FHE Lesson

FHE= Fire, Home, Earthquake

This week our family home evening lesson focused on fire and earthquake safety in the home. We have been meaning to have a serious talk about these things since we first moved in, but I have been putting it off for a couple of reasons.

First, quite frankly, it scares the beegeebees out of me. One of my greatest fears is the thought of not being able to get to or help my frightened children during an earthquake or fire. I am generally not a worrier, but these thoughts have kept me up on a number of nights during my time as a mother. In the past, the fire/earthquake talk has been known to freak my kids out for several days also.

The second reason I was putting off this discussion is because I just didn't know what to tell my kids concerning earthquake safety. A while back I received an email, as probably most of you did, concerning the "Traingle of Life." In short, it is a theory that basically goes against all the old earthquake safety ideas. The "triangles of life" are small areas that are found next to large objects when a building collapses. So, instead of hoping for safety by getting under things, this theory says to get beside big things so if the roof collapses and objects are crushed, you can be left unharmed in the small pocket of space formed next to the large object.

I didn't know whether to tell my kids to get under something sturdy or next to something big.

Well, I finally decided that neither of these reasons was good enough to put off some much needed instruction. I knew my fear would only be eased by becoming prepared and I knew I had to dive in and try to figure out the real answer to earthquake safety.

After doing a lot of research on the Internet, it became clear to me that all the major, respectable organizations such as FEMA and the Red Cross, still go with the old "duck and cover" earthquake safety guidelines. After reading this over and over on several websites, I was starting to believe that the "triangle of life" must not be as amazing as the email I received long ago made it sound. However, everything became even more clear as I read from the link below and other websites that challenged the "traingle of life" theory...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_of_Life

Basically, in America where buildings are built following strict codes, the chance of a building collapsing is much slimmer than in third world countries where the author of the triangle theory did most of his "research." Most injuries and deaths during an earthquake occur when things fall on someone, so being next to something large that could potentially tip over, is not the safest place for a child to be.

Yes, this post is not the most exciting thing in the world and there are not even any pictures to look at, but I thought this information may be helpful to someone else out there. Unlike all other family home evenings, I hope my kids NEVER use any of the information we went over at family home evening this week. Yet, I do feel a bit safer knowing that we at least have a plan if disaster strikes.

If it does strike, let's just hope it happens in the summer so my girls don't have to climb out their window into the muddy window well.

Because, as they stated over and over, that would just be too gross.