Smoking and Home Fires Transcript, Part 3

Voice of Cathy Hedrick:

Thank you so much for that introduction. As you heard my name is Cathy Hedrick and I work for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. How did I begin a relationship working for and supporting this Foundation and the  U.S. Fire Administration? Before this job, I was a nurse for 30 years. Taking care of people. At the foundation it is not much different. I still take care of people - survivor families of fallen firefighters in this country. 

How or why did I make this change in careers?   One January night many years ago, as a matter of fact it will be 16 years this Saturday, my life changed in a way that I would never wish for anyone to have to experience. Today, I am here representing mothers all over this country who strive to keep their families safe. I am the mom of a firefighter, Kenny, who was killed when a call for help came in and went terribly wrong. A call to respond to a house fire, with children trapped. 

He went just like the other 1.5 million firefighters in this country would do without question. Kenny joined his fellow firefighters that night and attempted to rescue a seven year old boy. In that house fire that night, Kenny and the seven year old both lost their lives. The cause of this tragic fire - a cigarette. Improperly extinguished it smoldered, causing the fire. 

The United States Fire  Administration and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation have joined with many other partners in the fight to launch this campaign, which  has the potential to save innocent lives like my son Kenny, and a seven year old child, named Sean.  If you are a smoker or if you live with one, it takes  a simple act,  If you smoke, put it out, all the way every time.  

Voice of Greg Cade:

Thank you Cathy. We are honored to be partnering in this campaign with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and twelve other national and state organizations to help us spread this campaign message. We will be providing our partners and fire departments with this campaign tool kit. It contains a wealth of campaign material.  There is also a dedicated web site, that goes live this morning. And the site is up there, on the screen. There will be a virtual outreach element to spread this word such as this web site video that we're going to play. 

Voice of Dispatch Operator:

"County 911 do you need fire, ambulance or police?" 

Voice of Paramedic:

"You have one with second degree burns of the upper body."  

"Paramedic on the scene, request aviation for the burn subject."           

Voice of Greg Cade:

Let me close by saying that on behalf of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency  Management Agency and the U.S. Fire  Administration, that I want to thank everyone who helped develop this campaign. I want to thank Cathy for sharing her personal story about Morningside Volunteer Fire Department and for helping bring Kenny's story to you. I also really want to recognize the great work that the firefighters all  over this country do, day in and day out. They put their lives on the line to  protect us, and I want to thank you all for being here today to help us share this information with your audience. This is an important message that we want to get out to the community and we'll certainly be available from now until whenever you decide to come up with whatever question that you have. Either one of our partners one of your local fire departments, certainly us at the USFA. We're interested in making sure that we get this message out because ultimately what's gonna happen is if we're successful with this message is, there's a whole lot of people who are going to be alive this time next year.  Firefighters, family and friends. 

I told you personally about Kenny. I'm also a grandfather so I have a vested interest in making sure that my two  grandsons are here next year. And it takes all of us working together to make that happen.  So thank you all very much for coming.  We really appreciate it.