RRFR gives advice on staying safe during winter, holiday months

RIO RANCHO — As it gets colder and closer to the holidays, the possibility of accidents rises sharply. Rio Rancho Fire Rescue has the community’s back when these accidents occur, but there are ways to avoid these mishaps in the first place.

RRFR Public Information Officer Sean Gerdemann shared some advice on the subject.

Winter“Now that we’re starting to head into the colder months, everybody’s going to be changing over to their furnaces and everybody’s going to start using their fireplaces,” he said.

Gerdemann says these heating sources are fire rescue’s main concerns.

“With your furnace — usually most furnaces are gas — if it doesn’t seem to be working, make sure you call a licensed professional out because there are things that we deal with when it comes to furnaces and natural gas, and that is always a problem,” he said. “Also, if it’s not properly vented or ducted, it could potentially cause fires to happen.”

Fireplaces have their share of issues as well.

“With fireplaces, if you burned a lot last year, natural wood causes a creosote build up into our chimneys, and that can eventually basically become flammable,” Gerdemann said. “Once you start having a hot fire, that creosote catches fire inside your chimney, that could potentially spread throughout your walls and into your home.”

RRFR recommends always having the fireplaces and chimneys cleaned by a licensed chimney sweep to avoid the risk of fire. He added that people should keep their flues open and make sure the fireplace is properly vented to prevent smoke inhalation.

Thanksgiving There are some other hazards that come about with the holidays as well.

”Thanksgiving, you know, deep frying turkeys is fantastic. But one of the biggest things is that if you are using a fryer, especially with the hot oil, make sure that you’re doing it outside, please, in a very open area,” RRFR says. “Doing it in under any type of covering or inside of a home — that will definitely lead to a severe structure fire. And we don’t want to ruin anybody’s holiday that way.”

Perhaps most importantly, be patient.

”With the turkey, make sure that it’s generally thawed out. You don’t want to drop a frozen turkey into the hot oil because it can cause kind of that flash overreaction ... and cause some pretty severe burns,” he said.

If people do encounter a fire from the oil, Gerdemann says water will not put the fire out. Because it is a flammable cooking liquid, a fire extinguisher is recommended.

”That’s usually under your sink, ABC rated and then call the fire department, obviously, and we can come out and get that all mitigated for you,” he said.

ChristmasWith Christmas, Gerdemann said the main concern is natural trees.

“What we’re concerned about is people buying natural Christmas trees. They’re beautiful, don’t get me wrong. If you buy them early and put them up, make sure they stay watered,” he said. “What tends to happen is people put up natural Christmas trees and then they dry out relatively quickly in New Mexico. It just becomes, basically, really, really good tinder at that point and will catch on fire very quickly,” he said.

Natural Christmas trees require at least a gallon of water ever day to stay nourished.

“With the artificial Christmas trees, they’re all plastics, so make sure that outlet doesn’t have a bunch of things plugged into it that could potentially cause a short,” he said. “Make sure that artificial Christmas tree isn’t near any heat sources.”

Gerdemann added some year-round advice to keep front-of-mind this Christmas season as well.

“This should be throughout the year, but we tend to start plugging in a lot more stuff throughout the years or throughout the holidays. Just knowing that when we plug into outlets, it’s good to have just one thing [plugged in],” Gerdemann said.

DrivingAnother main focus during the winter months, especially given that Rio Rancho already had one winter storm, is driving.

“As probably everybody has seen, we have the signs that kind of go up throughout the city that will tell you about a potential winter storm coming,” Gerdemann said. “We don’t take it lightly, closing those roads, but we know that those roads in particular have the potential to cause some pretty severe traffic congestion, or accidents.

“If you’re not familiar with driving in in really adverse weather, and haven’t done it before, obviously, stay home if you can. But if you absolutely have to go out, then please use caution and take a little bit of extra time whenever you do it,” he said.

Emergency Medical ServicesThe winter months can also be busy on the Emergency Medical Services side of things.

“For the medical side, obviously with the turkey fryers and fireplaces people have a tendency to experience some pretty severe burns,” he said. “When we show up, we’ll kind of take a look at [the burn] and then figure out what we’re going to do from that point on. But I would say that if it’s anything beyond what you would consider a ‘just a sunburn,’ I would say that you need to seek medical attention.”

He added that burns can lead to worse problems if left untreated.

“Other things of course, people getting on roofs and putting up Christmas lights and decorations, that’s always a concern,” Gerdemann said. “If you’re using a ladder to get on a roof, please always try to have at least one more person there to be holding that ladder for you to ensure that you’re on the roof safely and appropriately. Please don’t get on the roof when it’s covered in snow. That’s definitely not recommended.”

EMS also responds to a lot of respiratory during the winter season, when those illnesses tend to spread.

“The CDC and the WHO, they’ve declared it respiratory season. That just means they’re declaring it for themselves and [they] see an increase in in-patient activity. We see an increase just in our EMS and what we call the busy season,” he added.

He says that despite this, they don’t really have an abnormally large call volume during these months. There will always be emergency services available to the city, and teams are set to work on the holidays.

“Thanksgiving and Christmas, those are basically two normal days for us. Whatever shift is on, they’ll come in at 7 a.m. and they’ll work their full 48-hour shift,” he said. “We are still responding to calls, but as far as our station business and doing some training, we’re a little bit more relaxed, so the guys kind of hang around and we’ll just be comfortable. Sometimes, we’ll be able to have our families over, but everything is always subject to the calls of the city,” he added.

While it can be frustrating for some of the crew to not be home with their families, they all know it’s just part of the job.

“I mean, it can be frustrating at times but you know what you’re getting into right off the bat, so hopefully you’re not taking it too personally,” he said.

For emergencies such as fires, extreme burns or hypothermia, call 911. For non-emergencies, call 505-891-7226.