YOung Kids and Fire Safety.

Did you know that :

• There were 3,320 civilians that lost their lives as the result of fire.
• There were 16,705 civilian injuries that occurred as the result of fire.
• There were 118 firefighters killed while on duty.
• Fire killed more Americans than all natural disasters combined.
• 84 percent of all civilian fire deaths occurred in residences.
• There were an estimated 1.5 million fires in 2008.
• Direct property loss due to fires was estimated at $15.5 billion. This figure includes the 2008 California Wildfires with an estimated loss of $1.4 billion.
• An estimated 32,500 intentionally set structure fires resulted in 315 civilian deaths.
• Intentionally set structure fires resulted in an estimated $866 million in property damage.

I personally find these numbers to be extremely high, yet as of August 27, 2009 these were the facts. The death toll from fires is unbelievably high. I personally feel that alot of those could have been prevented by proper fire safety and prevention. Such as did you know if all of us had at least one fire extinguisher and one smoke alarm for every 3 rooms we could save many lives. You should also check the batteries to your smoke alarms every month. It is also imperative to have a fire plan. You and you family should set aside time once a month to review this plan. The plan should include a trip to your local fire station (me and my family are doing that tomorrow) the good thing about visiting the station is it can show your young frightened children that firefighters are just like you and me and even with a ton of gear they are good guys. You also need to teach your children the stop, drop, and roll plan. The next thing is to teach them to crawl out of a burning house instead of walking since smoke rises. You need to go through and review your escape plan once a month.

If every one in this nation would do this imagine how many lives could be saved. I will let you all know how our visit goes tomorrow since she is so easily frightened. I am hoping we will all learn something new and that it will instill the notion that firefighters are friends.