By Bill Wilson, Boulder City Review

With the 10th anniversary of the horrors of Sept. 11 and Hurricane Irene fresh in our minds, they can serve as reminders that can leave anyone worried about what might happen in the future.

Many Americans who once had a this-can-never-happen-to-me attitude are recognizing that disasters, natural or man-made, are a very real threat.

Your family will cope best by preparing for a catastrophe before it strikes.

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By Bill Wilson, Boulder City Review

In the previous weeks we have talked about flash flood and lightning safety. This will be my final article, in a series of three, dealing with our monsoon season. When the sky turns dark and it starts to rain, any rescue call our fire department gets is likely to be a motor vehicle accident.

It is critical to make sure you can see and be seen.

Safe driving website Smart Motorist offers the following suggestions for safer driving in wet weather. In stormy conditions, it is more difficult to see other vehicles, road signs and the road itself.

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By Bill Wilson, Boulder City Review

The hard-packed soil of the Mojave desert provides little water seepage. Gathering water on the grand surface, even from the smallest of rain showers, can cause flash flooding.

Small trickles of water down drainage ditches, streets, canyons, and creeks can quickly (within minutes) turn into a raging torrent of water. The following suggestions from the Boulder City Fire Department can help keep you safe.

* Always be alert to radio and television flash-flood warnings and reports. This is especially important when hiking/camping in desert canyons.

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By Jack Johnson, Boulder City Review 

Firefighters battle a two-alarm house fire Sunday afternoon on Ave I near Arizona Street. One person was transported to the hospital with burns. Photo by Jack Johnson.

Boulder city and Henderson firefighters responded to a two-alarm fire Sunday afternoon on Ave. I.

According to police, the fire seems to have started in a residential garage where someone was working on a boat.

One person has been transferred to the hospital but further details are not available at this time.

Neighbors reported that the fire, which started at about 12:30 p.m..

The fire began in the garage of 508 Avenue I with a large explosion, according to witnesses.

“I heard a huge explosion,” next door neighbor Wendy Kyser said. “I saw the mushroom cloud.”

Kyser said one resident was home in the garage at the time of the explosion, an elderly man who was transferred to Boulder City Hospital with burns.

The flames reached into overhead electrical lines, causing many more smaller explosions, Kyser said.

Kyser’s husband, Robert Kyser, said he kept the flames out of their tree until the firefighters arrived.

“I kept hosing it down ’til they told us to get out,” he said.

The Kysers said they then left with their baby, and no shoes.

At 2 p.m., the fire seemed to be mostly contained, and damage to nearby residences appeared to be minimal.

By Bill Wilson, Boulder City Review

From a child’s point of view, brightly colored bottles of detergent can look like Kool-Aid and shiny, round pills can look like candy.

But because children are smaller and have faster metabolism than adults, just a taste can be enough to make children ill, or even kill them.

Poison control centers in the United States receive 1.2 million calls each year as a result of unintentional poisonings involving children ages 5 and under. Nearly 90 percent of these toxic exposures occur in the home, and 60 percent involve non-pharmaceutical products such as cosmetics, cleansers, personal care products, plants, pesticides, art supplies, alcohol and toys.

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By Bill Wilson, Boulder City Review

As I look at my calendar and see the upcoming summer, I am reminded of longer days, ice cream-truck music, baseball, swimming and that most glorious of all American family activities, the barbecue.

To have a safe and happy summer the following safety rules should be remembered.

It is the position of the Boulder City Fire Department that Barbecuing on an enclosed or partially covered patio does, in fact, constitute a fire hazard and, therefore, is not allowed by code within the city of Boulder City.

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By Bill Wilson, Boulder City Review

It only takes a few seconds to change the lives of a family forever. Too often we hear people say, “I only turned my back for a few seconds.”

Unfortunately, that is all the time needed for a child to drown. Here are some astonishing facts about drowning:

*The vast majority of drowning deaths occur in the family pool.

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The Boulder City Police and the Clark County Coroner’s office is investigating the death of a nine-month-old infant, the police said this morning.

The police and local fire department responded to a 911 call made Wednesday at approximately 12:30 p.m. to an apartment on Darlene Way.

Clark County Fire Department had received the call from the apartment stating that the caller had been caring for the infant and had found him in his crib unconscious and not breathing.

  Officers and paramedics performed CPR on the infant but were unable to resuscitate him.

The infant was transported Boulder City hospital and pronounced dead.

The police declined to release further information at this time saying the death is under investigation.

By Bill Wilson, Boulder City Review

Responsibility for fire safely of any apartment or condominium complex lies with each and every resident. To keep your building as fire safe as possible, you must learn the right thing to do if fire breaks out.

How do most apartment and condo fires start? Smoking is the number one cause of all fatal apartment fires, and nearly a third of them are caused by smoking in bed.

Another common cause of apartment fires is heating equipment. Fires start when people leave combustibles, such as paper or clothing, too close to heaters or stoves. Improper use of space heaters is another leading cause of fatal fires.

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By Jack Johnson, Boulder City Review

The city would have to dip into its general fund to pay for new ambulances and police vehicles if two ballot questions are voted down during the general election on June 7.

Questions 1 and 2 will be asking voters to approve the spending of up to $350,000 in capital improvement fund reserves for new ambulances, and up to $250,000 of the fund’s reserves for new police vehicles.

“Hopefully people will get out and vote,” Mayor Roger Tobler said. “We need them to approve the funding of the ambulances and police vehicles.”

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