The theme of this year’s Fire Prevention Week is kitchen fire safety. Fire Prevention Week runs Oct 6-12. According to the U.S. National Fire Prevention Association, more fires start in the kitchen than in any other part of the home (40% of all house fires) — and Fire Prevention Week aims to teach people how to keep cooking fires from starting in the first place.
U.S. Fire Departments responded to an estimated annual average of 156,600 cooking-related fires between 2007-2011, resulting in 400 civilian deaths, 5,080 civilian injuries and $853 million in direct damage.
According to the Fire Prevention Week website, unattended cooking was a factor in 34% of reported home cooking fires, with two-thirds of home cooking fires starting with ignition of food or other cooking materials.
Ranges accounted for the 58% of home cooking fire incidents while ovens accounted for 16%. Microwave ovens are one of the leading home products associated with scald burn injuries not related to fires. Nearly half (44%) of the microwave oven injuries seen at emergency rooms in 2011 were scald burns. And young children are at particular risk to scald burns in the kitchen.
Fire coverage is an important part of home insurance – fire losses can be devastating and it is important that homeowners and insurance agents understand the need for adequate coverage, as well as ways to reduce the risk of fire loss. For example, working smoke alarms cut the risk of dying in reported home fires in half.
According to the Fire Prevention Week website, in 2011, U.S. fire departments responded to 370,000 home structure fires. These fires caused 13,910 civilian injuries, 2,520 civilian deaths, $6.9 billion in direct damage. Most fatal fires kill one or two people. In 2011, 12 home fires killed five or more people resulting in a total of 67 deaths.
Almost two-thirds (62%) of reported home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.
For more information about Fire Prevention Week, visit the website.
Information in this post is reproduced from NFPA’s Fire Prevention Week website, www.firepreventionweek.org. ©2013 NFPA.
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