PHOTO BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Firefighters examine the back of an apartment complex following a fatal fire Monday in Manchester, N.H.
Lynn Fire Chief James McDonald and fellow local firefighters know the struggle, frustration and sorrow Manchester, N.H., firefighters are enduring following the deaths of two adults and two children in a Monday fire.
They know what it is like to crawl through supercharged heat and blinding smoke to save lives even as fire guts a building. They know what it is like to see one body after another removed from a blackened building as investigators poke and probe through the rubble to determine a fire’s cause.
McDonald and all of Lynn’s firefighters know fires can be prevented. Deadly blazes that snuff out young lives are preventable. McDonald spearheaded a campaign in 2014 to encourage renters and homeowners to check smoke alarms to make sure they are working and replace faulty detectors.
Firefighters went into homes to help install alarms. The fire department helped sponsor poster contests in local schools and billboard companies plastered giant versions of the winning posters on signs in Wyoma Square and visible locations.
For all their efforts to stop deadly fires, McDonald and fellow chiefs along with state officials stood in front of Lynn fire headquarters in March and warned about an increase in the number of people killed in Massachusetts in the past year compared to previous years.
The chiefs reemphasized the lessons firefighters try to teach the average grade schooler: Check smoke detectors to make sure they work; plan a family fire escape route and be careful using extension cords and space heaters.
Advances in building construction combined with fire prevention education have reduced fire deaths but fires still kill, in part because broken detectors rob people of the precious seconds they need to escape a fire.
In an age when so many people communicate and function electronically with a few taps on a keypad, firefighters still do a job that thrusts them into danger and puts their lives at risk. They work physically dangerous jobs and witness human tragedy.
There are ways to make their jobs easier. Code enforcement efforts aimed at minimizing fire danger should be intensified. Buildings identified as fire risks due to construction or overcrowding should be the focus of multi-agency efforts to make the structures and their inhabitants safer.
Firefighters rightfully receive appreciation and praise for their efforts to save lives. But daily efforts to improve building safety can spare Lynn firefighters and the city a repeat of the Dec. 4, 2015 Bruce Place fire that killed four people and this week’s equally-deadly fire in Manchester.
