Why so many fires in Yonkers?

[x635 4,066]

Interesting article.

 

Quote

 

Southwest Yonkers has the city's greatest amount of fires. That's due to a combination of very dense population living in very old buildings.

Most of the multi-family buildings in south Yonkers are 100 years or older, built with wood and packed with people.

 

The buildings' ages, electrical hazards and other issues have led to a number of fires in this area in recent months, officials said.

"It's not really that the buildings are unsafe. It's the way people are living in them," said Yonkers fire Commissioner Robert Sweeney of the wood-frame buildings. "Residents are using an extension cord and often they run it under the carpet or rug to keep it out of sight. When it overheats, the carpet catches fire."

 

 

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/yonkers/2016/08/27/many-fires-yonkers/89119772/

[sympathomedic 383]

     I have spent 28 years doing EMS in this area. The "chirp" of dieing smoke detector batteries is constant, except where there are NO detectors. I read that every $1.00 spent on smoke detectors save $67.00 in fire damage.

    If this area has more fires, by history, or some other measure, perhaps the Yonkers FD could concentrate their inspection and prevention efforts here?  Makes sense to try to prevent the fires in areas where they are most likely to occur, AND most likely to kill - wooden multi-family dwellings. The lives saved by an aggressive, concentrated effort may those of YFD firemen.

 

Please don't respond with the gibberish that it can't be done. We are problem solvers in this field. This is a problem for us. We can and should solve it.

 

Bill

[firemoose827 324]

Every decent fire prevention program will always target any trouble areas in their district, the real challenge is being able to catch these trouble areas, and making the people USE the detectors.  Like someone mentioned, you hear the low battery beeps everywhere and that's because they refuse to replace the battery until its too late.  They would rather spend the money on beer and other things than a few batteries and its sad. You can lead a horse to water but unfortunately you cant force them to drink it.