Sad numbers

Dear editor:
I served 15 years as a volunteer firefighter and emergency responder in our district. I was amazed at how many residential fires I attended—and no working smoke alarms were present.
According to an article in last Friday’s Daily Bulletin, 25 percent of the 97 homes checked by the Fort Frances Fire and Rescue in conjunction with Fire Prevention Week weren’t protected by a working smoke alarm.
This is a disappointing statistic—and an unfortunate reality in Fort Frances and the rest of Canada.
The sad question is how many more homes in Fort Frances, and Rainy River District, do not have working smoke alarms? The answer is many more!
Fort Frances has done a lot of public education. The wise advice that is shared and preached is invaluable. It can save your life!
The media, especially community newspapers, have proven to be one of the many effective ways of delivering the safety message.
It is not the only way, and you can never expect one initiative to be the solution, however, our media in Rainy River District has been very generous and helpful in spreading the word of safety.
A similar problem in Oshawa, Ont. was identified between March and April, 2000. Out of 2,261 homes inspected, only 1,292 had smoke alarms that were present and working. Some 40 percent had an alarm that was not operating or else was missing.
A more aggressive enforcement and public awareness approach to convince residents to accept personal responsibility for their family’s fire safety was initiated.
To do this, the Oshawa Fire Service developed the following programs: Multiple Unit Smoke Alarm Program, Residential Smoke Alarm Inspection, Home Safe Home In-Service Inspection Program, Smoke Alarm Blitz, and A Public Awareness Program.
(Note: Non-fire and rescue personnel assisted in implementing these programs).
The final result indicated the program reached 8,152 homes—and more than 1,000 smoke alarms were installed.
This same problem has been identified in Fort Frances! Perhaps a continuous fire safety blitz—using a multidisciplinary team—should be initiated. The findings from the blitz then can be organized into improvement objectives for implementation.
Something to seriously think about!
Signed,
Tyler J. Moffitt
Fort Frances, Ont.