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^ Posted 1
day ago
A
fatal fire last week in Warren County prompts action to make residents aware of
hoarding's dangers
By Joe Beck
Warren County fire officials are
planning an education initiative about the risks of hoarding in the aftermath
of a fire in which a 72-year-old woman died as firefighters struggled to locate
her amid a vast amount of stored items in her large home.
Firefighters
arrived at the home of Pauline A. Hockett, 72, of 220 Locust Dale Road, Front
Royal, at about midnight Thursday and found their efforts to rescue
her slowed by a considerable amount of clutter, some of it reaching as high as
6 feet.
"Throughout the first floor of
the home, these guys were actually walking or climbing over material in the
home trying to locate the victim without knowing a definite area where the
victim was at the time of the 911 call," Fire Marshal Gerry Maiatico said.
Maiatico estimated it took about 25
minutes to find Hockett in the basement where she had died from smoke
inhalation and thermal inhalation.
He said it was impossible to know
whether she could have been saved had the fire crew reached her sooner, but
there was no doubt that "conditions in the home greatly hampered rescue
efforts."
"They were tripping and falling
over these items, they were running into roadblocks every couple of feet,"
Maiatico said of fire crew members.
Hockett's death was the first by fire
in Warren County in five years. Fire Chief Richard E. Mabie has ordered his
department to begin contacting several agencies in the county that would work
with the Fire and Rescue Services on educating people about fire risks
associated with hoarding.
Maiatico said Mabie is committed
"to preventing the loss of life in the community and making sure this type
of thing doesn't happen again."
Hoarding's dangers extend to emergency
calls for medical attention when every second counts for paramedics trying to
save a patient's life, Maiatico said.
"They cannot get in, and they
have to remove the patient from the environment before they can start the
treatment process," Maiatico said, adding that hoarding can also imperil
first responders.
"We don't want to commit people
to areas where we don't know what conditions they will find," he said.
Hockett's sons, Glenn, 40, and Jeff,
46, will be joining the education effort.
"I told them I'd be happy to be
of assistance in any way we could," Jeff Hockett said of Fire and Rescue
Services. He added that the family is asking that people donate money to the
department's smoke detector program in lieu of flowers.
Maiatico said the smoke detectors
functioned properly during the fire at the Hockett home. He elaborated on the
source of the fire, which began with improper disposal of smoking material.
"Basically, this fire stemmed
from cigarettes being placed in a trash receptacle, dumping ash trays into a
trash can" he said. "The Department of Fire and Rescue Services wants
to remind everybody to fill ash trays with water, then dump them into a
receptacle to make sure all smoking embers and cigarettes themselves are
extinguished."
Maiatico said all cigarettes are
required to be fire safe, which means they carry an additive that allows them
to extinguish themselves if no one draws air through them.
"Even though that is a safety
measure, it's not 100 percent," Maiatico said. "So we still say
before you discard a cigarette, soak it with water."
Maiatico said the department's
response to hoarding problems will focus on education and obtaining mental
health support when hoarders are posing risks to themselves and others. No new
enforcement actions or laws are planned, he said.
"We want to be respectful and
focus on safety issues, not judge people on how they live and why they do the
things they do," Maiatico said.
He said he was especially pleased that
the Hockett family is prepared to participate in the education campaign.
"The family is taking the position
that if the story of Pauline can save someone else's life, then potentially
some good can come out of something like this," Maiatico said.
Contact staff writer Joe Beck
at 540-465-5137 ext. 142, or jbeck@nvdaily.com
----------------------
Mental health professionals
treating hoarding as mental disorder
^ Posted 1
day ago
By Joe Beck
Mental health professionals are
about to formally recognize hoarding as a distinct mental disorder in the
latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to
be published this spring.
Jeff Szymanski, a clinical
psychologist and executive director of the International Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder Foundation, said Tuesday the impending change is based on years of
research and the experiences of therapists who have been treating patients for
the affliction. The DSM, published by the American Psychiatric Association, is
widely considered the most authoritative book for understanding mental
disorders and potential treatments.
Szymanski estimated five to
seven million people in the United States are hoarders, and more of them are
coming to the attention of the rest of the public.
"Fire marshals are a great
example because people who hoard in many instances hoard until their homes
become fire hazards," Szymanski said.
Neighbors complain to
authorities and landlords try to evict hoarders because they see a safety
hazard to their property, Szymanski said. Complaints and pressure from
outsiders are often the only way to persuade hoarders to get help, he added.
"Those who hoard typically
don't seek treatment on their own," Szymanski said.
People should not confuse
hoarders with pack rats and collectors whose tendency toward untidiness is a
more manageable and less troubling personal trait, Szymanski said.
"Collectors have a lot of
stuff, but collectors have their stuff organized," he said, adding,
"pack rats may have cluttered households, but they use their possessions
the way they were intended."
A pack rat may have a cluttered
kitchen counter, but it's still recognizable as a counter and used for that
purpose. But a hoarder may end up sleeping on a couch because the bed is
already occupied by too many objects, Szymanski said.
"It's just the amount of
clutter they have," he said. "It's impairing their functioning. It's
interfering with their ability to use space around their home like they would
like to do."
Szymanski
said researchers and hoarding therapists are spearheading about 75 task forces
around the country aimed at educating the public about hoarding. The task
forces and more information about hoarding are listed at the web site Helpforhoarding.org.
Contact staff writer Joe Beck
at 540-465-5137 ext. 142, or jbeck@nvdaily.com
So sad. Those firefighters took a huge risk trying to find her.
ReplyDeleteYes they did Karin. I have the utmost respect for those who put themselves in harm's way to help others.
ReplyDeleteThis honestly, is my largest fear for my mother, and for anyone that would try to rescue her.