Preventing House Fires in Southern Trumbull County | National Burn Awareness Week

2/4/2020 (Permalink)

The American Burn Association has recognized February 2-8, 2020 as “Burn Awareness Week” with this year’s theme being Contact Burns

The American Burn Association has recognized February 2-8, 2020 as “Burn Awareness Week” with this year’s theme being Contact Burns.

According to a National Fire Protection Association report issued in October of 2019, just over one-quarter (27%) of reported fires in the US are home fires, while four out of every five injuries reported had home fires at the root of the incident.

There are five main causes to all home fires and fire casualties: cooking, heating, electrical distribution and lighting equipment, intentional fire setting, and smoking materials. Over the five-year period of 2013-2017, fires caused an annual average of 2,620 deaths, and 11,220 civilian injuries with $6.9 billion in property damage.

Fire prevention is the single most important aspect of educating people on fire and safety. Fire prevention can be categorized into two main categories: Home and Commercial. 

Residential

• Smoking Indoors – Smoking is a huge fire hazard, with several deaths per year being traced back to people lighting a cigarette near a source of gas and or falling asleep with one in their hands.
• Cooking – In 2016, cooking was responsible for 6.6% of all house fire deaths. When preparing food, it is never smart to leave the stove unattended.
• Maintain Appliances and Electrical Wiring – When moving to a new place be sure to have your wiring checked by a professional. Faulty wiring and electrical malfunction resulted in 9.6% of all fatal building fires.

Commercial

• Supervise and Clean Work Areas – To thoroughly prevent fires, adequate supervision can be required. Any minor mistake can result in a fire especially with no supervision. The work space also needs to be cleaned sufficiently to prevent an accumulation of combustible materials.
• Workplace Machinery – To fully protect your workplace, machinery that is in constant use needs to be checked and maintained often. Failure to do so, puts the machine at risk of malfunctioning leading to fire and employee injury.
• Proper Fire Training – Employees in specific industries should be required to complete a fire prevention course. Making this practice a yearly requirement can be very beneficial in the prevention of commercial fires.

The highly trained and licensed experts at SERVPRO of Southern Trumbull County understand how important your home/business is to you. While in the hustle and bustle of life, a fire and a preventable one at that can really be a burden.

We pride ourselves in being faster to any size disaster! Our experts will help guide you through a crisis like this and eventually make it “Like it never even happened.”  

 For more information call 330-392-6355.