| Fire Prevention For Your Home |
All disasters like earthquakes,
floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and fires are
devastating, but out of the five there is only one that can be prevented by humans and that one is fire.
Even though fire is preventable, it is responsible for more American deaths than all natural disasters
combined. 13% of the people who die in fires in the US are under 5 years old and Over 30% of the fires
that kill young children are started by children playing with fire. For every one "child set fire"
the fire department knows of, at least 10 more have occurred. Read the facts and information below then
have your kids go to Kids Korner to learn how they can help in
preventing fires. Below are some things you can do to prevent a fire in your home.
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| Did You Know. . . . ? |
- The US has one of the highest fire death rates in the industrialized world.
- Fires that start in the kitchen from cooking are the leading cause of home fires and home fire injuries.
- Unattended cooking, rather than mechanical failure or malfunction, often starts cooking fires.
- As many as two-thirds of fires caused by heating your home are started by portable or fixed space heaters.
- Smoking materials like smoldering cigarettes and ashtrays are still the leading causes of fire deaths in the US.
- If you have at least one working smoke alarm, you can reduce your chance of dying from a house fire by 45 percent.
- Children playing with fire accounts for 400 deaths, 3,000 injuries, and $280 million in property loss or damage.
- More young children are killed playing with matches and lighters than playing with loaded guns.
- Approximately half of home fire deaths occur in homes without smoke alarms.
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| Make Sure To. . . . ! |
- Keep all small appliances like the toaster unplugged when not in use.
- Never leave cooking unattended.
- Check electrical cords so there are no exposed wires and make sure they're in working order.
- Never overload electrical outlets.
- Keep matches, lighters or smoking materials out of reach of children.
- Keep dryer lint collector and area around dryer clean.
- A load of laundry tumbling in the dryer can cause a buildup of lint, which may ignite a lethal fire.
- Install and test at least one smoke detector for each floor in your home, or in every room of your home.
- Read important information about smoke detectors.
- Keep a working fire extinguisher on hand and know how to use it.
- Keep combustibles like wood, paper products, fabrics, trash, etc. at least 1-3 feet away from heat sources.
- Place 9-1-1 stickers on or near all telephones. You can use this tool to create a "Contact Information" tag to place next to your phone.
- Make sure your address numbers are visible from the street both during the day and at night.
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