The U.S. Fire Administration and the National Fire Protection Association launched their second annual "Put a Freeze on Winter Fires," a free fire public-awareness campaign developed to help fire departments educate constituents about the high prevalence of winter fires and mitigation strategies.
The U.S. Fire Administration and the National Fire Protection Association launched their second annual "Put a Freeze on Winter Fires," a free fire public-awareness campaign developed to help fire departments educate constituents about the high prevalence of winter fires and mitigation strategies.
“We see more home fires in the winter than any other season, so this is a collaborative effort to raise awareness around how people can prevent home fires, particularly during this season,” said Lorraine Carli, NFPA’s VP of communications.
According to the USFA’s Winter Residential Building Fires study, an estimated 108,400 winter residential building fires occur in the U.S. Such fires result in 945 deaths, 3,825 injuries and $1.7 billion in property loss annually. Cooking is the leading cause of winter fires at 36%, followed by heating at 23%. The study also found winter residential building fires occur mainly in the early evening hours, peaking from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Through the NFPA website, chiefs can download public-awareness resources for community education, including fact sheets, safety tips and public-service announcements on the various topics particularly important during the winter, Carli said. Topics include heating and holiday safety, as well as smoking, electrical fires and the importance of smoke alarms.
“All of the resources can be used by local fire departments to spread the word,” Carli said.
By the Numbers: Heating Fires
- Space heaters, whether portable or stationary, accounted for one-third (32%) of home heating fires and four out of five (79%) of home heating fire deaths.
- The leading factor contributing to home heating fires (26%) was failure to clean — principally creosote from solid-fueled heating equipment, primarily chimneys.
- Placing things that can burn too close to heating equipment or placing heating equipment too close to things that can burn, such as upholstered furniture, clothing, mattress or bedding, was the leading factor contributing to ignition in fatal home heating fires and accounted for more than half (53%) of home heating fire deaths.
- Half (49%) of all home heating fires occurred in December, January and February.
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