fire danger and causes, smoke detectors

Understanding the danger

Each year in the United States, around 4,300 people lose their lives in house fires. Many more are injured. Around 3,600 youngsters are seriously injured or killed each year due to fire. Forty percent of these victims are under the age of 5, 70% are under 10, and children playing with fire is the leading cause of fire related deaths of children. In fact, fire or burns is the third leading cause of unintentional injuries in children. Every year, around 850 youngsters lose their lives in house fires. Smoke inhalation, not the fire itself, is the leading cause of death in fire related fatalities.

Once again, the most tragic thing about these numbers, is that nearly every single one of these children would still be alive.....if a few simple steps were taken to insure child safety when it comes to fire. Please read this section carefully, and take to heart all of the things contained, to insure your family is never among any of those statistics.

Fire causes
A 3 year average study by the U.S.. Fire Administration, determined the following causes of fatal residential fires:

Smoking: 24%
Arson: 20%
Heating: 13%
Cooking: 11%
Electrical problem: 9%
Open flame: 7%
Children playing: 7%
Other causes: 9%

Most fatal fires start either in the sleeping area of the house or the Lounge, Followed closely by the kitchen area, followed up by all other area’s of the house.

The first line of defense...smoke detectors
Without a working smoke detector in the house, all of it’s occupants are sitting ducks in a fire. Many people mistakenly assume that if there was a fire in the house, they would be able to smell the smoke and wake up. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Smoke contains carbon monoxide, an odorless compound. It will not wake you up, no matter how good of a nose you have, but rather, it will put its occupants into a deeper sleep.

Studies show that 80 percent of fire fatalities are attributed to either a non-functioning smoke detector, or no smoke detector at all. The presence of a working smoke detector is the first and most important step in child safety.

Make sure that your smoke detectors are in good working order, with good batteries. Make a habit of replacing the batteries in your smoke detectors twice per year. Most people find it easy to change their smoke detectors whenever they change their clocks. If not, around the holiday season and around the fourth of July make good times, as people are a little more focused on fire safety then.

Do a test run in your house. Pick a night, after your children have gone to sleep, to set off your smoke alarms. See if they wake up. Many smoke alarms are simply not adequate to wake a child in sleep. If they don’t wake up, or if it takes a while for them to wake up, you will need to consider updating your system to something better. Or maybe a smoke detector closer to the sleeping area is needed. Check online for more advanced systems.

·	One smoke detector is not enough. Equip your house with several....one in the kitchen, one on each level, and outside the bedrooms.

·	Let your children hear the sound of their smoke detector, so that they know what it sounds like.

·	Explain to them that whenever they hear that sound, it means they need to get up right away and get out of the house as fast as they can.

Let your children be active in helping you maintain the smoke detectors, so their minds can keep focused on safety. When it is time to change the batteries, let your children help you with a ladder, or hold smaller children on your shoulders to help you change them. Keeping them constantly reminded of the smoke detectors in their home helps to ensure quicker recognition if they ever go off.