The weekend disaster on the 200 block of South Main Street can be used as a wake-up call for all of us, whether it be at home or in the workplace.

A quick review of your individual safety precautions should start with insurance. Are you and your business sufficiently insured in case of a fire? Even if you are practicing all the best safety precautions, maybe your neighbor is not.

Most printers, including newspaper publishers, think they are low risk and unlikely to have a fire. In the past 40 years in the industry, we know of five printers that lost everything. It can happen to anyone.

Space heaters have become normal in homes and the workplace. Do you allow them? Are they all unplugged every night when people go home?

A local homeowner lost a shed last week that he believes was due to a litter of puppies knocking over a heater meant to keep them warm. The dogs were fortunate to survive.

Have you done a walk-through this winter, looking for risks that have popped up due to items being brought in out of the cold, such as gas cans, kerosene, aerosol cans, oily rags and such?

Have you become lax on enforcing smoking regulations? Fires are often caused by a discarded cigarette or cigar being haphazardly tossed aside without being fully extinguished.

Have you checked your smoke alarms? Are the batteries good? What about your fire extinguishers? They should also have regularly-scheduled inspections.

What about the condition of your sidewalks? Are they snow-free within 24 hours of a snowfall?

We all want to believe we have minimal risk. Fires, like other disasters, only happen to other people. We thought pandemics only spread in third-world countries — that is, until 2020.

It looks like Butler may lose as many as three beautiful old buildings due to Saturday’s fire.

We were fortunate to have not only no lives lost, but also no injuries, despite the risks our first responders had to face.

Fire, smoke, high-pressure water, ice, falling bricks and wood, and exhaustion were all potential problems.

Yes, it is a shame to lose businesses or history, but not as important as the safety of people.

So, take a walk around today. Check inside and outside for potential hazards. As they used to say on “Hill Street Blues”: “Let’s be careful out there.”

And please wear your mask.

— RV