When a home is on fire or a loved one is having a medical emergency, every second counts.
But firefighters say they waste valuable seconds struggling to get vehicles and first responders into gated communities.
“If someone’s in cardiac arrest, if they’re not getting (chest) compressions, their chance of survival goes down 1 percent every six seconds,” East County Fire and Rescue Chief Ed Hartin said. “Every delay reduces somebody’s chance of survival.”
Access was one of multiple problems emergency crews faced when responding July 5 to a fast-moving house fire north of Camas that displaced a family, although no one was injured.
“Firefighters had to contend with delayed access to a gated community, advanced fire conditions in a large home, significant vegetation exposures, which, if involved, would have threatened other nearby homes, significant distance to an adequate water supply point, and spot fires started in nearby vegetation,” according to an East County Fire and Rescue news release.
This is why officials are asking residents to inform local fire departments of the best way to get past gates in cases of emergency.
Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue Chief John Nohr said folks can give the agency a gate code, and that information will be made available to responding firefighters through the dispatch notes for a property.
But, the chief noted people sometimes change codes due to a security risk, the sale of a property or a forgetful mind and don’t update the fire department.
Hartin noted keypads often require a firefighter to climb out of a tall truck, enter a code, get back in and continue to the emergency. And a crew on a truck following as little as a minute behind will likely have to do the same.
Instead, Hartin and Nohr recommend working with your local fire agency to install Knox Boxes — lock boxes for emergency responders that contain keys or codes. Some can be fitted with a slot for a key that firefighters can use to keep gates open for other first responders, such as ambulances, that also need access.
Without access through gates, Nohr said, crews might be forced to take bolt cutters to chains securing gates or simply ram them with a roughly 22,000-pound fire engine.
“Usually, if somebody has spent the kind of money to put a nice gate in, they don’t want us ramming it and they don’t want us cutting it,” Nohr said.
Hartin said he understands the appeal of gates at the ends of driveways or complexes, but he said it’s crucial for people to make sure first responders can get through quickly.
Otherwise, he said homeowners should assess whether the gate is worth the delay it may cause.
“When people put gates in, they don’t necessarily think about the fact that they’re going to have to have somebody come and help them,” Hartin said. “If we know about it in advance, we can plan on how we’re going to deal with it. And if they provide a mechanism where we can minimize the amount of time it takes to get through your gate when there’s an emergency, then that’s a plus to them.”
Residents can contact their local fire agency to make sure first responders have gate access and for information about ordering equipment such as a Knox Box.
