“Two-thirds of home cooking fires start with the ignition of food or other materials.”
That’s from Prince George Fire Department inspector and life safety education member Andrew Zielinski.
This week is Fire Prevention Week across Canada – Zielinski told MyPGNow.com that cooking safety ultimately starts with you and the numbers back that up.
“Ranges or cooktops account for over half of home cooking fire incidents and unattended equipment is a factor in one-quarter (29%) of home cooking fire and half the associated deaths.”
“In addition, two-thirds of home-cooking fires start with the ignition of food or other cooking materials. Clothing is the item that is first ignited in less than one percent of these fires but ignitions cause less than 8% of home cooking fires or deaths.”
Zielinski also touched on the importance of having a working smoke alarm – he mentioned that in most homes, you should have more than one.
“Smoke alarms should be placed in every sleeping room, outside the sleeping area – you should have one on every floor and they should be inter-connected. Meaning, if one of them sounds, they all sound.”
“Smoke alarms are monitored by outside agencies. In the case of residential homes, when they are activated whether they are working as intended or not functioning properly the fire department will be notified and respond.”
The BC government is investing 1.6 million dollars to promote fire-risk education through a smoke-alarm campaign in an effort to reduce fire-related injuries and deaths.
Fire Prevention Week wraps up on Saturday.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
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