Wayne Township Fire Commissioner Frank Velardi Provides Summer Safety Tips

WAYNE, NJ – Its summertime in Wayne Township and for some, it’s the best time of the year - with trips down the shore, vacations, swimming, barbeques and more. But with all this outdoor activity, there are chances for problems to occur, including dehydration, fires and drownings.

Wayne Fire Commissioner Frank Velardi gets an opportunity to speak at all the town council meetings, and he usually adds a safety message for the town. During this past council meeting, Velardi shared a summer safety message.

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“My safety message this evening,” he said and then clarified that, “there are a couple of them that are not necessarily fire related, but just safety in general.”

Fighting Dehydration

He began by addressing the possibility of dehydration given the high temperatures we’ve been experiencing here in town.

“I want to remind everyone to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate,” he said. “There's nothing you can do better than drink water, drink water and drink water. It stops you from, obviously, getting dehydrated and will make everyone just feel better.”

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Barbecue Safety

“Along with the nice weather, most of us would like to barbeque outside,” said Velardi. “We’ll be celebrating the 4th of July soon, so just make sure that if you are barbequing, you are using propane or natural gas.”

Keeping the lid up on your grill when lighting it is another great safety tip from Velardi.

“We don’t want to end up with any kind of flash underneath the grill that can catch our clothes on fire,” he said. “Also make sure you have a bucket of sand, a fire extinguisher or a hose nearby in case something goes awry with the grill. That way you can address it pretty quickly.”

Preventing Drownings

“The other thing with summertime, we all like to go out swimming - especially in this hot weather,” he said next. We have access to pools, or the town pool and we like to get in that water and enjoy ourselves. But just make sure keep an eye on the little ones.”

Velardi shared a chilling statistic about childhood drownings, that may open some eyes.

“More little kids drown under the supervision of adults than they do any other time,” he said. “That's mind boggling to think of.”

He suggests “Put[ting] yourself in charge” of your own children who can’t swim and keep an eye on themselves yourself. He also suggests to parents that you “don’t rely on somebody else to watch your kids,” and to not take on the responsibility of watching other children at the same time.

As always, the Wayne Fire Department and the Wayne First Aid Squad are constantly looking for volunteers to join their respective departments.

Velardi said that for fire department volunteers they need, “men and women between the ages of 18 and 57,” he said. “if you're interested call me on the main number 694-1800 ext 4714 or e-mail me at firecommissioner@waynetownship.com .”

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