By Gordon Williams 

Fire Prevention Week, as proclaimed by the National Fire Protection Assn (NFPA), is October 8-14 this year — timed to remind us of the Great Chicago Fire which broke out on October 8, 1871. The intent of the event, as always, is to remind us to do all we can to avoid fires in the home. 

U.S. fire departments respond to 360,000 home fires a year -– one every 87 seconds. More than 3.000 people die in fires each year -– nearly 80 percent of those are victims in home fires. NPFA’s mission is to reduce death and injury from home fires. It uses Fire Prevention Week to inform and instruct homeowners on how to keep their dwelling free from fire. 

“In a fire, mere seconds can make the difference between a safe escape and tragedy,” says the NFPA. There is educational material available from the NFPA, the American Red Cross, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency addressing staying safe from home fires.

NFPA sums up its advice in these five points: 

1. Fire is Fast! You could have less than 2 minutes to get out safely, once your smoke alarms sound. 
2. Smoke alarms sense smoke well before you can, alerting you to danger.
3. Smoke alarms need to be in every bedroom, outside of the sleeping areas, and on each level of your home. 
4. Knowing two ways out of every room is an important piece of your home fire escape plan. 
5. Have an outside meeting place, that is a safe distance from your home, where everyone should gather during or after a fire. 

The theme of the 2023 Fire Prevention Week is Cooking Safety, and for good reason. Fires can start almost anywhere in the home, from a defective space heater to a lint-clogged clothes dryer. But half of all home fires begin in the kitchen. Most, with a little care and common sense, could be avoided.

Don’t leave the stove while you are cooking. A pan on the stove can catch fire while you are answering a phone call or entertaining the kids. Keep children at least three feet from any cooking device. Keep anything that could catch fire, from curtains to floppy sleeves, away from an open flame. 

Know what to do if a pan catches fire. Pouring water on a grease fire can spread the flames. Instead, slowly slide a pot lid or cookie sheet over the burning pan to quench the fire. 

Smoke alarms are critical to any fire prevention plan. That’s where the Red Cross comes into the picture.  

The Red Cross launched its Home Fire Campaign in 2014 to reduce home fires by installing smoke alarms in homes that don’t have them. Experience shows that having a working alarm greatly reduces the risk of falling victim to a home fire. The Red Cross has installed more than a million alarms since 2014 and those alarms have saved more than 1,900 lives. 

The action arm of the campaign is Sound the Alarm (STA) — a once-a-year, month-long push to install free alarms in a given city in most Red Cross regions. In our Northwest Region, Sound the Alarm will run through October; the cities chosen for the effort are Aberdeen and Hoquiam in Grays Harbor County.

On October 14, Red Cross teams will fan out in those cities and knock on doors to find homes in need of alarms. On October 21, the teams will return to install them. You can get free alarms from the Red Cross even if you don't live in Aberdeen and environs. Call your local Red Cross chapter or go online at redcross.org/sound the alarm and follow the prompts to sign up, volunteer for the effort or donate towards the costs.

Final advice to home dwellers from NFPA and the Red Cross is to have an escape plan for exiting your home in case of fire. Explore your home, picking out two avenues of escape from each room. Once you have your escape route planned, practice your escape drill with all family members. Fire breeds panic. The more you practice your escape, the more you can carry it out in a fire. 

Go to the NFPA website at nfpa.org for more on fire prevention. Search the internet for Red Cross and fire safety. The U.S. Fire Administration — a unit of FEMA — publishes tons of material on fires.  

For an easy-to-apply fire safety reminder try this one:
Close While You Doze. Close your bedroom door when you go to sleep at night. Should fire break out during the night, the closed door will delay the spread of fire and toxic fumes. Those fumes pose the greatest danger in a home fire. Your best chance of surviving a fire is to keep those fumes far away from you and your family.