By Rick Rickerly
Fayette County Fire & Emergency Services

You may have noticed that it's getting harder to light that cigarette. It doesn't have anything to do with smoking restrictions in public buildings. The doctor's advice that smoking cigarettes are bad for your health doesn't faze you.

You don't care gonna smoke'em anyway healthy people die everyday. Your family told you to quit, but also told you that CDs would never catch on; what do they know? It's not that they cost $2.50 a pack that's making it harder to light up.

No, something much more sinister has happened while we all were asleep child-resistant lighters have become the law in the U.S.

There are many brands of child-resistant lighters available today, most of which seem to be really good about being adult-resistant also. Ever tried to use one of these things? Even after reading the directions, I still can' t get one to light. A switch has to be turned, a knob has to be pushed, or you have to stand on one foot with your tongue sticking out just to get them to light!

If you do get one to light, forget about keeping it lit. It just doesn't happen. Me? I think it's a Communist plot to make us all stop smoking.

Of course, there could be simpler reason for making child-resistant lighters the law of the land. It's the children between ages two and six who are most commonly injured by matches and lighters. The main reason: children's bedtime clothing.

Clothing is easily ignited after exposure to open flame. This can happen when the children are "playing" with matches or lighters. To a child, matches and lighters seem to be just toys.

Every child should be taught that these items should never be touched. Instruct children to show an adult when they have found a match or lighter, and tell them that they are tools for adults and are not to be touched.

During the coming cold months, parents will be placing their children in warm nightshirts and pajamas, believing them to be fireproof. I'm a firefighter; believe me, there is no such thing as fireproof. Even the clothing that we wear into a fire is only fire-resistant. not fireproof.

The tag on our coat and pants state, "Keep this garment out of direct flame contact." (If you're a firefighter about to go into a burning building, reading this tag does not instill much confidence.) All of my life, I've believed clothing that was marked "fire-resistant" would not burn. That is, until I placed my snow-covered night coat a little too close to the fireplace last winter. You've never seen such vivid colors coming from a fire as I tried to stomp out the flaming inferno. Fire-resistant clothing will still burn; it just burns slower.

Most children who catch their clothes on fire do so by reaching across an open flame. Their sleeves drag across the flame, and before they realize it, their clothes have caught on fire. What they do next can save their lives or cause serious injury. There is a simple technique that can be taught to children and adults that will extinguish flaming clothing.

If clothes catch on fire, you should STOP immediately; do not run. Running will only feed the fire with oxygen and make the flames grow. DROP to the ground and ROLL over and over until the flames are extinguished, making sure you cover your face with your hands as you roll.

The habits of fire safety are best instilled during the early years of childhood. Education of school children between two and six is essential in keeping burns and fire deaths to a minimum. This age group has the largest number of fire injuries and fire deaths.

Continuous education of these children has resulted in an annual ten percent reduction in death and injuries nationwide. Additionally, through education of pre-school age children, an equal reduction in child-caused fires, especially those involving matches and lighters, has been noted.

If your clothes catch on fire, STOP, DROP to the ground, ROLL around, and the fire will go out. The number one age group that is injured and die by fires are young children between ages of two and six.

Burns from matches and lighters are still the most common. New child resistant lighters, however, have helped to put a large dent in this statistic.

Have any questions on teaching your children how to do this life saving technique? Just stop, drop, and roll into your local fire department. The firefighters on duty will be happy to show you how it's done.

It is unfortunate that they don't make a child-resistant match. I guess if they did, we all would quit smoking none of us adults would be able to figure out how to light those things either.

[Rick Ryckeley is a full-time employee of Fayette County Fire and Emergency Services.]

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