Most Upper Pine Fire calls are medical, and 61 percent of those calls are for people age 60 or older, especially for falls.
The district is trying to change that with a prevention program called Remember When. The district is partnering with Evening’s Porch Assisted Living in Bayfield and Comfort Keepers home care assistance.
The effort started at a recent Pine River Senior Center lunch, where home safety checklists were distributed by Upper Pine Fire Marshal Tom Kaufman, Erin Youngblood from Evenings Porch, and Linda Schaffer from Comfort Keepers.
They are offering free home inspections for fall and fire hazards, including checking how houses are heated, and smoke detectors.
“This is a free program,” Youngblood stressed. “We aren’t selling anything.”
Schaffer cited statistics that seniors’ risk of dying in a fire increase as they age, and falls in the home are the leading cause of death or disabling injuries for seniors. “Be aware of your surroundings,” she said.
Kaufman said his 92-year-old mother called him at 10 p.m. after she tripped over her little dogs or over an oxygen line and couldn’t get up. She broke her wrist.
Seniors fall and may be unable to get up without help. Kaufman recounted one woman who was outside in winter when she fell. She laid there for a couple hours before someone found her, and her core body temperature was low enough to be life-threatening.
He called fall danger a spiraling circle as people get into their 60, 70s and beyond. Lack of exercise affects strength and balance, and fear of falling compounds that.
During home inspections, the fire officials and agency staff look for fall hazards such as stairs, throw rugs and even the height of the person’s bed. “We do a lot of calls to people lying next to their beds,” he said. He passed out night lights provided by LPEA, so people have light for 3 a.m. trips to the bathroom.
Space heaters and smoke detectors get a lot of attention for fire safety.
Kaufman showed a couple models of space heaters and warned that they should be plugged directly into a wall socket, not an extension cord or a multi-plug power strip. The heaters draw around 12.5 amps. A standard household circuit is 15 amps, so a space heater can easily overload it if other appliances are also drawing power at the same time.
“The challenge in most older homes is not enough outlets,” he said. “One per room used to be enough.” He also advised that a space heater should be at least 3 feet from furniture or anything flammable.
Fireplace and wood stove chimneys need an inspection by a fire department, Kaufman said. “We run a lot of fires because of cracks in chimneys or pipes that come loose.”
And if you smoke, do it outside, Kaufman said. “We run on fires from smoking in bed, people on oxygen who still smoke.”
But he added that if you smoke outside, have a deep ashtray that can’t tip over, and don’t toss cigarette butts into a planter. The potting mix can be flammable. “Last year in Bayfield, a fire clearly started in a planter on the deck after a party,” he said.
