November 24 – 30: National Home Fire Safety Week

November 24, 2021

It’s that time of year again where we’re all turning our furnaces on and looking forward to the coziness that fireplaces bring to our homes. However, it’s also an important time to remind ourselves of the many dangers associated with such cold weather necessities. National Home Fire Safety Week is an excellent time for each of us to take that time to ensure our homes are safe from fire.

We are most fortunate in Canada to have dedicated fire and safety professionals visiting schools to speak to thousands of students about the dangers of fire, as well as fire prevention techniques (i.e. smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, escape route planning, and how to “stop, drop and roll”). Unfortunately, many preventable fires still occur despite these educational efforts, which can end in the loss of life.

Here in Canada, our fire departments respond to over 50,000 residential fires each year. On average, eight Canadians die as a result of a fire each week. These statistics compel us to take the time to sit down with our families to discuss fire safety in our homes. It can be a simple project that doesn’t require a great deal of time. You can start by drawing a map of your home and making sure everyone in the family knows the escape routes and checking your smoke detectors and fire extinguisher. It is important that we work with our families to ensure that everyone is aware of the many risks of fire and be prepared for them.

For more specific fire safety tips for your home, please feel free to visit the Canada Safety Council’s website at: www.safety-council.org. There you can find helpful tips for each room of your home.

Together we can each do our part this week to prevent a fire from occurring in our home and therefore, work towards reducing the number of fires that occur each year in Canada.