INDIANAPOLIS – Every second counts when it comes to escaping fires, and state leaders are using Fire Prevention Month to encourage Hoosiers to brush up on their knowledge of fire safety.
State Fire Marshal James Greeson says to prevent death or injuries in house fires, it’s critical to have a working smoke alarm on all floors of the home and to make sure it’s tested monthly.
“Then if it is a smoke alarm that you have to replace the batteries in, that we do that at least once or twice a year when we change our clocks,” he stresses. “And there are smoke alarms on the market today that have a 10-year lithium battery, which you don’t have to change for 10 years but you still have to test monthly.”
A recent Red Cross survey found that people believe they have more time than they do to escape a burning home.
Fire experts estimate people have as little as two minutes to escape, while more than 60 percent of respondents believe they have at least five minutes.
According to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) statistics, 62 fire fatalities have been reported in Indiana so far this year.
Greeson says fire safety is a conversation worth having with your children. He says it’s also important to have an escape plan in place and to practice it.
“Just don’t practice it during the daytime when you can see,” he cautions. “Maybe practice as a surprise at night. Practice that plan, have a safe meeting place outside away from the home where you all gather and congregate and meet.”
Once you are outside of a burning home, Greeson says call 911 and don’t go back inside.
“Fire travels so fast, the fumes can be so toxic and the heat is super-heated air,” he says. “And that few minutes that you think you have to go back in that home, you can get totally disoriented and it’s not a good situation.”
Nationwide, more than 2,300 people died and nearly 13,000 were injured in home fires in 2012, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
Mary Kuhlman
