McCormick on oddly large amount of area fires, CPR and AED training and Mugs for Rugs recap

Molly McCormick, community risk educator with La Crosse Fire Department, in studio to discuss the rise in investigative fires, being AED and CPR trained and their recent Mugs for Rugs program. We started there, and a collaboration with the Coulee Region Humane Society, where the fire department collected rugs from homes of seniors because they’re a slip and fall hazard. They have taken those rugs now and made them into scratch posts, being sold for dirt cheap at the Humane Society. We also talked about CPR and AED training that they’re doing, and how important it is to even just be informally trained on how to handle a situation where those would be needed. Lastly, we hit on the oddly large amount of investigative fires the La Crosse area has had to deal with. So far this year, 31 investigative fires, when in 2024 there was a total of 44. And, on average, that number hovers around 35. McCormick notes there’s no pinpoint reason for the rise in numbers, but we do brainstorm on why that might be, anyway. As an aside to that, McCormick got into some of the everyday ways to help prevent fires and some facts people might know about when to replace smoke detectors (not just the batteries) and fire extinguishers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.