Fire Marshal gives tips to help prevent Thanksgiving Day disasters
STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – “The biggest part of my job in fire prevention is exactly that. It’s trying to prevent the fire from ever happening. And we take a lot of steps and inspections to ensure that that doesn’t happen,” said Mark McCurdy.
Mark McCurdy has specialized in fire prevention for over 20 years.
His job as Starkville Fire Marshal is making sure contractors and property owners fulfill their responsibilities to prevent fires as required by law.
“As part of the construction process, when anything new is getting built, we go through and do fire safety inspections for all the buildings. So the test that we performed today, we actually tested the fire alarm system and the sprinkler system to make sure that they work like they’re supposed to in the event of a fire in the building. The sprinkler system should activate, put the fire out, and the alarm system will actually notify us as you saw where they called my radio, so we can respond in a timely manner,” said McCurdy.
Inspections see that safety is embedded into the very foundation of a building’s structure.
“There’s a lot of steps we take during construction that a lot of people don’t realize what we’re doing but we do stuff behind the walls, so to speak, behind the scenes that actually helps prevent fire,” said McCurdy.
McCurdy installs sprinkler systems, noncombustible dry rock behind wooden studs, and even putty around electrical outlets to make sure if the worst happens, the disaster is contained.
“If a fire does happen, that it keeps it from spreading. Sometimes. it’s hard to prevent a fire from happening, but if the fire occurs, then we can take steps to contain it in one area so it doesn’t spread and affect other people. But it also gives people time to get that crucial time that you need to evacuate in the event of a fire so you can get out safely,” said McCurdy.
“911 all units, you can cancel your response. It’s a fire alarm test.”
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