October 1, 2025 • 7 mins
Fire can improve our lives, and ruin our lives. Knowing how to control it and avoid a home fire is the topic of this week's program.
Sam Mirizzi is a firefighter/medic with the Blue Ash, Ohio FD, named firefighter of the year in 2024, and head of the Open House on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025.
To promote Fire Prevention Week, the open house at 10647 Kenwood Rd is focusing on the newest home fire threat. Lithium ion batteries.
Sam explains why they catch fire, now to prevent it, and details the open house's many fun activities to get kids of all ages involved, educated and entertained. Perhaps even inspire the next generation of heroes.
Blue Ash open house
Sam Mirizzi is a firefighter/medic with the Blue Ash, Ohio FD, named firefighter of the year in 2024, and head of the Open House on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025.
To promote Fire Prevention Week, the open house at 10647 Kenwood Rd is focusing on the newest home fire threat. Lithium ion batteries.
Sam explains why they catch fire, now to prevent it, and details the open house's many fun activities to get kids of all ages involved, educated and entertained. Perhaps even inspire the next generation of heroes.
Blue Ash open house
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, we got just a few more minutes here
left on iHeart Cincy. I'm Sandy Collins, and we're going
to get to.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Blue Ash Now. EMT firefighter is Sam or Rizzi.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
He's here to talk about their new open house coming
up next week and about fire Prevention Week which they
are promoting, and those lithium ion batteries that are everywhere
and can be a real danger. Let's ask a few
questions here with Sam Rizzi. Sam, are you at the firehouse?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I am at work, Yes, very good. Well, if the
bell goes off, we'll see you later.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I got us covered for the next twenty minutes the
other station covering our call, so we should be good
for the duration of our interview here.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So well, that's good. I appreciate you taking the time.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I wanted to talk about the fire Prevention Week because
not only is important, but also you kind of focusing
on the lithium ion batteries and I have a lot
of questions about those and so how to keep our
folks safe. Plus part of the fire Benure Week, you
guys do your open house, so there's a lot of
fun things that are going to be available for just
(01:06):
about everybody in the family if you want to come
out and we'll tell you all about that open house
is coming up in October.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I see that you were Firefighter of the Year last year.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I was, yeah, it was an exciting accomplishment. You know,
I didn't know that was coming. We were I think
we were doing a flag disposal ceremony for some boy
Scout troops. Batian chief text me, he's like, hey, come
up to my office real quick. And you know, you
never want to get one of those tasks cause you're
like it could either be, you know, good or bad.
But you know, I went up there and my two
(01:38):
lieutenants and my battalion in there, and they told me
I was going to be a Firefighter of the Year.
So I was like, that's an awesome accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So it absolutely is. Lissie.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
You've been in the fire service for about eight years
at this point, eight and a half something like that.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, yeah, correct, So you're the official party planner.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I can't take all the credit for it, but I think, uh,
you know, I do a good job at you know,
divvy and tasks up to get to get what we
need done for the open house.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Though the topic your guy's going to really be focusing on,
is lithium ion batteries in your home. What are you
telling residents about lithium ion batteries in their home.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
It's been a hot topic with the scooters, the e bikes.
Just I think the issue is as people are leaving
them plugged in for too long, so those batteries get overheated.
And what happens is is those lithium ion batteries kind
of expand, and then if they expand and one of
them goes off, it's kind of what we call a
(02:36):
thermal runaway. So once one goes off, they all start
to go off, and it's kind of looks like a
big firework that goes off when they're all going off.
So it's kind of crazy to see, to be honest,
and you know, we're all we're talking about. You know,
if you see your phone or your any particular device
that uses a lithium ion battery, if it looks like
(02:57):
it's thicker, like if your phone, you know, how it's flat,
If it looks like it's bulging, you know, maybe remove
it from your house because that's indicative of you know,
the battery going bad. We're telling people to you know,
use proper chargers and not get any lithium my own batteries,
you know, off the third market. We had a particular
(03:21):
run here where somebody did that and they were trying
to build their own e scooter and it actually caught
on fire and luckily they were able to get it
out of their garage in time. But you know, it's
just stuff like that that we have to you know,
preach to you know, the community, you know about you know,
safe practices with the lithium I own batteries too. And
(03:41):
another thing too is is proper disposal of these batteries.
We actually accept you know, old or damaged lithium ion batteries.
So if anybody has damaged batteries or just old ones
around the house, they can feel free to bring them
up to you know, our station. But as you see,
like Runkies having a big issue where people are throwing
(04:02):
these away in the trash and you know they're catching
their you know, garbage trucks on fire or you know,
I think there was recently a fire at Runky.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
What is actually happening if they're not being charged at
that point, how would a lithium ion battery cause the
trash to catch fire.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
You know, you throw one away and say it gets
thrown into a trash truck, the compactation of it or
just you know, the damaging of the actual battery can
just set these things off. And like I said, if
one of them goes, then that whole thing goes. If
there's multi of them, so my goodness.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
So don't put your batteries in the in the trash
so you can take them to a Blue Ash or
if you're in a different community and you can't get there,
contact your own fire department and see if they have
any idea where you can drop that off and do
it safely if you just joined us. I'm speaking with
the firefighter and paramedic from Blue Ash, Sam and Rizzi,
and he is hosting an open house at the fire
(05:00):
department October seventh there on Kenwood Road.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
It's the North fire Station.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
What are the most common causes of fires in your community?
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Normally it's probably I would say the number one is
probably unattended food on the stove. We get a lot
of those, and then summertime, fall time, it's unattended grills
or you know, they leave them on their deck and
they get too hot and you know, the deck's on
fire or whatever. Luckily we haven't had a lot of
(05:31):
lithium I on fires.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So I would say, let's talk about the Blue Ash
Fire Department open house. When where, and tell us all
about the fun things you got planned.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah. Absolutely, So our open house will take place on Tuesday,
October seventh from five to seven thirty pm at the
North Fire station, which is Station thirteen and in Blue
Ash it's one zero six four seven Kenwood Road. Open
to all ages. We have, you know, a ton of
fun activities planned. The kids can come and look at
(06:03):
the trucks, do a station tour. It can spray a
fire hose until like a little you know, miniature prop
we have built with like little fire in the window
so they can hit it and they'll knock down. We
also have a sparky he'll be walking around so they
can get pictures with that. I believe there's an obstacle course.
And then just throughout the night we also offer free
(06:28):
food and beverages while it lasts. And then to wrap
up the night, we always do a fire prevention talk
along with We build a big, little big burn prop
in the back, so we usually kind of mock that
up to whatever the Fire Prevention Week theme is, and
you know, we'll do a little fire demonstration and show
show off the firefighting gear and have a couple of
(06:51):
them spray water on the fire to kind of, you know,
show the community how we how we operate. So it's
a fun night. It doesn't have to be the Blue
Ash community. I mean, it's open to anybody, so we're
always happy to see everybody there, so it's always a
good time.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Sam Marizzi, thank you so much for being here. We'll
see you on October seventh at the open house.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
My pleasure. Thank you, have a good day.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Our time's up here for iHeart Cincia thanks to my
guests from the Cincinnati Cancer Foundation and the Blue Ash
Fire Department. Coming up next week, i'll air the complete
interview we had with Sam Rizzi while we talk more
about fire safety, where to get a free smoke detector,
and more for National Fire Prevention Week. Also, we're looking
for vocations to talk about. If you've got an interesting
(07:32):
job or career field, shoot me an email, tell me
about it.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
You might be on the show.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
In the subject line, write vocations and send that to
Iheartsincy at.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
iHeartMedia Dot com.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
You can listen to this show on the iHeartRadio app
under podcast, just search for mining Sandy Collins.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week. iHeart Cincy
is a production of iHeartMedia Cincinnati,
All right, we got just a few more minutes here
left on iHeart Cincy. I'm Sandy Collins, and we're going
to get to.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Blue Ash Now. EMT firefighter is Sam or Rizzi.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
He's here to talk about their new open house coming
up next week and about fire Prevention Week which they
are promoting, and those lithium ion batteries that are everywhere
and can be a real danger. Let's ask a few
questions here with Sam Rizzi. Sam, are you at the firehouse?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I am at work, Yes, very good. Well, if the
bell goes off, we'll see you later.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I got us covered for the next twenty minutes the
other station covering our call, so we should be good
for the duration of our interview here.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So well, that's good. I appreciate you taking the time.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I wanted to talk about the fire Prevention Week because
not only is important, but also you kind of focusing
on the lithium ion batteries and I have a lot
of questions about those and so how to keep our
folks safe. Plus part of the fire Benure Week, you
guys do your open house, so there's a lot of
fun things that are going to be available for just
(01:06):
about everybody in the family if you want to come
out and we'll tell you all about that open house
is coming up in October.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I see that you were Firefighter of the Year last year.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I was, yeah, it was an exciting accomplishment. You know,
I didn't know that was coming. We were I think
we were doing a flag disposal ceremony for some boy
Scout troops. Batian chief text me, he's like, hey, come
up to my office real quick. And you know, you
never want to get one of those tasks cause you're
like it could either be, you know, good or bad.
But you know, I went up there and my two
(01:38):
lieutenants and my battalion in there, and they told me
I was going to be a Firefighter of the Year.
So I was like, that's an awesome accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So it absolutely is. Lissie.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
You've been in the fire service for about eight years
at this point, eight and a half something like that.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, yeah, correct, So you're the official party planner.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I can't take all the credit for it, but I think, uh,
you know, I do a good job at you know,
divvy and tasks up to get to get what we
need done for the open house.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Though the topic your guy's going to really be focusing on,
is lithium ion batteries in your home. What are you
telling residents about lithium ion batteries in their home.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
It's been a hot topic with the scooters, the e bikes.
Just I think the issue is as people are leaving
them plugged in for too long, so those batteries get overheated.
And what happens is is those lithium ion batteries kind
of expand, and then if they expand and one of
them goes off, it's kind of what we call a
(02:36):
thermal runaway. So once one goes off, they all start
to go off, and it's kind of looks like a
big firework that goes off when they're all going off.
So it's kind of crazy to see, to be honest,
and you know, we're all we're talking about. You know,
if you see your phone or your any particular device
that uses a lithium ion battery, if it looks like
(02:57):
it's thicker, like if your phone, you know, how it's flat,
If it looks like it's bulging, you know, maybe remove
it from your house because that's indicative of you know,
the battery going bad. We're telling people to you know,
use proper chargers and not get any lithium my own batteries,
you know, off the third market. We had a particular
(03:21):
run here where somebody did that and they were trying
to build their own e scooter and it actually caught
on fire and luckily they were able to get it
out of their garage in time. But you know, it's
just stuff like that that we have to you know,
preach to you know, the community, you know about you know,
safe practices with the lithium I own batteries too. And
(03:41):
another thing too is is proper disposal of these batteries.
We actually accept you know, old or damaged lithium ion batteries.
So if anybody has damaged batteries or just old ones
around the house, they can feel free to bring them
up to you know, our station. But as you see,
like Runkies having a big issue where people are throwing
(04:02):
these away in the trash and you know they're catching
their you know, garbage trucks on fire or you know,
I think there was recently a fire at Runky.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
What is actually happening if they're not being charged at
that point, how would a lithium ion battery cause the
trash to catch fire.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
You know, you throw one away and say it gets
thrown into a trash truck, the compactation of it or
just you know, the damaging of the actual battery can
just set these things off. And like I said, if
one of them goes, then that whole thing goes. If
there's multi of them, so my goodness.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
So don't put your batteries in the in the trash
so you can take them to a Blue Ash or
if you're in a different community and you can't get there,
contact your own fire department and see if they have
any idea where you can drop that off and do
it safely if you just joined us. I'm speaking with
the firefighter and paramedic from Blue Ash, Sam and Rizzi,
and he is hosting an open house at the fire
(05:00):
department October seventh there on Kenwood Road.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
It's the North fire Station.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
What are the most common causes of fires in your community?
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Normally it's probably I would say the number one is
probably unattended food on the stove. We get a lot
of those, and then summertime, fall time, it's unattended grills
or you know, they leave them on their deck and
they get too hot and you know, the deck's on
fire or whatever. Luckily we haven't had a lot of
(05:31):
lithium I on fires.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So I would say, let's talk about the Blue Ash
Fire Department open house. When where, and tell us all
about the fun things you got planned.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah. Absolutely, So our open house will take place on Tuesday,
October seventh from five to seven thirty pm at the
North Fire station, which is Station thirteen and in Blue
Ash it's one zero six four seven Kenwood Road. Open
to all ages. We have, you know, a ton of
fun activities planned. The kids can come and look at
(06:03):
the trucks, do a station tour. It can spray a
fire hose until like a little you know, miniature prop
we have built with like little fire in the window
so they can hit it and they'll knock down. We
also have a sparky he'll be walking around so they
can get pictures with that. I believe there's an obstacle course.
And then just throughout the night we also offer free
(06:28):
food and beverages while it lasts. And then to wrap
up the night, we always do a fire prevention talk
along with We build a big, little big burn prop
in the back, so we usually kind of mock that
up to whatever the Fire Prevention Week theme is, and
you know, we'll do a little fire demonstration and show
show off the firefighting gear and have a couple of
(06:51):
them spray water on the fire to kind of, you know,
show the community how we how we operate. So it's
a fun night. It doesn't have to be the Blue
Ash community. I mean, it's open to anybody, so we're
always happy to see everybody there, so it's always a
good time.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Sam Marizzi, thank you so much for being here. We'll
see you on October seventh at the open house.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
My pleasure. Thank you, have a good day.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Our time's up here for iHeart Cincia thanks to my
guests from the Cincinnati Cancer Foundation and the Blue Ash
Fire Department. Coming up next week, i'll air the complete
interview we had with Sam Rizzi while we talk more
about fire safety, where to get a free smoke detector,
and more for National Fire Prevention Week. Also, we're looking
for vocations to talk about. If you've got an interesting
(07:32):
job or career field, shoot me an email, tell me
about it.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
You might be on the show.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
In the subject line, write vocations and send that to
Iheartsincy at.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
iHeartMedia Dot com.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
You can listen to this show on the iHeartRadio app
under podcast, just search for mining Sandy Collins.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week. iHeart Cincy
is a production of iHeartMedia Cincinnati,
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