentrated area. Cost: $0

 Central Fire Alarm & Control:  Despite the memory of Kevin Walsh and Randy Reed, our Fire Safety Study Group (FSSG) found that our central fire control panel does not include the feature of automatic call up of a monitoring group or the Fire Department.  While this is not a major shortcoming of our system, FSSG believes that this might be a good time~ to revisit this original expense driven (?) decision (PC3).  There are two reasons for this conclusion; first the existence of this feature would make a real contribution, albeit small, to congregation safety in that no one will have to remember to call the Fire Department (as we will have to now) when a fire of reportable size occurs in the Church.  This could save up to ten or fifteen valuable minutes at the start of fire, when only a small amount of flame and smoke has developed; more than enough time (if we have a plan) to evacuate the classrooms and the Tower Room.  The second argument for the automatic call-up system comes from FSSG’s estimate that HSUUC is unoccupied 85 to 90% of the hours in any year.  If a fire were to start or, more likely, to be started (via arson and night –see Table 2, Scenario #8) the building could completely destroyed before anyone noticed.  While the likelihood for this scenario is very small (<one in 5000), and no potential for congregation injury is involved, it might not be worth the gamble.  Also, the addition of this feature would reduce our insurance premium by $124 per year.   Quoted Cost: $575 plus $30/month for monitoring, plus (probably) an additional phone line.

8


Fire Alarm and Control System Testing.  As far as the FSSG can determine, our central system has never be tested since it was installed – a terrible oversight!  We strongly recommend (PC1) that a periodic schedule be established to make sure that the system, and all its components, is tested as least once every two years.  Quoted price: $0 via the BC; $150 via Audio Engineering.

Minister’s Space Heater:  The donated electrical space heater in the Minister’s Office does not have a tip-over safety switch, nor a timer turn-off feature.  Not that Rhett would be clumsy or forgetful –he actually brought it to our attention- we recommend (PC2) that this heater be replaced with one that has these important safety features.  Estimated Cost: ~$75.

Before leaving this “hardware” section of this Conclusions & Recommendations it’s probable necessary to explain why the FSSG is not recommending a fire escape for the Tower Room.  It was the unanimous conclusion of the Group, -and a good number of others in the congregation- that, with the fire hardened (“one hour”) design of the stairway corridor, there will always be time to safely evacuate all the occupants –even twenty five- under any fire scenario that we can think of (see Table 2).  Cost (we do have a quote) was not considered in our thinking and deliberations.

Church Programs & Fire Plans and Procedures.  This topic, of the above Findings section, is the briefest and  least informative of this FSSG’s study.  The reason is simple: There are none!  As best as a very complete effort can determine, HSUUC not only has not a single fire plan or procedure in place, but there is no memory, among our perhaps twenty interviews, of anyone ever thinking about the importance of developing such plans.  Shocking and sad: But it’s never too late.  Before proceeding, however, please reread (read?) the last paragraph of page 6, IP Worst-Case Scenario.
HSUUC must have a Church-wide plan to deal with the possibility of an alarm causing fire, particularly a fire during a Sunday service with the RE program in session.   These plans should  consider three important components to vastly improve our fire safety readiness: 1) Proper Evacuation Procedures, 2) Information & Training of the Congregation, and 3)Inspections and Drills.

Evacuation Procedures: HSUUC has, because of its structural limitations, limited possibilities in number and size of exit corridors from its Sanctuary and particularly, its classrooms.  We must develop, with knowledge of what is correct and incorrect, what is optimal for our physical constraints. Additionally, we must develop and post signage and other visual aids to help all staff in this important task.

Training: It important to recognize that everyone, not just the RE teachers, needs to know what to do in an emergency, alarmable fire.  This includes the Minister,  the general members, the Worship Leaders, the greeters, the Staff, and, of course, all the RE leaders.  And, we must train, retrain, and then train again!  Among these, there should be a special select group of people who’s first job, by reason of knowledge and experience, is to handle the fire extinguishers.

Inspections and Drill:  This educated and trained Congregation, must have, when the time comes, equipment and systems that are in working order and can be counted on to perform.  We must have a completed plan for the periodic inspection and testing of all our equipment and system and some one member of the BC in charge who will do the job.  Testing includes the procedures too!  This means fire drills –gasp, even during Sunday service,

Before leaving this topic, its important for the reader to know that the FSSG feels that developing and executing thoughtful plans and processes, of the type identified above, will be the single most important thing the Church could do to reduce our injury-probability in the circumstances of any alarmable fire.  The reduction in IP could be as high as a factor of five to ten over our estimates for our current level of readiness, And, it won’t cost as much as a fire extinguisher: It will only require will, commitment, organization and a little work; things that this Congregation is famous for!

Church Fire Origins and Estimated Likelihoods.  An important conclusion that emerges from this Study’s work on
this topic is that all but one of the “most likely” fire scenarios that we have projected for HSUUC, come from open flame, and that almost all the open flame fires come from lighted candles –the same type, and in the same locations that a contact at Church Mutual reported to us “burned six churches down last year”

The best defense against a fire is to avoid starting one.  We very much love open candle flames at HSUUC and can help ourselves immensely if we can heighten our sensitivity to their presence and the possible flammable materials we place nearby.

We also must continue to stay vigilant about our storage areas.  Many church fires start in their storage areas where congregants thoughtless place highly flammable objects particularly organic solvents and paper products. 

Training of the Kitchen persons in the initiation of the stove-hood fire extinguisher is needed and proper signage could help those who do use the stove that frequently.  



This ends the FSSC’s Magnum Opus on fire readiness at High Street.

Your faithful servants:
The Fire Safety Study Group
Bob Gray
Fran Steiner
Fran Gadbois



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