The National Center for Health Statistics, a Washington, D.C., branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently released a report on the risk fire poses to children. The report found that young children face the greatest risk of death or serious injury in home fires, with 52% of all child fire deaths in 2007 involving those under the age of 4.

The data was based on incident reports sent to FEMA by first-responder departments nationwide and “uses our best data sets from 2004–2007 that looks at causes of death,” FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said.

Fugate said the report reinforced what many had seen on the mainstream media about multiple-children fatalities, including one last week in northwest Oregon when a 16- and 4-month-old were killed during a house fire.

“What we learned is that often those small children don’t know what a smoke detector is,” he said. “Or, when the alarm goes off, it’s something they’ve never heard before so they don’t know what to do.”

Fugate wanted FEMA to partner with child-advocate agencies, fire associations and others to bring attention to the issue by developing a public-awareness campaign. The collation includes FEMA, the U.S. Fire Administration and the National Commission on Children and Disasters. He said their goal is to educate families and first responders about how to reduce chances of children fire deaths, including practicing fire escape plans.

“We need to shine a light on these deaths and point the public to websites and information to help families reduce fire-related deaths of the most vulnerable children in the home,” Fugate said. “We have to get to the parents and older siblings [to practice escape plans] and teach young children as soon as they can understand about how to react to a fire alarm.”

The commission is working with FEMA on the issue by identifying the service gaps in government, nonprofit and tribal systems that affect the safety of children during disasters, Chairman Mark Shriver said. He said it is important first responders are trained in order to change their mindset about child rescue, as it is unique compared to an adult rescue.

"They are not little adults,” he said. “Frankly, FEMA had to do a better job and under Fugate’s leadership they have, as far as working for children to make sure they are part of the response plan for first responders.”

Shriver said chiefs, leadership and those on the line need to adjust response plans to consider children’s needs, which may include purchasing specific equipment or the correct medicine. However, he said it also means teaching fire and police about how to communicate in ways children can understand.

“Children have different needs and those needs should be a part of the plan,” Shriver said. “We are talking about trying to get first responders and parents to get the message out and talk to kids about how to respond to a residential fire.”

FEMA is launching online and social-media tools, including an updated Web page dedicated to children's fire safety with tips on how to prevent the two leading causes of fire during the winter months: cooking and heating. It also has a Facebook page and dedicated Twitter hash tag to engage the public in a dialogue about how to protect kids from fires. All of the tools are available to fire leadership, educators and anyone willing to promote the cause, Fugate said.

“I think we need to be talking more urgently about the issue, especially with the cold weather and use of supplemental heat,” he said. “We have to educate the public about why it is important to have a working smoke detector, a fire escape plan and that children are taught, at least, what an alarm sounds like so it doesn’t cause them to hide. Families need to practice what they are going to do to get their children out of the home if there is a fire.”

Sidebar: Report Findings

• The relative risk of children under age 15 dying in a fire is lower than the general population. However, when dividing the young into subgroups, 52% of all child fire deaths occur to those 4 and younger.
• When dividing the young into subgroups, fire injuries are highest in the 4 and under age group, decline in the middle years, but rise again in the 10 to 14 age group. This is a different pattern than deaths, which decrease as children age.
• Boys are at higher risk of death from fire than girls.
• African-American children are at an increased risk of death from fire.

Source: USFA