Fire Prevention Essay Example

are injured. These numbers can be brought down and even possible stopped, if people understand the importance of home fire safety.

Most fire districts today have programs set up to educate homeowners and their families on the importance of fire safety. These programs are ever changing and are in most age specific. The Dallas Fire-Rescue webpage was insightful regarding programs. Dallas Fire Department in Dallas, Texas, has several age specific programs they are currently using to increase the knowledge of the residents of their district. One of the many programs that they using are for small children, is called Little Squirt Robot. It was stated as “It is a little fire engine robot communicates with children and discusses fire prevention, smoke etectors, escaping from fires and general fire safety tips.

” Staying Warm Fireplaces and chimneys need to be looked at each winter by a professional to insure the safe working of your fireplace. Many houses have wood burning fireplaces as their sole source of heat. In turn the fire places and chimneys are being used up to 24 hours a day every day, which means everything that is being burnt is going up in the chimney. The website www. move.

com under the home and garden section states: More than one-third of Americans use fireplaces, wood stoves and other fuel-fired appliances as primary heat sources in their homes.Unfortunately, many people are unaware of the fire risks of heating with wood and solid fuels. Heating fires account for 36 percent of residential home fires in rural areas every year. Often these fires are due to creosote buildup in chimneys and stovepipes. All home heating systems require regular maintenance

to function safely and efficiently.

After a while the build up of flammable residue builds up on the inside of the chimney. If this residue does not get removed, it affects the efficacy of the fireplace and could cause a fire inside the chimney.With the regular maintenance of the fireplace and chimney, the possibility of a fire inside the chimney goes down exponentially. With the push to use a cleaner burning fire places, owners of natural gas or propane fireplaces still need to perform the safety checks each year.

Sounding the Alarm As knowledge increases, so does the technology included in home fire protection. As Robert Klinoff wrote about in his book Introduction to Fire Protection, the idea of home fire alarms started with “…young men watching for house fires at night carrying wooden noise makers that were twirled to sound an alarm if a fire was discovered” (pg 58).Today we have moved beyond young men in street rattling wooden noise makers, technology has given us a new kind of fire alarm. There are 2 main kinds of fire alarms: ionization and photoelectric. Ionization alarms sound more quickly when a flaming, fast moving fire occurs, photoelectric alarms are quicker at sensing smoldering, smoky fires. There are also combination smoke alarms that combine ionization and photoelectric into one unit, called dual sensor smoke alarms.

Most of the fire alarms are powered by batteries which in order for the alarm to work, need to changed regularly. They provide early detection, and thus warning, of the fire. But they take no action on the fire itself. Wet stuff on the Red stuff Something that was introduced in commercial buildings and places

of large quantities of people, have made their way into our homes. Fire sprinklers are being installed into residential buildings as a normal item. In a report by The Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition, sprinklers typically reduce chances of dying in a fire and the average property loss by one-half to two-thirds compared to where sprinklers are not present.

The same website notes that if both fire alarms and fire sprinkler are installed in a residential house, the risk of death in a home fire by 82%. Sprinklers have changed the survivor profile in residential homes, it is like having a firefighter in every room. It was noted on the Phoenix city website that “As many as 90 percent of the deaths in residential fires could have been prevented by using sprinkler systems. ” The premise of installing fire sprinklers in residential housing is that on average, a good response time of a Fire Department is 4 minutes from the initial call.Before the Fire Department gets called, the residents still need to realize there is a fire, and get out. It could take up to 11 minutes before the first water is put on the fire.

Once the Fire Department arrives on scene, their hoses use more than 8 ? times the water then sprinklers do to contain a fire. On the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition website it states that “According to the Scottsdale Report, a 15-year study of fire sprinkler effectiveness, a fire sprinkler uses, on average, 341 gallons of water to control a fire. Firefighters, on average, use 2,935.Reduced water damage is a major source of savings for homeowners. ” Fire Sprinklers are now made to

only discharge when and where it is needed and to stop when the need is no longer. Homeowners need to realize that fire could happen to anyone at anytime.

I think it is stated best on the City of Phoenix‘s website; “Nearly everyone in the United States will have a fire in his or her lifetime. Almost everyone knows someone who will die or be injured in a fire. The people who consider themselves immune from fire are the very ones with the highest risk of having a fire. ” Keeping it WildAccording to Cal Fire, “In January 2005 a new state law became effective that extended the defensible space clearance around homes and structures from 30 feet to 100 feet.

Proper clearance to 100 feet dramatically increases the chance of your house surviving a wildfire. This defensible space also provides for firefighter safety when protecting homes during a wildland fire. ” Defensible space is being brought to the attention of homeowners at an increasing rate. With houses being built in more remote and wilderness areas, the threat against a home during a wild fire increases.There are more trees and brush around homes that the homeowner either does not want to or doesn’t know how to remove. When a wild fire is in the area, it is too late to do any real defensive work.

The work needs to have been done before the wildfire season starts each year. During a wild fire, every little thing that is done to the property and house itself counts. From clearing out the gutters of debris, making sure the roof and siding are Class C material or higher, to clearing dead

trees and brush from around the property.Another thing that is commonly overlooked is easy and clear route you to evacuate your home and that the driveway is wide enough with the clearance of trees and branches for adequate fire and emergency equipment to access your property. Road signs and your name and house number are posted and easily visible and that there is an easily accessible tool storage area with rakes, hoes, axes and shovels for use in case of fire.

The Nevada Fire Safety Counsel has come up with 3 easy steps to remember when clearing a house for clearance.They are “Removal -elimination of entire plants, particularly trees and shrubs (such as cutting down a dead tree), Reduction -removal of plant parts, such as branches or leaves (pruning dead wood, removing low tree branches, and raking dry pine needles), and Replacement -replacing hazardous vegetation with less flammable plants. ” Escape Whether a wild fire or a structure fire, the number one concern is the safety of life. One needs to know the fastest and clearest route to safety. Homeowners need to have a plan made and have it practiced on a regular basis.

On the Home Safety Council Webpage it notes that “The State of Home Safety in America™ report found that only 54 percent of families with children have discussed what to do in case of a home fire. ” In less than 30 seconds a small flame can get completely out of control and turn into a major fire. It only takes minutes for a house to fill with thick black smoke and become engulfed in flames. When a fire is detected in a

home, controlled and rational thinking is not always used.

Because of that, there are several checklists that describe what is needed for specific homes.A homeowner could either stop by or call their local Fire Department for help in determining the best defensive escape route. One thing to remember is that when security bars are installed, they need to be fire retrofitted. They need to be able to open up in case of a fire so the homeowners need to escape through the windows and the firefighters could get in. The City of Phoenix had a great example of the sad truth behind being trapped; “The largest loss of life in a residential fire in Phoenix occurred in 1987.

A family of four was trapped inside their home and couldn't get out because security bars were bolted on the windows. Fire Prevention has made videos demonstrating Christmas tree fires, furniture fires, fires in the kitchen in the home. They show just how fast a fire catches a house and all that is inside of it on fire and the effects of the smoke. Watching these videos can help in the escape plan and understanding of fire behavior during the beginning stages of a fire. Fire Prevention has always been the same: Preserve life and property. From the first structure fire to today, we have been advancing in the field of prevention.

.Many advances in prevention such as sprinklers, higher sensitive smoke alarms, education for escape routes, lives and property are being saved. No matter how much education, technological advances are made, it falls to the homeowners responsibility to proceed with the checklists to make their home as fire safe

as possible.