 Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us for another weekly show on Kondo Insider that is put on by Hawaii Council of Community Associations. So today I have with me and I'm really excited to have with me fire inspector from the fire department fire inspector Thomas Inouye. We're going to review fire safety things with the holidays coming up. You know, you got Halloween. Everybody's got all their Halloween decorations up and now it's going to turn into The decorations will change over into Christmas, but the big thing also in between those times is Thanksgiving. Everybody's going to be cooking, especially those turkey fryers. So we really want to give reminders to everybody about the safety precautions that we need to all Remember and put into practice so that we can have a really safe holiday season with no fires would be nice. We want everybody to enjoy the holidays with no catastrophes. You know, that's the hardest thing to go through a holiday and you have a disaster, especially when we're talking about Lively hoods people's lives. So welcome, Inspector Inouye. I'm very glad that you're able to make it today. I would like Okay, so I kind of want to start off with the fire, the fire department, their website, their website and it's full of information. I mean, it's an awesome resource that people can use. Even kids can go into that website and pull up. You guys have some Cakey versions of safety material, right, which is really, really, really good because you want to start fire safety from from young time. I remember going to school here that, you know, the elementary schools always had the fire trucks because you always knew that they're doing fire education there from from elementary school. They were doing that, you know, but I think as we get older, we tend to kind of kind of like either forget or put it on the side, you know, But I think sometimes our kids are going to have to get the kids to remind, especially the Kapuna, right? Grandma, don't don't don't be smoking in bed or don't put the calendar and the candle over there, you know, So it's really going to take from cakey up to really instill the fire safety in everybody. So their website, really the main thing that we want to go into on their website was where the little arrow shows the fire and life safety arrow. They click onto that website. And then they have typical reminders like housekeeping. And I know for even for me, I know every once in a while I'm walking somewhere and I go, Oh, I got major dust bunnies over by the electrical. I got to do some, you know, really moving furniture around to get all those dust bunnies off the carpet or the wood floor. Plus I have dogs. So therefore, you know, gets into near those things because the wind blows it in that direction. You know, because I'm kind of a little paranoid when it when it gets too close to electrical stuff. Especially those surge protectors and the extension cords. I mean they sit on the on the floor, you know, they accumulate all that dust, the wind blows it in that direction. So people can help me kind of, you know, it's hard to avoid it sometimes. But sometimes you just got to do that deep down house cleaning cleaning and vacuum every every single corner. So they also have it information on kitchen safety. So let's kind of start off about kitchen safety. Because as we're near the holidays. So why don't I pass it off to you and let's talk about about kitchen safety and cooking. Sure. So kitchen or cooking is actually the number one cause of structure fires. That's any type of structure or home or business that makes up 50% pretty much of all structure fires. And on top of that, something called unattended cooking. This is when, for instance, you're going to make Simon you put water in the pot. And you gotta wait seven minutes. There's not much people who are going to stand around waiting for those bubbles popping. So they go and do other stuff. And in the meantime, if there's a knock at the door or phone call or just a lot of noise and you go in a deskie, you might forget that just something on the stove. So one of the reminders we'd like to share is maybe carry like a big wooden spoon or oven net. So when you go and address what startled you or distracted you can remember or have something burning on the stove. But what is the number one, what is the best thing to do is to turn it off right before you leave. Yes, it's going to take a little bit more time but for safety. It's safer to turn it off and then go and do what you need to do and they can come back. Very important to have 100% focus while you're cooking. So don't cook if you're sleepy. If you've been drinking excessively. If you take medications and make your draws. So these are some of the things that we like to share. Other tips is the stove top when it's not being used every day like it is not a storage area. Even if you have those pots that's empty or even the covers for the burners that if it gets heated, it could eventually catch on fire. So just being aware of the cognizance of that when you go shopping or you check the meal, don't throw it on the top of the stove top. And while you're cooking, you want to keep it clear. At least 12 inches, more would be more ideal. So for instance, rags, paper towels, even those compressed canisters of oil, like olive oil spray, you want to keep it at a distance. There has been instances where it was heated up to a temperature where it actually exploded. So just be mindful of that. Anything that can burn while you're cooking, give it a little bit distance from the heat. Let's see the age group that usually or that we tend to find, forgets about, they have something on the stove is the elderly, the cocooners. So when we do our presentations, we like to ask if they still cook and if they do just be mindful that, you know, better remember you cannot walk away. We've gone to fires where the neighbors have called because smoke or things are visible or if it's not something burning. And we have to go in, we grab the potter pan, remove it from the unit. And then they come back. Oh, what happened? We found this pot on the stove burning. I forgot any green at the store. So they actually leave, go to the store, come back. It has happened. I didn't realize it takes seven minutes to boil, get the water to boil for those simons. I didn't realize it was only like seven minutes. That depends on how high the heat is, right? And what burner you use. Wow. And that seven minutes goes by fast because you walk away, you get distracted. I mean, you easily can get distracted, right? You know, I mean, you know, you put the pot on and you go, I gotta let the dogs out. And you let them open the door and then something takes, you know, you get notice of something so you go outside. No, it's gonna be, I just gonna take a 30 seconds to do it, but no, then something else is gonna distract you. It could be so easily done. And I used to have those burner covers when I stopped using them because so many times that I didn't realize that it was actually on. For some reason it turned on and I had stuff on there and, you know, I burned so many burner covers. I said, forget it, I'm not doing this anymore. Not buying burner covers to burn them, you know, and then more so recently I was at someone's house and we were there for hours talking. And then I passed by her stove and it was warm and she had burner covers and she had something on top of the burner cover. And I said, it was plastic. It was like a takeout container. I said, are you trying to heat up your food? And it was an elderly person. And I said, are you trying to heat up your food? She goes, no, it's my leftovers I brought back. And I go, do you realize your stove is on? She's like, no way. I go come over here and feel it. I go, it's on. And she's like, oh my God, I didn't even know, you know, so sometimes I don't even, I don't really want to use those kind of things. And you know what the other thing is where, and I haven't really heard it lately, but for a while, there used to be a lot of fires caused by the hot plates, you know, especially like the condo tells it with hot plates instead of a stove. It's kind of one of the requirements, you know. So I've kind of told some people that have, you know, little rentals and they have a little hot plate. I told you, you need to get that rid of the hot plate number 1. And number 2, I kind of told them to try to use the induction hot plate. It's a lot safer because it has an auto shut off too, you know. And yeah, and I had a hot plate one time. I don't even know where I got it and how I had it, but I found it and I started using it for something. But then I threw it away because I was like, something's wrong with this. And I have a pot on there. I pick up the pot and I would actually get kind of like shock. So I'm like, okay, this got to go. You know, and so it's not safe those hot plates. They're kind of scary, you know. And then I saw a picture of, sometimes people will have decorative things like I saw one with a wood thing that goes right on top of the stove. And I saw that I went, oh my God, wood and heat. No, that don't mix at all. You know, you could actually turn on and you know, especially if the knobs are in the front of the stove. You know, you could have a child in the house and they actually didn't return it or you rub against it, it could actually turn and there goes that wood cover, you know, that's, you know, that is, is catastrophic in itself. So what about candles? It's the holiday time. You've got the Jewish holidays coming up. They use candles. Halloween in the pumpkins, you know. And then you've got Thanksgiving and Christmas. People like to put candles on their tables. So that's another catastrophe that, so what's your recommendation on candle safety? So for candles, we understand there's seasonal religious reasons that people burn candles. We, HFT doesn't recommend open flame in homes at all. But if you have to, we recommend at least one foot diameter clear of anything that can burn. I'm definitely away from curtains because if the wind blows, it can easily catch on fire. And if, again, if you do use the biggest, bulkiest old candle holder you can find, especially if you have cats, cats, they're so curious, they go and knock it down. It has happened where things have gone on fire. And so there is options, right? You have the battery operated flickering candles. And if you need to smell the ambience, you've got the sprees that can give you certain smells, pine smells, or, you know, whatever you're looking for. But I brought up a good topic about animals is that cats, because they're so curious, they have been known to press buttons to a stove or turn them on. And, you know, like you said, you're over at that person's house and they didn't know that it was on. It does happen. You never know. That's why we tell people to not start anything on the top because accidents do happen. Yeah. And I kind of saw picture one where someone had a scissors, a metal scissors on top of the stove top and I went, ooh, no, even a knife, you know, because say you're still, you didn't know your stove was on. And you pick it up and, you know, you drop it, but then you have other pots on the stove that you're using, you're cooking, and you drop it and you can easily knock it over. Now you've got scalding, you know, you can scald yourself with that pot being tossed over, you know, because when you pick up something, it's just an immediate reaction, right? When it comes to candles, what about, because everybody has, well not everybody, but a lot of people might have candles because it's part of their emergency preparedness kind of thing, like when there's blackouts, power outages, they have some candles. What about the ones that come in the jar, and they have a cover that you can buy in the stores, you know? So when you light them, they're kind of like that far from the lid. How about the use of those rather than so much the pillar ones that can easily fall over in the wind, you know, or there's other, like you can see it on, what's that one thing where they do all these DIY stuff ideas, decorating ideas, where you can put like little tea lights in water, let them float in water, you know, so kind of a little bit of a safety net there. I know I've seen some where you have a, like a little pillar, and you fill it with water and you let the candle kind of go inside there, right? So taking precautions on the type of candles that you use, I mean, if you're going to use pillar candles because you really want that ambiance on that pillar candle, make sure there's something around that can, at least a fire extinguisher or something else, and make sure there's no other flammable stuff on that table that can, you know, add to that, what do you call that, when you're adding to that disaster or potential of disasters, right? Okay, so what, you know, what about smoke alarms? That's one of the areas where the fire department's really making a lot of efforts about smoke alarms, educating the public. And I know smoke alarms have been a requirement in single family homes for like, as long as I can remember, you know, it's been around forever. So what is the, what is the role with smoke alarms in your home? So smoke alarms, if you don't have sprinkler systems in your home, smoke alarms is going to be the next best safety system in place. Where we recommend you to put them is in all the sleeping areas, in the hallway, right outside of your sleeping area, and if you have multi-stories. So we no longer tell people to put it in the kitchen. So let's say you're cooking shrimp tempura, one of my favorites, or chicken katsu, and the alarm goes off. So what you're going to do is you're going to fan it or open doors. And then what if it happens the next day and the next day? So what's happening is the person is cooking or anybody else within the home, they're starting to get desensitized to that song. You know, they'll be like, oh, you know, somebody's just cooking. But what if it's a big fire? What if it just erupted, right? So we tell people no longer need it in the kitchen. Things we tell people is we're going to test it by pushing that button once a month. So when the civil defense testers are in, it's a good mess. Let's see. A good reminder. Thank you. Thank you. A reminder that you should go home and test your alarm. At the same time, we ask people to vacuum the vents to the smoke alarms. Because if there's dust or insects that go into the smoke alarm, it can actually deteriorate the mechanism inside, and it will not say it's long, right? Today, if you go and look, there are smoke alarms that have a 10-year lithium batteries. So guess what? You don't have to change your battery every year. So this is just a battery-operated one. There's also the hard-wired one. So there's pros and cons to both of them. The hard-wire, you have a 9-volt battery, so you are going to have to change that battery every year. If the hard-wire one goes off, most places, all of those that's connected within that system, they're all going to go off. So it's great. Everybody gets notified. But the thing is, where is the fire? Versus a battery-operated one, if that room catches on fire or smoke activates the smoke alarm, it's going to go off. And if you hear it, okay, now it's coming from the right side or the left side or upstairs. So you can go investigate that way or you can exit. So there's pros and cons to both of them. Life expectancy for a smoke alarm, battery or hard-wire, we tell people about 10 years, unless it malfunctions before. Like everything else, there's nothing that's, that may last the whole entire life expectancy. But if you can do your best to maintain it, then it'll probably make life expectancy way better than that. So I also just kind of want to remind everybody that's supposed to be above every doorway. That's the code requirement. Can't be in the middle of the hallway, even though it's only the hallway is that big, you know, it still has to be over every single doorway. That's the code requirement. And then for people that rent their units, I know the Hawaii Association of Realtors or the Hawaii Board of Rituals, they updated their rental agreements. And one of the standard terms, I believe, is in there that the tenants are not to screw around with the alarm, the smoke alarms. That's one of the requirements. And I know for me, I usually, that's the, that's when I go do my yearly inspection is that I come prepared with the battery to replace it. You know, so that's another trigger to remind you when you're doing your inspection, you can bring the battery placement with you and replace the battery at the same time. And yeah, like you said, there are some lithium ones, because I do have one that I bought a while ago that I was like, oh, it's the last 10 years. You know, for, and for me, I'm like, oh, this is kind of cool. You know, I'm short and I'm like, when I have to test them, I got to get on the ladder. You know, so I'm not going, you know, just the last little bit longer. And it depends on the also the price that you pay on those some of those batteries because some, I mean, smoke alarms because they're some of them may not last because I had some that I hadn't put up yet. And I'm like, okay, I think this one malfunctioned. I haven't put it up yet, but it's not doing what it's supposed to do. And it was only five bucks. I just tossed it out. You know, but that's the important reason why you've got to test them every year to make sure that they're every month. Every month. Yeah, every month. So that makes sure that they still work because like anything else, they do malfunction because especially in the white environment with the humidity. It's going to get into some of those that stuff. You know, so especially a fire alarm that you might have above every doorway, but that could be like a bathroom doorway. You know, and if you don't have the proper ventilation when you're taking a hot shower, that humidity can affect that. That smoke detector. So that's a good point. We don't put it in the bathroom or near the bathroom because of that. If they do take a hot shower, the steam could activate it. Another thing I can bring up is why is it in the hallway people may ask is because it is found by a third party company called underwriters of the laboratory. They do a lot of testing. And it is found that it is safer to sleep with your bedroom door closed. So if your bedroom door is closed at night, while you're sleeping and the fire is outside of your room, and the smoke and clean heat comes down the hallway, it'll get after the. So what do you do next if you're sleeping and you hear it, you're going to get up, and you're going to test or check the door see if the fires right outside of your door. So use the back of your hand, start from the bottom of the door work your way up. What you're checking for is the heat. If there's no heat or increase of temperature, you can try and you can check the knob, the door handle with the back of your hand, or maybe like a really thin sheet dress shirt and see if it's hot. If it's not opening up slowly. If there's a lot of smoke coming in, close the door. And if you can get out the window, get out the window. If not, 911 as soon as possible. Very, very important is to activate the 911 system as quickly as possible when you're in danger. Because we'll show up and can either get water onto the fire or get you out through the window if you need to. Okay. And also on the fire department's website are fire escape plans, and they make it very cakey friendly. So you get your kids involved because they got to know where to go and how to escape the house in the event of a fire. And with a multi generational living in a lot of homes. You know, they might be the grandkids that are helping their grandparents get out of the house. You know, because I know sometimes when you get older, you get stubborn. Well, the fire departments here, I hear them coming, I'll be okay. I can, I can hear my mom saying that. Well, they're here, so I'll be okay. I'll be okay. I'm like, no mommy, I gotta get out. You know, and so the fire escape plan. I know it fire escape plans apply to everybody, not just single family homes. It applies to townhouses and applies to condos. I mean, even office buildings have the same requirements. And sometimes you go downtown you see everybody out in the streets or, you know, on the sidewalks, you're like, oh, what's going on. And, you know, many times they're having a fire drill. You know, so everybody has to have a fire escape plan. I was in a building, a newly renovated building, and I swear everywhere I looked when I walked around, I saw the fire escape plan on the building, I mean, on the walls. I was like, wow, they got a lot of these on the wall. You know, I was kind of surprised. But get the kids involved in fire safety so that they understand they're not being, they're not in, but fire happens in the house and they don't, they've never been through one of these or been educated on a, on a, on a escape plan. They're going to be lost in what to do and they may hide, you know, like in the movies, you see a lot of them hiding underneath the bed, you know, and, or in the closet, you know, and that's not really what we want to tell our kids to do. We really want to give them the education to know what they need to do in the event of a fire. So, even if you live in a townhouse, single family, a condo in office buildings, they all have fire escape plans that are developed and should be published. I know some condos they put their fire escape plans they included in their households. So there's actually drawing, you know, that is included in there that's given to everybody. Not just owners is given to the tenants as well, the people that are renting. So what about electrical cords? Tell me the difference between a power strip and a search protector. Okay, so the difference of power, they can look identically the same. They can look identical side by side. If you don't, if you didn't buy it or purchase it, and if you don't look real good, they can look identical. One of the things we tell people is when you do purchase them, read the box. What does it say? Power strip or search protector. And another important thing is what can you, how much appliances can you use and plug into it. So power strip is pretty much just an extension of the wall outlet. You're going from one outlet and you're adding four or five more possible outlets. Even though this might be tested by the underwriters laboratory again like that testing company, you still need to follow the manufacturer specifications. So let's say you have a coffee maker or microwave oven and plug it into a car or even a search protector. If you read your directions, they tell you not to do that. Any appliance that produces heater code should be plug directly into the wall out. We do recommend search protectors so they, the thing is if you use it for that said entertainment center and a search comes through and then it damages your TV or your computer, whatever you have hooked up to it, but you use it according to what the manufacturer says. There may be a possibility for you to recruit some of those losses if not all of them. So yes, we do recommend a search protector over a power strip very much so. And a search protector normally would have that button whereas a power strip wouldn't have that button that reset button. Some I believe I've seen it I think it might be age. So yeah so some of the power strips may have that button. Yeah, but if you look at the new ones, that might be the difference. But again, you got to read what you got right you have to know your tools. Right. Oh, go ahead. Sorry, even though you do use the search protector, you have to know how much that particular search protector can power. If you over. If you put too much appliances in it that uses too much power, it's not going to work properly. So you have to read the direction. Right. So I know on Amazon I bought some that have on off switches, which is kind of cool. I really like it. I use that for my flat iron. Although the flat iron I have had an auto shut off. But for me, I just flip the switch and it turns it off. And I turn it on what I want to use it. It's just more convenient for me because sometimes I forget to turn it off. You know, but I don't forget to turn flip the switch on the bottom. So very, very important to know any appliance produce or meet and even some from out of out of country. So if you look for the UL with a circle on, it's going to be either on the appliance itself, or maybe on a sticker on the court. But you want to look for that because, again, underwriters laboratory they test these appliances and make sure that it meets the United States safety standards. Versus if you go to Amazon, you're not sure if you're getting one of these appliances, it might be from somewhere. Check your appliances. Please make sure they have that UL and circle. Okay, and then we're kind of out of time, but very quickly. Turkey fires. Don't use them. It's dangerous. You have to use the right oil and you cannot overflow it. Right. You can't use it under an E. It has to be away from the building. It's very dangerous. Yes, the turkeys taste delicious, but you have to use caution. We do recommend. We'll get professional deep fried turkey. Yeah, a lot of restaurants, you're some of the bars that serve food. You know, sometimes they will do that for Thanksgiving fried the turkeys, you know, you can pre order it fried, you know. Yeah, turkey fires and Thanksgiving. I mean, it's kind of like, I mean, you always see a story on the news that Thanksgiving over a turkey fire, fire. I mean, yeah, me and my husband did one, but we, I'm like, can you move it onto the street? For real away from my car. You know, so it you got to do it right and make sure you don't overfill it. And the turkeys got to be at room temperature. It cannot be cold. At room temperature. It's not doing a turkey fryer is not a last minute decision. Water and oil do not mix. Right. Right. You know, so you got a plan to do to fry your turkey. Okay, so one last other thing. So we will see you again on November night at our white council seminar on fire safety. We're hoping that we're going to include some other things that we have the other county fire departments included on this. They're going to be via zoom. The other ones are going to be via zoom and then we have a law that's going to be at the country club. So we hope to see everybody there and to get more of an in person on fire safety. We're also including some other agencies. There's a one that I found was to wildfire in there. They is an organization that can build have volunteers help with the vacant land. You know, things like that nature. And also, we're going to look at all the other islands. We're going to look at all the other websites and to show everybody where they can get this information on fire safety. I mean, they're all PDFs. They can print it distributed out to the residents. So it's really easy. So we're going to give everybody the tools. Where to go for the information. It's not like they have to. You know, it's not that it's not out there. It's available everywhere you look, you know, the individual fire departments websites NFPA has also some stuff on there that's really good. Thomas, I will see you on November 9th. So look forward to seeing you along with a lot of our other condo board members there in person at a local country club, November 9th. And the doors are going to open about 11 o'clock with brunch at the country club. So thank you for joining us today and look forward to seeing you on the night and another series of condo insider.