CHIEF: FIRE SAFETY SHOULD BE A DAILY HABIT

If an unexpected fire occurred in your home while you and your family were asleep, could everyone get out safely?

Assuming your home is equipped with working smoke detectors, what would you and your family do, and where would you go, if the smoke detectors went off during the night?

Cape Girardeau Fire Chief Gene Hindman says these are life-saving questions that everyone should be asking this week during Fire Prevention and Fire Safety Week.

This year's theme for Fire Prevention and Fire Safety Week is, "Fire Won't Wait Plan Your Escape."

Hindman said the best way to prevent a fire is to make sure all fire hazards are eliminated from the home. But if a fire should break out, there is one key to survival: immediate escape. That means a plan of escape for every member of your family, especially those who sleep in bedrooms on the second floor of the house, he said.

"The majority of fatal home fires happen at night while everyone is asleep," said Hindman. "To be among the survivors, make sure that you have smoke detectors in your home to give you the earliest possible warning of a fire. A working smoke detector is one of the cheapest and most effective forms of life insurance that's available today.

"Most often, it's not the flames that kill. In most cases, you're already dead from smoke inhalation by the time the fire actually reaches you," said Hindman.

"Plan precisely how you and your family will escape if a fire does occur. Finally, practice your fire escape plan by holding family fire drills at least every six months," he said.

According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), 5,195 civilians (non-firefighters) died last year in the U.S. as a result of fires. That's a reduction of 4 percent, or 215 fewer deaths than in 1989, and 1,020 fewer deaths than in 1988. But fire safety experts say these needless fire deaths can be reduced even more.

Consider these statistics:

Fire kills someone in this country every 100 minutes.

Fire injures someone every 18 minutes.

A fire is reported in this country every 16 seconds.

Every second, $248 in direct property damage results from fire.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reports the United States has one of the highest fire-death rates per capita in the world. U.S. fire deaths per million population are almost twice the average for fire deaths for other industrialized countries.

Each year, fires kill more Americans than all other natural disasters combined, including floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes.

Fire is the third leading cause of accidental death in the home. At least 75 percent of all fire tragedies occur in residences.

The total cost of fires to the American public is $30 billion annually, according to FEMA.

With those kinds of statistics, Hindman said, fire prevention and fire safety must be an on-going, year-round effort.

"Fire prevention and fire safety isn't a weeklong event that takes place each year during the second week of October," he said. "It must be a full-time effort by everyone."

Hindman said firefighters would rather work to prevent fires than to fight them. "It's much easier for us, and certainly safer and cheaper for the people," he said.

For firefighters, there's another, more personal reason for fire prevention. Last year, 105 career and volunteer firefighters lost their lives in the line of duty.

Those firefighters will be remembered Oct. 13 at the National Fallen Firefighter's Memorial in Emmitsburg, Md.

Among the firefighters who will be remembered next Sunday is James D. Straub of the Western Taney County Fire Protection District at Branson.

During October, Cape Girardeau firefighters will present fire prevention and fire safety programs in schools, before civic and fraternal groups, and at businesses and nursing homes.

In addition, fire drills will be held in all public and parochial schools in the city.

Hindman said these programs and activities are representative of those given by firefighters throughout the year.

During the year, firefighters, in cooperation with local organizations, install smoke detectors in homes.

On Sept. 28, firefighters and the Cape Zonta Club began installing 140 smoke detectors in the city. On Oct. 19, the fire department and the Bell Telephone Company Pioneers will install another 60 smoke detectors. Since the program began in 1987, Hindman said, over 800 smoke detectors have been installed in homes, at no charge to the residents.

"We'll install smoke detectors in homes for anyone, who, for one reason or another, does not have them," he said. "Perhaps they cannot afford to buy them, or in the case of the elderly and handicapped, cannot install them."

Hindman said anyone who would like a smoke detector installed in their home should call fire department headquarters, 334-3211.

With fall here and winter not far behind, Hindman said it's time to check the home heating system to make sure it's ready for winter.

"During the summer, a lot of boxes, papers or trash sometimes get pushed up against the furnace," he said. "This can become a dangerous fire hazard when cold weather arrives and the furnace kicks on and starts to heat up. Make sure all combustible materials are moved well away from the furnace."

Hindman also suggests installing a new furnace filter and checking the furnace motor.

"When it's 2 a.m., and the temperature is 20 degrees, the wind chill, minus 30 degrees, and your furnace motor stops running, it's too late," he said.

Hindman said the fire department has brochures and pamphlets that deal with home fire-escape plans, fire prevention and fire safety. They may be obtained without charge by calling the fire department headquarters.

"Let's all make an effort to make this coming year an even safer year as far as fire is concerned," said Hindman. "If you haven't purchased and installed smoke detectors in your home, why not do it this month?

"Make an effort to try to locate and eliminate all fire hazards in your home, and plan now for you and your family to escape if a fire should occur in your home."