News releases By: National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
June 1, 2010 – The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has announced the theme for this year’s Fire Prevention Week: Smoke Alarms: A sound you can live with. Fire Prevention Week will be held from October 3-9, 2010. Each year in October since 1922, the NFPA has sponsored the fire prevention campaign to emphasize the importance of fire safety to inspire individuals to take action to prevent fires and avoid the deaths, injuries, and destruction they cause.
In 2008, home fires killed 2,755 people and injured 13,160. Two of every five home fire deaths were in a home with no smoke alarms and another one in five was in a home where the smoke alarms were not working.
This year’s theme aims to educate the public on how smoke alarms save lives and why they should be installed and maintained in every home. Having working smoke alarms can cut the chances of dying in a fire in half. The theme will focus on how to choose, install, and maintain smoke alarms.
NFPA has taken the lead in public fire safety outreach by serving as the official sponsor of Fire Prevention Week for 88 years. The annual public awareness and safety commemoration, which is proclaimed by the President of the United States each year, is observed by fire departments in the U.S. and Canada to mark the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. According to the National Archives and Records Administration’s Library Information Center, Fire Prevention Week is the longest running public health and safety observance on record.
Please visit the newly launched Fire Prevention Week website http://www.firepreventionweek.org/ for safety tips, statistical information, and more. The materials are available for use by fire departments, teachers, families and anyone interested in learning or teaching about fire safety.
NFPA has been a worldwide leader in providing fire, electrical, building, and life safety to the public since 1896. The mission of the international nonprofit organization is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. Visit NFPA’s Web site at http://www.nfpa.org/.
Author: NFPA Press Release
To learn more about smoke detectors, please visit www.nfpa.org/smokealarms.
Here's a YouTube Video of NFPA's Sharon Gamache discussing information on the types of smoke alarms, their placement and special features. Working smoke alarms give you early warning to help you escape a fire. . .
(The usual disclaimers: I am not a journalist; this is a blog that expresses an outlook and is not conclusive in any shape or manner.)
