Fire Prevention Week October 9-15, 2011. "Protect your family from fire".

Safe Kids Canada to make fire safety education personal for parents
New focus on reducing tragedies announced ahead of Fire Prevention Week

Canada’s leading child safety advocacy organization wants to support parents to help them take greater responsibility for their kids’ fire and burn safety.  

Safe Kids Canada, through its partnership with more than 2,000 community organizations across the country, has announced plans to create a new national fire safety outreach program.  On average, 19 children aged 14 and under are killed by fire or smoke each year in Canada.  Nearly 600 are hospitalized.

News of the initiative comes as Fire Prevention Week gets set to kick off on October 15th.  This year’s Fire Prevention Week theme is “Protect Your Family From Fire.”

“Children are most vulnerable when fire strikes.  No matter their age, a child’s safety ultimately rests with their parents,” says Pamela Fuselli, executive director, Safe Kids Canada.  “It is a parent’s responsibility to give their children every possible chance of survival from smoke and fire.  So a big part of our education effort will focus on preventative steps parents must take.”

The Safe Kids Canada announcement comes as a result of an unprecedented five-year, North America-wide partnership with market-leading smoke alarm and home safety product manufacturer Kidde.  The company already supports numerous public education programs with fire departments and fire safety organizations and views broadening that commitment with Safe Kids Canada as a natural extension.

“With fire safety, complacency leads to tr¬agedy,” says Carol Heller, a home safety specialist with Kidde. “In two of every three fires where there are fatalities, investigators find no working smoke alarms.  Either the batteries are missing or expired, or the smoke alarm has been removed from the ceiling or was never installed at all.  It’s a parent’s duty to equip the home with fire safety devices and to equip their kids with fire safety knowledge.  This will be the core of our Kidde for Kids program with Safe Kids Canada.”

Burn prevention is a key area of focus.  Dr. Joel Fish, medical director, Burns Program at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children sees first-hand the consequences of children who did not have the benefit of the best possible protection from fire at home.

“Fires can lead to the worst burns imaginable.  They leave life-long scars, both physical and emotional,” says Dr. Fish.  “With more education about prevention steps, as well as awareness of certain areas of the home more prone to burns and scalds, parents can spare their children and themselves a lifetime of heartache.”

John Caruso is chief fire prevention officer, City of Vaughan Fire and Rescue.  He says a fire-safe home relies on two things:  properly installed and working smoke alarms, and, a home fire escape plan.
“Working smoke alarms double your chances of escaping a fire, and having a home escape plan increases your odds even further,” Caruso says.  “The fire escape planning exercise begins with parents going through the home with kids in tow, first checking each and every smoke alarm.  Then, sit down with your kids and draw a floor plan and map two escape routes out of every room.  Agree on a safe outdoor meeting place.  And then practise that escape plan twice each year.”

Some additional tips for parents:

• You have less than three minutes to escape a fire.  So when smoke alarms sound, everyone in the family must know what to do and where to go.
• Evacuating a burning or smoke-filled home places different demands on parents depending on the age of their kids.  BE PREPARED.
• Stress to children NEVER to go back into a burning house to retrieve pets or personal items.
• Install one smoke alarm per storey and outside bedrooms.  Install inside bedrooms if you sleep with doors closed.
• Buy alarms with a Hush button to deal with false alarms.  This way you can silence an alarm while the smoke or steam clears, but you remain fully protected in case a real fire breaks out.
• Replace all smoke alarms over 10 years old, whether battery operated or hardwired into your home’s electrical system.
• Teach children what a smoke alarm sounds like to reduce shock and fear when it goes off.
  

As part of the Safe Kids Canada fire safety outreach, parental resources are available on the www.safekidscanada.ca web site, as well as www.safeathome.ca .

Read the media release

Published: Tue, Oct 4, 2011