OSWEGO – Today marks the end of the annual Fire Prevention Week, a nation-wide movement dedicated to teaching Americans how to stay safe in the event of a fire, including here in Oswego County.
Throughout the week, the Oswego Fire Department shared infographics on some of the major considerations when it comes to preventing fires, including checking smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. According to its Facebook, smoke alarms should be replaced every 10 years.
Fire Prevention Week has been a “national observance,” as its website described it, for nearly a century since 1925. While it became an official program then, it has been observed for centuries.
“[It] dates back to the late 1800s, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire,” Oswego Fire Department’s Fire Chief Randy Griffin said. “It took out a large part of the city of Chicago and killed a lot of people. Ever since then, we commemorate Fire Prevention Week, the first week of October to coincide [with it].”
In addition to the Great Chicago Fire, October is a significant month when it comes to fire prevention, as it signals the beginning of the heating months, when the temperature drops and homes begin to use gas or electric heat. The heating months typically lead to more house fires, according to Griffin.
“We take the time to make sure people are aware, especially here in the Northeast, for the heating months,” said Griffin. “We see more kitchen fires and more and more heating fires as it gets to be colder, fires on Thanksgiving due to cooking, things like that. We take this opportunity to try and remind people we haven’t fixed this problem … We never really solved this problem, still each year people are killed in residential home fires while they sleep.”
Griffin added that last year there were almost 1.5 million residential fires in the United States, resulting in “a little over 3,000 civilian deaths.” That is a number that Griffin hopes to decrease through educating young people, particularly children. The city of Oswego provides him a number of opportunities to do so, as Griffin explained, including working with local schools and the Children’s Museum of Oswego to discuss the importance of working smoke detectors and overall fire safety.
When it comes to the “heating months,” it is important to give adequate space, roughly three feet, to electric heaters, stoves and anything that gets hot so they have space and “won’t heat something [else] to the point of ignition,” as Griffin said. Other fire prevention methods include using electric candles instead of real ones, proper disposal of cigarettes and staying in the kitchen when food is cooking.
“Unattended cooking materials … you get distracted and walk away or fall asleep, and you wake up to a fire on the stove top that now spreads [throughout] the area around it,” said Griffin.
Regardless of how a fire starts, it is imperative to quickly make the call to the fire department, as it is better equipped to put out fires and make sure embers or heat will not flare up into another one.
“Get out as quickly and safely as you can, and call the fire department,” said Griffin. “Delaying the alarm, so many people are afraid of making that phone call, and they’ll try to fight it themselves … try to keep it small, [try] not to ask for help. Get out and call the fire department. Even if you think you have it out, call the fire department. We have things like thermal energy cameras, where we can check for heat.”
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