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This is the time of the year when considerable attention is focused on ghosts, goblins, witches riding broomsticks, pumpkins and reliving the longstanding traditions of neighborhood trick-or-treating and costumed Halloween parties.
However, what deserves much more attention -- much more serious attention -- during this first full month of autumn is fire safety, which, specifically, includes what to do and what not to do when confronted with a fire emergency.
The start of a new heating season oftentimes brings blazes resulting from a number of causes, including failure to have had furnaces or other heating devices properly maintained.
Meanwhile, October, designated in this country as Fire Prevention Month, rightfully is the month filled with urgings and public service announcements highlighting the importance of having working smoke detectors in homes, businesses and other venues.
This also is the month each year when homeowners and other individuals who oversee properties are reminded to install new batteries in their detectors, to ensure that those detectors will function correctly, if circumstances dictate.
Detectors are a low-cost tool for saving lives and properties.
Then there is the issue of fire service manpower. In conjunction with Fire Prevention Month, fire departments large and small should sponsor activities geared toward encouraging men and women, young and not so young, to donate time and efforts to, and on behalf of, the departments.
Not all volunteers need to be trained specifically to battle fires. There are numerous other duties within departments that require work at the fire station itself or on "outside" events with which the department sponsors or involves itself.
The bottom line is that many volunteer fire departments in our region -- indeed, all across Pennsylvania -- currently are coping with serious manpower shortages that make it difficult to fill a crew of the size needed to respond to an emergency, thus requiring help from neighboring departments.
As part of Fire Prevention Month, a number of programs already have been held in schools to acquaint children with fire prevention, as well as how to respond to a fire in progress. Mirror readers had the opportunity on Oct. 5 to read about one such program held the previous day at Pleasant Valley Elementary School in suburban Altoona.
Personnel of the Altoona Fire Department and Logan Township United fire service conducted the program, along with fire inspector Justin Smithmyer. In attendance, and a hit with the kids, was a dog trained in arson detection. Students learned about engines and equipment and took part in lessons inside a Mobile Fire Safety Center. The message was with every fire, every second is crucial.
But there is another angle to the fire-safety-
program scenario upon which some departments fail to capitalize. Many departments, some struggling to exist because of a meager firefighter roster, fail to acknowledge how a well-organized program held now can produce a positive impact in years to come.
If children become interested in the fire service at a young age and are welcomed and encouraged to keep in touch with their local department, some of those young people might choose to become firefighters when they become old enough to apply.
No Fire Prevention Month should pass without every department focusing on manpower needs, as well as fire prevention itself.