A lit cigarette in the hand of someone sleeping. A wok fire out of control in the kitchen. A coffee maker left “on” while the family is at school and work.
Every year, these three leading causes of fires are responsible for the better part of 67,000 blazes in Canadian homes.
Fire Prevention Week, which runs from Oct. 4-10 this year, is a time to raise awareness of the preventive measures one can take in the hope these tragic occurrences can be prevented.
“Learn Not To Burn” co-ordinator Tyler Moffitt has made fire safety his business since 1993 when the district’s Fire Safety Committee was formed. He’s also been a volunteer firefighter in Fort Frances and Alberton for 12 years altogether.
His main point about fire safety is that it must begin in the schools. “We used to fight fires and then educate but that’s backwards,” he said. “We now know that education works.”
Since the committee was formed, it has, in tandem with various municipal fire departments, sought to push fire safety education throughout the district, especially in schools.
“If you teach the kids at a young age, they can learn respect for their personal safety,” noted Moffitt. “And then that kid grows up and teaches that responsibility to their children.”
The programs have been very successful so far, Moffitt said.
“In North America, there’s been about 300 ‘saves’ as a result of fire safety programs–89 of those were in Ontario,” he stated. “It works.”
Moffitt also noted smaller schools in areas like Devlin and Atikokan show better educational results than ones in larger cities such as Winnipeg.
Greg Allan, a firefighter at the Fort Frances Fire Department, couldn’t agree more. As part of a Fire Prevention Week “blitz,” local firefighters have been stopping at separate and public schools around town to talk about fire safety.
“We’ve been speaking to kids from day care level up to grade six, or in some cases grades seven and eight,” he noted.
“Sparky,” the fire department’s mascot, sometimes makes appearances to better capture the attention of small children.
Firefighters also have been going to apartment complexes with primarily elderly occupants, like Rose Manor and Flinders Place, to promote fire safety.
And they drove around town last night to distribute pamphlets about fire safety in the home, and alerting residents they are available to check smoke alarms in homes and tell if their home is “fire safe.”
This year’s Fire Prevention Week theme is “Fire Drills: The Great Escape,” where the focus will be on how to get out of a building in case of a fire.
“The key steps are to establish two ways out of each room, and for all occupants to have a meeting place after evacuation,” Moffitt stressed.
By far, the biggest leading flaw in fire prevention is smoke alarms, a problem which doesn’t seem to be showing much improvement.
“Every year in Canada, there’s 67,000 fires,” Moffitt said. “From those, 465 deaths and 3,600 injuries occur. Ninety percent of fatal fires occur in the home, and 70 percent of those are homes without smoke alarms.”
“When you go to a fire, one of the best things a firefighter can hear is the sound of a smoke alarm,” agreed Allan. “That means someone took the precaution to give themselves some time to safely evacuate the home.
“Let’s face it. It may take the fire department a few minutes to get to a fire. The most important thing you can do is give yourself a couple minutes to move to safety,” he said.
Moffitt also noted the law has changed.
“You have to install them on every floor of your house, cabin, etc.,” he said. “If people would just follow this policy, you would probably see the death rate drop.”
Failure to not have an operational smoke detector could lead to a $200 fine.
A good practice is to check your alarm battery every week, and make sure there are enough to cover most areas of the home, especially the kitchen.
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