Daniella’s Blog – Fire Safety
Daniella, who we support in Bidford, is passionate about health and safety. In this co-produced guest blog, Daniella tells us how she got involved as a Fire Marshal and trained as a First Aider, encouraging others to get involved too!
My name is Daniella and I am a fire marshal and first aider. I teach people about fire alarms and how to save people’s lives. I started training about 2 years ago and now I’m a champion. This has really built-up my confidence and I want people to know they can do this too.
I do the fire drill every Wednesday. I go around with a red key to switch every fire alarm on and off, making sure alarms are working and sounding. I turn it to the left, then turn it to the right, count to four and reset.
Part of my training was to learn how to approach someone during a fire drill. Now, I can tell everyone in the building that the fire alarm is about to go off. I find it easy to remind people about fire and how dangerous it can be so I tell people when they hear a loud alarm to not panic because everything is fine, and help them leave the building to a safe place. In a loud voice, I’ll say, “Everyone out! Come on, we need to go. You know what to do, it’s a drill, you need to get out.” I tell people to leave everything behind and get out. That’s the key to it. You do not pick up any items, just get out.
We had a real fire about 3 months ago. A tenant left a jacket potato in the microwave. It was really steaming so I told everyone to get out. I shouted loud because I have a very loud voice; it runs in the family. I had to guide everyone to safety as people didn’t know which doors to get out of. That’s the thing about fire, you never know where it’s started so you have to stay on it and follow the fire exits.
I had to learn to not just get everyone out but to keep myself safe. I now know to leave when everyone else does and set a good example. These drills are hard for everyone, me included. I remember I did a fire drill and even though I left at the same time as everyone else, I was sad that I’d left my dolls in the room. I was saying, “I’ve left my babies in there,” and someone said: “dolls are fireproof” and that made me laugh. It just goes to show that saving your own life is more important than anything else.
It’s part of my job to make sure that with a big building like the one I live in, everything is working, doors and windows are opening and closing properly, and that the path is clear for exit.
It’s very good for me to learn about fire because I never ever knew about fire before. I’m a first aid champion as well and I know what to do in an emergency. I did first aid training about epilepsy so if someone is having a seizure, I know to call someone, put the person in the recovery position and learn about all the different things and help someone understand what’s just happened to them. Knowing first aid is important to me because both my sisters have epilepsy, and I have called an ambulance in the past.
The training helped when a lady at the day centre I go to had a seizure. I knew because she stood up and started shaking so I told staff what was happening and told them that she needs to find a place to sit down. When she sat down, she just came back around. I said, “what’s my name?” She said, “Danielle”, and I told her she was right and then said where she was and that it would be alright and that she was okay.
It’s amazing what I can do now to help others. It’s a good thing to learn that safety comes first with everything. You first learn why fire drills are needed and then you can start training on saving people. You can learn anything if you want to.
Watch Daniella’s fire drill on our socials:
