Tipton Volunteer Fire Department     407 Lynn St. Tipton, IA     52772

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Rural Home Lane Access

It is important for rural home owners to provide an entrance to their homestead that can be accessed by the fire department in case of an emergency at their address. This mainly concerns long lanes from the road to their house or out buildings. They must be able to accommodate the large fire trucks that respond to rural fires. This includes:   -Side clearance of 10'   -Top clearance of 12'   -Any bridge or suspended roadway that can       support up to 20 Tons.

Knox Box

Most business in the Tipton area are not open 24 hours a day. However, a lot of them do have automatic fire alarms. In order to prevent damage to the building and time wasted waiting for someone to show up with a key to let us in, it is helpful with a Knox Box installed near the main entrance. The way a Knox Box works is a small steel box is installed into the building itsef. Important keys are stored inside the box (door locks, equipment shut-offs, etc.) and the Knox Box is locked for safety. The fire department holds the key to unlock the Box so that they can safely gain access to the building and resolve the situation, whether it being a false alarm or an actual incident. The Fire Department in no way gains profit from the instillation of a Knox Box, it only saves the business owner money. For information regarding Knox Boxes contact Chief John Miller or go to the Knox Box website:

Make House Numbers Visible

When responding to a call, it is important for your house street number to be easily visible from the street. The numbers should be at least 3" tall and be placed somewhere visible from the street.   -Above your door   -On or near your mailbox   -Painted on the street curb in front of your         house. For rural homeowners, this is easier because of the intallation of the orange and blue 911 signs at the bottom of the lane. If you are a new rural home owner and have not recieved a 911 sign with your street address, you can get one by contacting the Cedar County Sheriffs Office.

www.Knoxbox.com

Business Pre-Plans

Another way we can help business owners when a fire does break out is to have pre-exsisting knowledge of the building itself. In order to do this, we conduct Pre-Plans. Every month we choose a business to walk through and note important aspects of the building such as water and gas shutoffs, electrical boxes, hazardous chemical storage, etc. We make drawings of the floor plan and note firefighting tactics that can be used in certain situations which we keep on hand in our trucks. THIS IS NOT A FIRE CODE INSPECTION. This is simply for our information in case something happens and there is no one there that can give us the information needed. If interested, contact 2nd Asst. Chief Scott Kepford or Chief John Miller and set up a pre-plan for your business. *We conduct pre-plans every 3rd Tuesday of each month.