Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts Part 34

2. Send for the doctor.

3. Lay the patient flat on his back.

4. Loosen the clothing, and perform artificial respiration according to the Schaefer method if necessary.

5. Give first aid treatment to the burns.

FIRE ACCIDENTS

The first thought about a fire is to get it put out before it spreads any further. There are methods which will do this work effectually and Girl Scouts should learn these methods beforehand thoroughly, in order that when the emergency arises they may act quickly, coolly and effectively.

FIRE IN CLOTHING

If this happens in your own clothing, do not run for help, as the draft made by the motion of your body will only fan the flames to burn fiercely.

Grab the nearest thing that will cover you; overcoat, blanket, rug, wrap it tightly around you at the neck first to prevent flames from burning the face and lie down and roll over and over. This will smother the flames quickly. If you can get nothing to wrap around you, lie down and roll slowly over and beat the fire with your hands covered by some part of your clothing not on fire.

If the fire is in the clothing of another, wrap him in the nearest thing available, lay him on the floor and roll him over, smothering the flames as described before.

Woolen material will not catch fire as easily as cotton, therefore, if you have a chance to choose, take woolen material for smothering the flames.

RESULTS

Results of fire in the clothing are sure to be more or less serious burns.

When you have discovered the extent of the burn, if it is at all serious, send for the doctor at once, and in the meantime treat the burn as you have already learned to do in minor burns.

FIRE IN BUILDINGS

Keep cool, in order to remember what to do, and do it quickly.

Turn in a fire alarm at once. Send some one else if possible who may not know what to do to the fire. The quickest way is by telephone call, "Fire Department," and tell them the exact address of the building where the fire is. Or you may go to the nearest alarm box, smash the gla.s.s, open the door, and pull down the hook that sounds the alarm.

(Generally the directions are printed on the box.) If you cannot sound the alarm alone, call upon the nearest person to help you. _Wait there until the firemen arrive and direct them to the fire._ When the firemen come do just as they tell you, for they know exactly what to do.

People trying to escape from a burning building often get frightened and then there is a panic. Panic kills more people than fire. Keep cool, and others will follow your example.

Never jump from a window unless the flames are so close that it is your only means of escape. If outside a burning building put mattresses and bedding piled high to break the jumper's fall and get a strong hold on a rug to catch the jumper, and let many people hold the rug.

If the fire is just beginning, it can easily be put out by smothering it with a rug or blanket; sand, ashes, salt, or a few pails of water will answer the same purpose.

Keep the doors and windows closed if possible to prevent draughts from fanning the flames to fiercer effort.

Remember this point when you go into a burning building, and leave some responsible person guarding the door, in order that it may not be left open by some one in excitement and the flames fanned beyond control.

If you need fresh air in your search for people in a burning building, open a window, put out your head and draw your lungs full of fresh air and then close the window again. In any case it is best to tie a wet handkerchief or towel over the nose and mouth while in a burning building, as this will prevent you from breathing a good deal of smoke.

In searching for persons remember always to begin at the top of the building if possible, and search every room. When on stairs keep to wall side, where air is relatively free from flames and smoke. If a room is locked, try to rouse the people by pounding and calling and then break in the door if unsuccessful in rousing them, and you suspect there is some one there.

Remember, the air within six inches from the floor is usually free from smoke, and if the smoke makes breathing too difficult, you can still accomplish your end by crawling along the floor and dragging the rescued one with you as you learned to do in gas rescue.

Form a bucket brigade from the fire to the nearest water supply; pa.s.sing the filled pails from one to another rapidly, the last throwing the water on the fire and pa.s.sing the empty pails back along _another_ line to be filled again and pa.s.sed on as before.

FIRES FROM KEROSENE, GASOLINE, BENZINE

_Prevention._--1. Do not light a fire with kerosene.

2. Do not clean gloves or clothing with gasoline or benzine in a room with a lamp or gas jet lighted.

3. Do not try to dry clothing that has been cleaned with gasoline or benzine near a hot stove or lighted gas jet.

_Extinction._--Do not use water to put out a fire of kerosene, benzine, or gasoline, as that only scatters the flames. Smother with blankets, rugs, sand, ashes, salt, or anything which is at hand and can be used; remember that woolen will not catch fire as easily as cotton.

COMMON POISON AND ANTIDOTES

_Poisoning_--Cases of poisoning happen most often because people do not examine the bottles before taking medicines from them.

_Prevention_--Disinfectants, liniments and medicines in bottles and boxes should be correctly and plainly labelled.

Bottles containing a poisonous substance should be rough outside, or with notched corks or marked with something beside the label stating that their contents are poison.

_Treatment_--1. _Send for the doctor at once_, telling him what kind of poison you think the patient has taken in order that he may bring the right antidote and the right implements to give the quickest and most effective relief.

2. Give demulcent or mucilaginous drinks, as for example, milk, raw egg, one or two tablespoonfuls of salad oil, sweet oil, or barley water--which can be obtained most readily.

3. Give something to produce vomiting, provided the lips are not burned or stained as they are with an acid or alkali. A simple but effectual emetic can be made by mixing two teaspoonfuls of salt or a tablespoon of mustard in a gla.s.s of lukewarm water. This may be repeated if necessary.

4. If the patient seems drowsy, suspect opium and keep patient awake at all costs till the doctor arrives.

5. If delirium threatens, dash cold water on the patient's head and face to try to prevent the fit from coming on.

6. When the poison taken has been acid, the antidote should be an alkali, but different poisons require different antidotes, and it would be unwise to trust to one's memory as to the proper one to take in each case. It would be well to have a list of the more common poisons and their antidotes attached to the First Aid Kit, but do not trust to the memory. If a Girl Scout does not know, and if the patient's lips are _not_ stained or burned, give an emetic.

Bandages

Bandages form the most convenient way of keeping dressings on wounds and for making pressure when necessary. They are also used to correct some deformities, but you will not need to concern yourselves with the latter, as this is in the province of doctors.

There are three varieties of bandages which you will need to use and with which you should be familiar: the roller, triangular and four-tailed. The materials used for bandages are absorbent gauze, muslins or flannels. The kind you will use most will be gauze and muslin. The gauze is best to use in dressing wounds because it is pliable and absorbent, and muslin, if you may choose, in applying pressure, because it is firm. In an emergency there will usually be little chance to choose. Anything at hand, as underclothing, sheets, blankets, etc., may be torn into strips or triangles and used. Have the material which is used clean if possible.

The width of the roller bandage depends on the part of the body to be bandaged, from one inch for the little finger to four inches for the body. They can be rolled very well by hand with a little practice, and every Girl Scout should learn to do this or to improvise a bandage roller by running a very stiff wire through a small wooden box and then bending one end on the outside of the box like a handle.

A bandage must be rolled sufficiently tight so that the center will not fall out. By folding one end back and forth a few times to make a core, and then laying the bandaging over one's knees lengthwise of the thigh with the core uppermost, it can be rolled quite tightly and answer every purpose for emergencies.