The National Weather Service is warning of cold temperatures for much of this week. Wind chills will be below-zero at times and could be colder than 20-degrees below zero Wednesday night into Thursday. Those temperatures have the potential to pose a danger to health and property.
Some steps to take to keep yourself, your family, your pets, and any elderly or homebound neighbors safe during cold weather:
Monitor weather reports and plan ahead.
Be a good neighbor. Check with elderly or disabled relatives, neighbors, and friends to ensure their safety.
Minimize outside activities, particularly the elderly and very young. Dress in several layers of loose-fitting, lightweight clothing, rather than a single layer of heavy clothing. Outer garments should be tightly woven and water repellent. Wear a hat, mittens and sturdy waterproof boots, protecting your extremities. Cover your mouth with a scarf to protect your lungs. Also, consider your pets and limit their time outdoors.
Excessive exposure can lead to frostbite, which is damaging to body tissue that is frozen. Frostbite causes a loss of feeling and a pale appearance in extremities, such as fingers, toes, ear lobes or the tip of the nose. If symptoms are detected, seek medical help immediately. Slowly warm the affected areas as you await medical assistance.
Hypothermia can occur in extreme cases. The warning signs are uncontrollable shivering, memory loss, disorientation, incoherence, slurred speech, drowsiness and apparent exhaustion. If the person’s temperature drops below 95 degrees, seek immediate medical care. If medical assistance is not available, slowly warm up the person, body core first, wrapping them in a blanket or using your own body heat. Do not warm the extremities first, for this drives the cold blood towards the heart and can lead to heart failure. Do not give the person alcohol, coffee, tea or any hot food or beverage. Warm liquids are best.
Ensure you have sufficient heating fuel, as well as emergency heating equipment in case you lose electricity. If you need information on heating assistance you can call Vermont 211.
Test smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors to ensure they are working properly. Make sure that all fuel burning appliances are vented to the outside. Malfunctioning heating equipment can produce harmful levels of CO, including: fuel-fired furnaces or boilers (nonelectric), space heaters with pilot lights or open flames (for example kerosene heaters, wood stoves, or fireplaces), and gas stoves or ovens – especially those with pilot lights. Never operate a generator indoors; they should only be run be outside and away from the home so CO cannot vent inside living areas.
Use extreme caution when using portable heat sources. Ensure that there is a 3’ radius around the heater that is free of all combustibles.
If you lose power or heat, try to keep pipes from freezing. Leave cabinet doors around them open to allow as much heat as possible to reach them. Wrap them in insulation or layers of newspapers, covering the newspapers with plastic to keep out moisture. Allow a trickle of warm water (if available) to run from a faucet that is farthest from your water meter or one that has frozen in the past. This will keep the water moving so it cannot freeze. Know how to shut off your water if a pipe bursts.
If you have any questions or need assistance of any kind, please feel free to contact the Brattleboro Fire Department at 802.254.4831.
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Contact: Michael Bucossi
Brattleboro Fire Chief
