Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios
Welcome to Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios! Get ready to dive into a world where safety meets storytelling! Drawing from his rich background as a former firefighter, EMT and safety expert, Jimmy brings you straight into the heart of safety and emergency preparedness. Episodes feature easy-to-understand tips, real-life stories, and interviews with experts, all designed to help you protect yourself, your business, and those you care about.
Whether it's advice on navigating everyday safety challenges or insights into the latest in health and safety trends, let this podcast educate and entertain you. Join Jimmy and level-up your safety knowledge with engaging discussions that could one day save a life.
Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios
Surviving Halloween Without a Visit to the ER
Halloween’s supposed to be scary for the right reasons... adorable little ghosts, goblins, and that really cool house on the corner that goes all out with their decorations. But tripping over the cape on your costume or letting that candle or firepit get a littlee out of hand? That’s the wrong kind of scary.
In this episode, Jimmy and Megan swap horror stories and IRL safety tips for surviving Halloween night with your dignity (and your eyebrows!) intact. From the face paint vs. mask debate, to glow sticks and flashlights, they dig into the small choices that make a big difference once the sun goes down and the spooks come out.
And then there’s the story... Jimmy’s legendary “chainsaw birthday incident.” You’ll have to download and listen in to hear that one.
This episode is a smart, funny, and slightly spooky reminder that even on the most chaotic nights of the year the best Halloween memories don’t have to come with minor injuries or a visit to the ER.
Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.
What's happening is another Life and Safety podcast with Jimmy and your girl, megs.
Megan :Hello.
Jimmy:We're going to be doing a Halloween October safety one and yeah. So I guess we'll just kind of jump into some. Uh, we'll do some safety tips first and then kind of jump into some. Uh, we'll do some safety tips first and then we'll I'm sure we'll try to dribble a couple of good uh, halloween stories in there for you, oh for sure for sure, all right, all right, um.
Jimmy:So one of the big things that um has changed a lot over the years, especially because I'm quite a bit older than Meg, it's costumes. Now, when I was growing up, we used to get these boxed costumes and these really creepy masks and these plastic overlay things that would catch on fire and then you put these masks on and you couldn't see through them and stuff like that. And masks are still obviously around. You know you get the street mask and you know what have you out there and that's rad. But remember, when you are going out trick-or-treating, you're taking your little people trick-or-treating. If they have a mask on, it's harder for them to see depths, darkness and you know, crossing the street, the peripherals are bad, so maybe a good one would be the when you're crossing streets, take those masks off yeah, yeah, it's definitely a good one yeah, or now the more as well.
Jimmy:With the generational thing, I know a lot of megan's age group and some of the younger kids don't do a lot of masks. They do a lot of face painting. Now, right.
Megan :Mm-hmm.
Jimmy:Yeah, yeah, so face painting is a great alternative. I saw like last year they had a stencil, so I'm thinking they're going to have stencils this year for face painting now.
Megan :Yeah.
Jimmy:So that's kind of cool.
Megan :Definitely makes it easier and more accessible, I think, for, like, non, like you know fancy makeup artists to do face paint yeah, I can't even draw straight a line, so that would help me.
Jimmy:I don't know, I'd probably have to tape the pattern, though one of the kids was foreheads and chins and stuff that still probably mess that up, um, but so that's a big one. You know there are face paint options.
Megan :We can and and then one thing I will say with that, though, is be careful, and I recommend doing a patch test of the makeup. Um, just because, well, a for allergies, but b because some of them stain like really bad, and I've seen some quite unfortunate patterns left on people's faces from makeup that's stained oh, that's a good one.
Jimmy:That's a good one. I thought you were gonna say skin clothes and oh, that too, yeah, but no, like like.
Megan :Their face was just like purple. Their whole face was purple.
Jimmy:Purple's so much better than other colors, though, yeah.
Megan :After, like Minions, the people look like very yellow and you know it's problematic, it's problematic.
Jimmy:Yeah, yeah, I keep thinking of the Smurf characters and that old Sandler, lillian grown-up family. It's pretty awesome. I was actually going to say the Alan D thing too, that, and last year I saw a kid who thought they would be cool with latex over their nose and most of their mouth.
Megan :Oh no.
Jimmy:And I was like it's probably pretty hard to breathe in there, huh. And they're like, yeah, we actually had to cut a hole in our mouth so we could breathe. Um, yeah, you gotta think through these things, friend. Come on, team, we gotta think through this a little better, yeah, uh now, I think last year we talked about people with um. I think last year we talked about people with candles. I couldn't get that word out of my face Candles and I actually saw somebody walking around with a candle last year Interesting, yeah, it was part of their costume. I could not tell you what the costume was. It saved my life right now. Now the thing is, you know, it's great, really cool. How do you drop that? Or you burn yourself or something on fire?
Megan :Yeah, or like a drippy or not drippy but droopy Halloween decoration, like accidentally you graze it with the flame.
Jimmy:Yeah, absolutely so. I mean candles and jitters. Just be careful where you place them and around decorations, and you know a lot of the fall foliage kind of a thing you don't be careful with that. Yeah.
Megan :You know, like jack-o'-lanterns are a big source of fires because people put like real candles in them. Um, so the the nfpa uh national fire prevention protection I was really confident in that it's right there, okay, in my defense. I was looking here, I hadn't scrolled that far yet. Um and and it's not a great I could have scrolled ever so slightly further, faster, and it would have worked out a lot better for me. Anyways, they recommend using like glow sticks or electric candles.
Jimmy:Uh, just because you know, if you leave their jack-o'-lantern with a real candle unattended, it can become very bad, very quickly yeah, yeah, it would actually probably be pretty cool with a really cool like thing on the carving and having a glow stick in there that actually might look pretty neat. Yeah, like green or something like that, like a blue little stick or something fancy that'd be kind of cool. We changed our um on the front porch the light out, so when we turned the front porch on it was a different color.
Megan :So that helped make our things look a little differently. Very fancy yeah.
Jimmy:But I put little tiny what do they call it? Tea cup handles, tea light, tea light handles yeah, literally small ones. They're jack-o'-lanterns and we always carve from the top down. We kind of traditionally carve it, whereas a lot of people carve from the bottom towards the top. Now on the jack-o'-lantern to clean it, which I think is actually a little easier to clean the seeds and stuff like that out. But I like the top part because when you put that candle in there, if it falls over, it's not exposed, it's just inside the pumpkin. The pumpkin's not going to really burn.
Megan :Yeah.
Jimmy:Versus. If it's on the bottom and you knock it over, you might have the part where the light is actually on, the candle is actually on and that might fall into something else. Not a fire. Not a fire. Fair enough, I guess.
Megan :If you got somebody, it could probably burn too yeah, yeah, another big thing decoration wise is like dried flowers, corn stalks and crepe paper. Um catch fire super, super easily and those are, I know are big. Um like halloween decoration style things, like especially fall decorations. Um, so that's, that's another tip from the the nfpa yeah, yeah, I was talking about costumes too.
Jimmy:You know, be wary of um like big capes. Not only are, could they be, I mean they're gonna be cool looking, but be careful when you kind of spin them around. They might catch on fire. You might trip somebody or you might trip on yourself.
Megan :I've done that. I've tripped on my own costume many a time.
Jimmy:I'm not surprised by that.
Megan :Neither am I.
Jimmy:No.
Megan :I think it would be more surprising if I didn't trip.
Jimmy:Fair? No, I think it would be more surprising if I didn't trip Fair Fair.
Megan :And if you know that about yourself, if you know you're a clumsy person, keep that in mind.
Jimmy:Yeah.
Megan :All of my Halloween costumes always include, like sneakers or, like you know, no heels in my costumes, because I know I will die.
Jimmy:No heels in my costumes either, because I have weak ankles. Ah apparently, yeah, I do. I have lots of sprained ankles, so um, and they don't usually come as wide as my foot is, so, yeah, Fair enough.
Jimmy:Now, with that being said, another thing about thing about costumes. You know, if you are in those really cool big drape, you know, uh, capes I almost said drapes, you know kind of a thing or you're draped a lot of costuming on you, like mummies, like mummies would be a good one. I was thinking like dracula with the big cape, you know, um, you gotta kind of be cautious, like when you're crossing the street. You know again, but just being outside in the dark, you're just walking, you know people, it's hard for people to see you. Yeah, I guess it was 2021, maybe 2019. One of the last times, so probably 2019, like five, six years ago.
Jimmy:Yeah, james was only 13, then we'd last, probably last time I actually went with him, uh, trick-or-treating. He and his two buddies that he went trick-or-treating with were in those inflatable costumes and it's not great vision. I think that's actually probably why we went, because they're crossing streets and stuff like that and fairly busy streets. So me and another guy went, we were walking around and, um, james's friend was one of those big t-reex suits and just plowed like three little kids that were like just in super dark costumes. They just blended in, they were very hard to see, until the dad turned on his flashlight and, like, blinded everybody.
Jimmy:Which brings me to my next point. If you have a flashlight, I think what you should have, it's awesome. Leave it on, point it at the ground. Don't walk up to people and point in their face and go hey, how are you? Yeah, um, it ruins everybody's night vision. It blinds the person. You know they're not going to walk down the stairs or up the porch or anywhere you do that, so you really mess them up yeah, and I would consider like getting a flashlight.
Megan :that's not one of those like super, super bright ones, the like you know, super high lumen count or whatever. Is that a thing with flashlights? Okay, but like, not one that's like super, super bright, you know.
Jimmy:Just because, um, bright enough that it helps, you see, but not so bright that if you accidentally do shine it in someone's eye, they're gonna like die. Yeah, yeah, years and years ago we were with the kids trick-or-treating and a pretty popular neighborhood for trick-or-treating and this car was driving down the street and it was definitely teenager kids just messing with the trick-or-treaters and you know, just being kids, yeah, and one of the dads had one of those one billion candle lumen thing, whatever it was, and shined it in their face and they almost wrecked because they couldn't see it ruined their vision yeah yeah.
Jimmy:So I mean, just be careful with all that kind of stuff. You know things you don't think about. Um, yeah, we were talking about, you know, vampires and mummies and stuff like that, and it came up to a. Uh, one of my favorite movies, the silliest movie in the world monster squad came up. So I just don't know why. I wanted to share that with you. I appreciate that. That's like the best in my mind, one of the best movie scenes in the world.
Jimmy:And fans of the podcast, leave a. Um, if you're on apple, leave a. I guess on apple you can't leave a comment, but on Spotify and other things, if you're listening to us, shoot us an email. Email at lifesafetycom. If you know the kick Wolfman in the nard, two of the characters say you know, one of the main characters tells the other character, kick Wolfman in the nard. Like he says it doesn't have nards and he goes just do, do it. And he does it. And you know they say wolfman has nards. It's hilarious. But in that movie, as far as like the safety stuff goes, they walk into a, an abandoned house which is seems fun and and scary houses and things like that. And when you're in an abandoned house. There's no way it's abandoned, there's things that could fall on you and hurt you and things like that and come to find out that that's kind of a big thing right now in kids I don't know if it's necessarily your generation or maybe it's just like my kids' generation it's finding abandoned things and hiking through them and exploring them.
Megan :Yeah.
Jimmy:Have you heard of this?
Megan :I've heard of it. Yeah, I haven't done it, but I've definitely heard of it. Yeah, done it, but I've definitely heard of it.
Jimmy:Yeah, like seen videos of like people like you know, going through abandoned houses or searching and like finding an abandoned mall and going through it yeah, I mean, to me it makes sense on halloween to do something like that, to do that. Please don't do that, especially if it's fenced off and things like that affect that for a reason. Yeah, if you get hurt, it's gonna be hard to find you in there, probably. Um, even if you do call on your cell phone I know a lot of people are over there. I have a cell phone, well cool, do you know the address of the place you just jumped the fence into? You know?
Megan :yeah, the call 911 exactly, and even if you're not like actively injured while you're in there, you don't know if it was like condemned because like asbestos or something, or some other, like you know, dangerous thing, toxic thing you might inhale while you're in there.
Jimmy:Yeah, absolutely, you know. I mean, you walk in and you step on a nail or something like that, you roll your ankle and you can't walk out or you're hurt. And you know there's lots of things that can happen.
Megan :Yeah, just be real careful on that. You found something else. Oh no, I was just. I want to move on to stories. I'm sure you have some great Halloween stories. Mine is less of a story, more of a cautionary tale.
Megan :I worked in a haunted house at my middle school for all the years I was in middle school and then I also came back when I was in high school and did it and it was so much fun. It was one of, like, my favorite Halloween experiences. My favorite was like watching like the you know super big jocks like come through and just scaring the living daylights out of them and hearing them go yeah, I'm not scared of anything. And then I would like pop out through a wall and they go like the highest pitch scream you've ever heard and like they jump like just like nobody's business. And it was my favorite part and because I always had like a mask on or something so they could never tell it was me after. But then I'd like see them in the halls the next day and be like hi, I scared you.
Megan :But part of that is that if you do go through haunted houses, please don't touch the scare actors or do anything towards them. I know some of it is just, like, you know, automatic reflex, like I did almost get decked in the face quite a few times just because they really, you know, got scared and their automatic response was to punch. Um, but, uh, you know, past that, try not to touch them because they're, you know, doing their job or having fun or volunteering or whatever. Um and uh, it's not fun to be on the receiving end of unwanted touches just because they're you know they're scared yeah or whatever it is, or like I also the if they, it was like an automatic fear response.
Megan :I didn't really hold it against them, but there are people that were like trying to be cool for their friends and be like, well, I'm not scared of you, see, I'll come after you. And they would like try to chase me back, or like try to grab me and be like see, you're not so scary now. And I was like what? No, you don't touch me, what is wrong with you? It's like that's the part that I have issues with yeah, I don't have a lot of like response stories.
Jimmy:I like talking about um, halloween, halloween, but I'll tell a Halloween birthday story that I to this day it always gets me. I was at a birthday party and we were actually watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre birthday party and I think I was like definitely younger to younger drive. So I don't know young team, maybe even a preteen, I don't remember, but we're at my buddy's house and we're watching the movie and his step dad and his step dad's best friend walk outside and they had been. They'd set up this trip pretty good. They'd set up their motorcycles outside like they were working on them. So we've been hearing like the engine running, if you will, the whole time. And then the movie started.
Jimmy:So like it goes hard for us as the kids to tell if it was the chainsaw or like the motorbike going, yeah, so we just didn't think anything of it and at one point the stepdad kicked the door open and he came in the room with a chainsaw oh my gosh, and there was about 10 boys like watching himself, like a couple of the guys actually like just sat there and squeezed their hamburgers they're eating at dinner. Just like one guy actually wet himself. Like four of us like actually jumped out the window like to run away. So like the first guy out like ruined the bleeds, like screams, police, like screen. But like the mom was laughing so hard I think she actually wet herself a little bit like I didn't like the dad and like the friend, we were just doubled over and they the guy, that first guy jumped out of the window but he was running through the forest Remember, I grew up in Tahoe, so we're in the forest.
Jimmy:So like they had to chase after him and find him out in the forest, hiding and stuff like that. It was so out of hand. Oh no, yeah, outside of like definitely one of the top 10 that have never been scared. It was pretty good. It was pretty good. Alright, thanks for joining us for another life and safety podcast. Peace.
