FIREMAN: LIFE WITHOUT ALARMS SPELLS DEATH

As a youngster growing up in Lilbourn, Sam Adams never dreamed of becoming a firefighter.

"In the neighborhood where I grew up, if a building caught fire it burned to the ground," he said. "There just weren't any fire stations close enough to get there in time.

"The adults made sure everyone was out of the house, and we stood back and watched it burn," he said. "That's all you could do."

But when Adams was hired as a Cape Girardeau firefighter on Nov. 2, 1977, he already had saved one man's life in a fire.

Adams recalls living in an apartment building on North Lorimier Street when he awakened early one morning to discover his neighbor's apartment on fire. The neighbor had fallen asleep with a lit cigarette, which ignited his bed.

"I just did the first thing that came to mind," Adams said. "I busted down the door, crawled over to his bed -- which was almost entirely engulfed by flames -- and dragged the guy out."

A couple weeks before the fire at his apartment complex, Adams had applied for an opening for a city firefighter.

But he wasn't exactly holding his breath waiting to be hired.

His actions during the fire so impressed Fire Chief Charles Mills, that the chief called Adams personally, asking him if he still was interested in joining the fire department. The rest is history.

Firefighters all over the country are celebrating their history this week during national Fire Prevention Week -- a time when attention is focused on the prevention, rather than the fighting of fires.

"I'll tell you what Fire Prevention Week means to a firefighter," Adams said. "Fire Prevention Week is just a review of what the fire department is about all year long.

"It's a week we set aside where the fire department comes together with the community to make sure they're following what we told them all along," he said.

Adams said he feels Cape Girardeau is a very safety-oriented and safety-conscious city. He estimates that 85 percent of the homes in Cape Girardeau are equipped with smoke detectors, and about 90 percent of those are properly maintained.

"A few people will take the batteries out of their smoke detectors when it starts making that chirping sound," Adams said. "But when it does that, it's trying to tell you it needs a new battery.

"I firmly believe everyone's life is worth the $3 or $4 and the effort it takes to replace the battery in a smoke detector," he said.

Smoke detectors are vitally important to fire safety, because in most house fires it isn't the flames that kill.

"Unless a person is directly caught on fire, they're already gone by the time the fire gets to them," Adams said.

"When burned, a lot of the materials in the home produce a very toxic black smoke," he said. "When you breathe that smoke, you feel like you're caught in a `Ziplock' bag, unable to get any fresh air in your lungs."

Adams remembers a fire early in the fall of 1991 when three young girls died in a home in the 700 block of Spanish Street. There was no smoke detector in the home.

"That was devastating," he said. "One of the girls who was killed was just spending the night she lived down the street.

"Death is a tragedy in itself, but this was almost a double-tragedy, because they were so young. They didn't get to live their lives," Adams added. "I've worked several fires which have caused deaths, but that one was really sad; very, very sad."

To try and prevent such a scenario, firefighters take great pains to talk to kids, telling them proper procedures to follow when their homes are on fire.

When Adams talks to schoolchildren about fire prevention and fire safety, he goes in full turn-out gear.

"I tell the kids to come up and touch me; to see that I'm a real person," Adams said. "Then I tell them that if they ever see someone in their house dressed like this, to do what he says and not to be afraid."

Fires can be very intimidating and seem uncontrollable at times. Even firefighters become frightened, Adams said.

"Like the chief said the other day, you have to be a little scared otherwise you're too dumb to know what you're doing," Adams said. "But people should do as we do in a fire situation: maintain your composure and use good common sense no matter how scared you might be."

Adams said he loves his work, choosing a profession in which he can truly help people.

"This job doesn't allow me to be selfish I'm thinking about others all the time," he said. "Helping others is gratification in itself."

What is the one thing Adams would tell people who are victims of structure fires?

"My advice to people whose homes are on fire is to get out and stay out," he said. "Anything that's not living inside your home can be replaced; a loved one cannot."