I'm a fire inspector/investigator/public educator and if I've learned anything, it's that the fire codes of today are appropriately known as "tombstone codes."  Someone had to die, usually a lot of someones, to cause the codes to be written and adopted.  The most prolific are incidents where the occupants of a building were unable to exit the building because of locked, blocked, hidden or not enough exits preventing folks from saving themselves.  The Iroquois Theatre fire helped us realize that exits must open in the direction of travel out of the building.  The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire showed what happens when security overwhelms safety and we now require doors not to be locked.  Even today, the Happyland Social Club fire shows what happens when alternate exits are not available and The Station Nightclub just shows what overcrowding and total disregard for the codes relating to pyrotechnics are ignored.  This fire also shows that in an emergency, people will try to go out the way they went in, even if it places them in more danger and they go past other exits.  As firefighters of any age and experience, we are asked by the public what they can do to be safer.  Be ready to seize the opportunity to educate these folks as they are interested enough to ask for your advice and they want to listen.  Have a tip or two and it's great to be able to explain the history and reason for wht we tell them.

So why all this stuff?  Share some history here and the opportunity to teach so we can be ready when we get "that question" by a member of the public and we can all seize that teaching moment.

Stay safe!