By Stan Finger
The Wichita Eagle
Copyright 2007 The Wichita Eagle
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
WICHITA, Kan. — Folks around Wichita seem to be ignoring the smell of smoke -- and paying the price for it.
Smoke detectors went off for 11 minutes at a house in north Wichita before anyone called 911 on Wednesday morning. A 45-year-old man who apparently fell asleep while smoking died in the fire, which caused an estimated $150,000 in damage and left six people homeless.
A few weeks ago, Fire Marshal Ed Bricknell said, residents of a home near 21st and 119th Street West smelled smoke about 4:30 a.m. --but didn’t call 911 until fire had broken through an outside wall and ultimately caused $200,000 in damage.
The fact that people so often do not call 911 when they smell smoke “just boggles my mind,” Fire Capt. Brad Crisp said earlier this week.
The rule of thumb is pretty basic, Bricknell said.
“If you smell smoke in your house, call 911,” he said. “They just disregard it.”
The fire department has “fire cams” that can detect hot spots -- such as the smoldering electrical outlet that started the house fire in northwest Wichita a few weeks ago -- and head off danger before it erupts, he said.
“People have a tendency to think, ‘Oh, if I call 911, and it turns out to be nothing, then I feel foolish,’ ” Bricknell said. “You’re not foolish.
“That’s why you buy us stations and firefighters and equipment -- that’s what we’re here to do.”
An early 911 call on the Park Place house fire would not have saved the man who died, Bricknell said, but it can make a significant difference in most other cases.
“We think the room flashed over,” Bricknell said of the victim’s bedroom, where evidence indicates he fell asleep while smoking. “There was a pretty even burn throughout the room.”
In a flashover, he said, “the entire room will literally burst into flame” because so much of it has reached the point of ignition at the same time. Such fires are deadly, he said, because they burn so fast and so hot.
“Once it goes to flashover, that room is gone, and anybody in it is gone, too,” Fire Lt. Stuart Bevis said.
Nationwide, Bevis said, there is a growing emphasis on response times so firefighters can reach flames before the point of flashover. That makes early 911 calls more important than ever.
“We want you to call,” Bricknell said. “That’s why we’re here.”