IN K [ [ ] L I N G S
Crown Point High School Crown Point, IN @InklingsCPHS December 21, 2018 Vol. 83 Issue 4
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See how students and staff adjust to dark mornings page 7
“2018: Year in Review” pages 8-9
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Read about girls basketball undefeated start page 13
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BEHIND THE BLAZE
Precautions with flammable items can decrease hazardous fires BY TABITHA BEISHUIZEN JESSI ALCORTA-ROBLES editor-at-large associate editor
Imagine waking up startled in the middle of the nights to the sounds of fire alarms and smoke coming out of the window. Running outside only to see the ruins of what used to be. The whole entire house being engulfed in flames. This is all too common of a memory for many people who have suffered from a house fire. With there being 100 house fires in Crown Point over the last year, there are more and more precautions that need to be taken in order to keep house fires occurrences as minimal as possible. Senior Ashley Rekitzke knows this experience all too well. “Well it was December 2, 2009, I was in third grade. It was really early in the morning and I remember waking up to sirens. I was at my grandparents house because my mom was working overnight shifts at Walmart and my dad was deployed in Iraq,” Rekitzke said. “I remember looking out the window and seeing my house on fire with fire trucks and police officers down my street.” For many people their first instinct after realizing their house is on fire is to think about everything they are losing. With pets often times being trapped inside, they
are unlikely to survive the flames and smoke. “Intentionally, my first thought was where’s my dog and cats, then it shifted to what about my belongings. The cause of the fire was an iron, they think my cat knocked it down and it burned through the floor. We lost everything but the one thing that was saved was the pictures. My grandpa had went
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PHOTO BY JESSI ALCORTA-ROBLES A dumpster fire broke out in the alley of the Kiemle Hankins building and the Crown Point Fire Deparment was called to put it out.
Don’t be careless with smoking, the use of candles and while cooking. Outdoor campfires should be put out completely when done and attended all the time while burning. Never use gasoline on a camp fire. Fire Chief Todd Wilkening
through every photo and wiped the water off them in order to save them,” Rekitzke said. Just like Rekitzke, there have been hundreds of other people in the local area that have had house fires that ranged in damage from as little as a kitchen fire to as much as a whole house in ruins. According to Fire Chief Todd Wilkening, the Cedar Lake fire department gets approximately 20 calls each year pertaining to house fires each year. The amount of calls that the Cedar Lake fire de-
partment are much lower than the Crown Point records. “We probably run about 100 reported calls [of house fires] per year. They are not too common, unless there is an outside force that cause them,” Fire Chief Dave Crane said. “Generally, there is some other force that causes a house to set on fire. We probably have about 10 serious house fires a year.” As the holiday season gets closer and closer, there are more precautions in place to protect against a house
fire happening. Between the lights, fireplace, and holiday baking, there are many areas in a house that can easily become inflamed. “Most house fires are caused by a few different things. It’s either electrical, like heating sources, or cooking,” Chief Crane said. One of the common types of holiday fires are caused from Christmas lights. With there being lights both on the outside and the inside of people’s houses, there is usually some sort of holiday light plugged in. When it comes to the lights on a Christmas tree, they can easily cause the tree to catch on fire, especially as the season goes on and the pines start to dry out. “[Fires are escalated during the holiday season] because people use a lot more decorations and they get complacent with simple things that happen with the lights such as frayed cords or bad see fire safety on page 3
THE DESTRUCTION
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY ASHLEY REKITZKE In 2009, the Rekitzke family suffered through a house fire.