Adam Prudhomme
Editor
A working smoke alarm can provide early detection in the event of fire, offering crucial time to allow residents to safely escape a burning building.
Obvious as the above statement may be, Greater Napanee Fire’s Dean Martin, a fire prevention officer, reports over half the homes in town don’t have sufficient smoke alarm protection.
Greater Napanee Fire is hoping to rectify that during Fire Prevention Week, which runs Oct. 6-12. This year’s theme is Smoke Alarms, Make Them Work For You.
“As we’ve been pushing for the last how many years, the importance of smoke alarms and making sure people have them,” said Martin.
Throughout the week firefighters will be appearing in stores throughout the community to help promote the message. Anyone who orders a pizza this week will also find a flyer attached to their pizza box with a helpful reminder (as a side note, Greater Napanee residents order an average of 3,500 pizzas for home delivery per week).
Additionally, Members of the public are invited to an open house at the Napanee Fire Station at 66 Advance Ave on Oct. 9 from 6-8 p.m. which will include a charity barbecue, station and truck tours with fire safety demonstrations.
“Throughout our home inspection program that we do every year, my stats so far have shown that 60 per cent of the homes that we have inspected are not fully compliant with the fire code,” said Martin, noting that’s about right in line with the provincial average. “They’re lacking in one way or another and their houses aren’t full protected.”
Last year across Ontario there were 123 deaths attributed to fire.
“Fires grow so quick today compared to what they did 20 years ago because of all the synthetic materials that we use,” said Martin. “To safely escape a home fire now you literally have between a minute and two minutes to get out safely. You’re only going to do that if you have a working smoke alarm.”
This year marks the 102nd anniversary of National Fire Protection Association declaring the week of Oct. 9 to be Fire Prevention Week in honour of the great Chicago fire, which raged Oct. 8-10, 1871. The fire killed about 300 people and destroyed roughly 3.3 square miles of the city. Many of the lessons learned from the tragedy have been adapted over the years to ensure better public safety.