It’s one of fall’s nice little perks. We can all go to sleep tonight knowing that we have an extra hour tomorrow to spend however we’d like. Daylight Savings Time happens at 2AM tomorrow morning. And as I try to remember to turn my clocks back an hour, I’m going to take some good advice from Barrington Fire Chief, Jim Arie.
It’s the kind of advice that’s so easy to ignore. (Guilty!)
“Change your smoke detector batteries when you change your clocks.” I recently read somewhere that 65% of all home fire deaths happen in homes that have no smoke alarms or smoke alarms that aren’t working. Wow. We need to start thinking about that, especially now that we have kids.
Barrington Fire Chief, Jim Arie, says that, when it comes to fire safety, we all do a pretty good job in Barrington. But he also says, “People can’t be cautious enough…At this time of year, you want to make sure that you keep boxes and any kind of combustibles away from things like the furnace, the water heater and clothes dryer so that they aren’t in a spot where they can catch fire.” With the season’s first snow right around the corner, he also says, “People can help us by trying to keep the hydrant nearby or in front of their yard shoveled out if in fact we had to come and deal with a fire.” You know what? I don’t even know where our nearest fire hydrant is. Maybe I’ll spend some of that extra time tomorrow trying to find it.
I also asked the Fire Chief about his Thanksgiving plans and what he’s most thankful for this year. Here’s what he had to say:
“I’m thankful for my health and being able to work with good people…That’s a sizable group, from our firefighters who are very dedicated and unselfish, to the other department heads and staff throughout the Village that I’m fortunate to be able to work with. They’re a hardworking group of people.” And Chief Arie says this Thanksgiving he’s most looking forward to, simply, “Quiet times with family.”
Thanks for taking a minute to share your Thanksgiving thoughs, Chief Arie, and thanks for your good advice. We’ll all do our best to help out and we wish you happy times with the ones you love.
