Fire-a-day reality for Red Cross
Posted Oct 11, 2011 10:35:53 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Another National Fire Prevention Week is being marked by the same number of residential fires so far this year compared to the same period last year.
The Red Cross is reporting there have been nearly 400 residential fires between January and October, involving about 700 people and including 13 fatalities.
Spokesperson Dan Bedell says the numbers are tracking closely to previous years.
“We’re always concerned about these numbers,” Bedell told News 95.7. “For us, in the Atlantic provinces it works out to a fire every day and a half that Red Cross volunteers respond to. We’ve already had five in October, so that’s on par with the kind of numbers we see year round.”
The winter is notorious for house fires because space heaters, chimneys, candles and other devices used to keep warm are often the culprit.
But Bedell says some of the top causes of fires in the home are cooking and smoking.
“The fact of the matter is fires happen everyday,” he said. “Every home should have an emergency plan. They should have an emergency kit in case you have to evacuate on short notice, because it can be very short notice. It can be a matter of seconds.”
As part of Fire Prevention Week, Halifax Regional Fire is urging residents who use matches and lighters to take responsibility for them.
“With children in the home, most of us are very careful not to leave dangerous tools lying around where children could find them and cause themselves harm,” stated the Fire Prevention website. “Statistics show that this same practice is not being extended to safety with matches and lighters, even though we know that matches and lighters, in the wrong hands, can be even more dangerous.”
Meanwhile the Department of Natural Resources is also urging residents not to burn any backyard debris until after Nov. 1, and to compost leaves instead.
Anyone burning debris in their backyard needs a permit until Oct. 15.
Fire Prevention Week runs from Oct. 9 to 15.
