A tragedy can be prevented for as little as 12 bucks

The locations change but the scenario is a broken record of tragedies that could be easily prevented.

Early Sunday morning, Prince George’s County, Maryland, fire crews performed search-and-rescue operations at the scene of a house fire. While one crew worked to put out the fire, a second crew located a lifeless body.

There was no working smoke detector inside the house, fire officials said.

The fire caused $55,000 in damage, but a new, battery-operated smoke detector costs less than 12 bucks.

That’s why firefighters such as myself urge everyone to change the batteries in their smoke (and carbon monoxide) detectors this weekend. It’s an easy safety precaution to take when turning clocks ahead one hour by 2 a.m. Sunday, March 12, to mark the onset of daylight saving time.

Smoke detectors should be installed in every room of the home, especially the bedrooms and the kitchen, according to the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York. Officials also urge families to keep fire extinguishers available in a well-known place and ensure that everyone knows how to use them.

Families should develop an escape plan and practice it regularly to ensure that everyone is prepared in the event of a fire. Children should know to dial 911 as soon as a fire is noticed to get help fast. Eighty-seven percent of all fire-related deaths are due to home fires, which spread rapidly and can leave families as little as two minutes to escape once an alarm sounds.

Twelve bucks.

Yet despite all the educational resources available, the lesson is still lost on many individuals in both residential and commercial settings.

On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City caught fire and in about half an hour, killed 146 people, the majority of them young women. It remains one of the deadliest workplace disasters in U.S. history. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a sweatshop housed in the top three floors of a 10-story brick building. The factory was one of the top producers in the country of women’s shirtwaists, and it employed hundreds of workers, mostly young women in their teens and 20s.

Around the end of the work day, smoke was spotted coming from a rag bin beneath a cutting table on the eighth floor. Workers tried to put out the fire, but it spread too quickly and soon traveled through the elevator shafts and shattered windows to the upper floors.

The workers on the ninth floor, however, had a much harder time evacuating. The door to one of the stairwells was locked, and the other stairwell quickly became impassible due to smoke and fire. Some tried to use the fire escape, but it soon collapsed under the weight of too many people. As the fire intensified, dozens of workers began jumping out of the windows, dying upon impact.

Twelve bucks.

The tragedy led to needed reform, and legislation was passed to improve fire regulations. The building’s owners were never convicted of any offense due to a lack of evidence.

An apartment fire killed a student at Indiana University in October 2011. Investigators said the apartment she lived in had no working smoke detector, according to station WTHR. The resident of an adjacent apartment said he removed the smoke detector the night before because “it was making an annoying chirping sound.”

Twelve bucks.

(David F. Sherman is managing editor of Bee Group Newspapers and a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York, a group of community newspapers with a combined circulation of more than 200,000 readers. Opinions expressed here are those of the author. He can be reached at dsherman@beenews.com.)