Insurance Association Urges Fire Safety Awareness

By ANDY GOROSKO

Published: Oct 19, 2012 12:00 am

The Professional Insurance Agents of Connecticut Inc (PIACT), a trade association, is reminding homeowners and renters that with the advent of the home heating season, come fire dangers.

PIACT urges people to take the time to review fire safety tips with their families to be prepared in the event of a fire emergency.

The association recommends that people keep these general tips in mind:

*Every home should have working smoke detectors. Ideally, they should be placed on every floor and in every bedroom.

*Check all electrical appliances, cords, and outlets. Make sure they are in good physical condition, without loose or frayed cords or plugs.

*Do not run electrical cords under rugs.

*Do not let lamps and/or night lights touch bedspreads, curtains or other fabrics.

*Do not leave the kitchen if a stove is in use. If you must leave the area, turn off the burners.

Â In the wintertime, heating overtakes cooking as the main cause of house fires. A primary danger is posed by the use of space heaters, especially the electric space heaters

Because they are small, space heaters may seem harmless, but when they are placed close to furniture or curtains, they can be deadly.

Â Never leave a space heater on when you are not in the room where it is in use. Do not go to sleep with a space heater on. Use the device to warm the bedroom, but then shut it off before you get into bed.

Â If you have a fireplace, have the chimney professionally cleaned at least once a year. Make sure that fireplaces are kept clean and covered with a screen to keep the sparks from jumping out.

In terms of escaping from fires, formulate a plan to âget out, stay out.â

Practice fire drills at home. Select a safe place for family members to meet after escaping from a fire.

Fire drills involving oneâs home are necessary to make a lasting impression on people in the event of a real emergency, according to PIACT.

Fires are frightening incidents and can cause panic. By rehearsing different scenarios, a family is less likely to waste precious time trying to figure out what to do. Test your plan. Have a drill in the middle of the night.

PIACT is a trade association that represents professional, independent insurance agencies, and brokerages throughout the state.

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Reservoir Rd. does indeed appear to have an interesting history that I often ponder as I hike the Rochambeau Trail. Early on it was apparently part of a main route from the center of the Borough to Taunton, which went up Mt. Pleasant Rd. and then roughly followed a watershed boundary from Mount Pleasant to Taunton Hill. When the current switchback road was built from West St. to Castle Hill in the 1800s, replacing the indirect route through the campground that Rochambeau used, the part of that original route to Taunton now known as Reservoir Rd. became redundant. But on an 1868 town map and topographic maps from 1892 and 1915, it looks like both routes were still maintained as roads. By the time of the 1934 aerial survey of CT, the connection to Mount Pleasant Rd. (maybe called Reservoir Rd. by then since the reservoir is visible) even had two outlets onto Castle Hill Rd. Since it is only shown as a partial dashed line on a 1953 topographic map, it may have stopped being maintained as a passable through road by then. But on a 1963 topographic map, where the section down to Knollwood Dr. had become a normal road again, the other end is shown as a dashed-line road, still with two connections to Castle Hill Rd., and a structure on the east side where one can still find remnants of a house today. Maybe a longtime resident can add comments about what it looked like in the 1950s and 1960s?

Clarity on Reservoir Road and the Rochambeau Trail

Please stop referring to your fellow Newtowners as the Mob. I was at the Legislative Council meeting where Mr. Pisani insulted the intelligence of a room full of Newtown voters; twice, and not in a satirical way. Plenty of new projects have been given the green light - the repurposing of the Taunton Press property is a welcome addition to Town, a new retail center is under construction on Church Hill Rd there are ongoing plans for the existing Fairfield Hills campus. Newtown is a wonderful place to live. Kudos to the Town officials who have managed to grow Newtown and maintain a small town feel, which may mean saying no to development more often than you would like. There will always be two sides to any proposal - different points of view are welcome and essential - name calling adds nothing to the conversation.

Who is Calling Newtowners Stupid?

Appreciate your perspective. Rather than litiate all of your opinions expressed here, here....I would like correct your opinion about the BOS having the final authority on road discontinuance decisions. State statute (CT GS 13a-49), requires the BOS' decision to be approvate by a majority vote at a regular or special town meeting (just like the one Newtown had a few years back to decide to spend the money to build an addition onto the High School). In towns that no longer have any town meetings, that responsibility would fall on the town's representaive government, or legislative body....in Newtown's case, our Legislative Council. Failure to follow this statutory process is but one of the reasons the town/the BOS is being sued.

There are many private roads in Newtown where they property owner owns right to the center line, for example this is often true in the lake communities. Many of these roads predate and do not conform to the Town's roads standard and therefore the Town never accepted them into the Town road system. Does the Town actually own this road?

It’s important to clarify the tone and context of Derek Pisani’s remarks, particularly the satirical line about suing Newtown for "Gross Stupidity." This was clearly a tongue-in-cheek jab at the exhausting culture of legal threats that’s become a staple on the local Facebook Group forums. It was a reflection of frustration over endless regulatory hurdles and obstructionism, and the desire to avoid common sense solutions not an insult aimed at residents. Satire, is meant to provoke thought and highlight the absurdities. If we are unable to distinguish between satire and literal threats, perhaps the comment hit closer to the truth than we’d like to admit. Rather than focusing on Pisanis style, we should be discussing the substance of what he’s pointing out: that Newtown’s progress is being routinely blocked by a small but vocal contingent who seem intent on saying “no” at every turn. They are saying no to any development, no to common sense solutions to crowd control, etc. Newtown deserves leaders who are willing to call things as they see them, even if their language ruffles feathers. That doesn’t mean they lack respect for constituents—it means they care enough to challenge the Mob and push for solutions. Isn't that what we elect people to do? I applaud Pisani's dedication, he certainly has earned my vote. Regardless, let’s not reduce conversation to tone-policing and outrage. Let’s focus on the issues that matter.

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Insurance Association Urges Fire Safety Awareness

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