City Firefighters Offer Tips on Disaster Preparedness

The Beverly Hills Firemen’s Association represents the city's 77 full-time, professional firefighters and paramedics. The organization operates three stations 24-hours a day and responds to more than 6,000 incidents a year. 

The group would like to share the following safety tips with residents in an effort to help our community protect itself in case of an emergency: 

• Discuss what to do in an evacuation. When told by officials, go immediately to a shelter as instructed or to the home of a friend or relative who lives out of the area. Find out about your local shelters beforehand.
• Know evacuation routes. Pre-establish several different routes in case certain roads are blocked or closed.
• Family members can become separated during an emergency. Be prepared by creating a plan for how to reach one another. Establish an out-of-area contact (such as a relative or friend) who can coordinate family members' locations and information should you become separated. Make sure children learn the phone numbers and addresses, and know the emergency plans.
• Quiz children every six months so they remember what to do, where to go and whom to call in an emergency.
• Decide how to take care of pets. Pets are not allowed in places where food is served, so you will need to have a place to take your pets if you have to go to a shelter.
• Post emergency phone numbers (fire, police, ambulance, etc.) by the phone.
• Assemble a family disaster supplies kit that includes water, non-perishable food items, medical supplies and a flashlight, and keep a smaller one in the trunk of your vehicle.

Do you have any other safety tips to share? Please post them in the comments section below.

The above information is from the The Beverly Hills Firemen’s Association website. 

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