FEMA Stats emphasize Importance of Fire Safety

Fires can be deadly and knowing what to do and where to go in the event of a fire can be the difference between life and death.  Rabun County Assistant Fire Chief Justin Upchurch gives statistics from the recently released FEMA report for 2017-2019 for civilian fire injuries in residential buildings.  “I think this is important for everybody to know that a lot of these topics that we talk about weekly, the reasoning behind it.  Annually, an estimated 11,650 civilian fire injuries from 7,200 residential building fires resulted in injuries.  Civilian fires in residential buildings accounted for 75% of all estimated fire injuries.  On average someone is injured in a residential building fire every 45 minutes.  The injuries usually occur in the late afternoon and the early evening with the peak period from 5-8pm.  January and March had the highest incidents of residential building fires that resulted in injuries.  Each of those months accounted for 10% of the injuries.  Cooking was the leading cause of residential building fires, so 31% of those fires were caused by cooking.  Of the civilian fire injuries that occurred in residential buildings 33% resulted from trying to control the fire and 29% occurred while the victim was attempting to escape.  Smoke inhalation and thermal burns were the primary symptoms resulting in injuries accounting for 79%.  The leading human factor contributing to injuries in building fires was being asleep with 49% of those people saying they were asleep.  Males accounted for 54% and females accounted for 46%.  So, knowing these statistics you understand why we push for smoke alarms that will wake you up, cooking fire safety, and things such as that.”  It is important to develop and practice a fire escape plan with everyone in the home or business.  Make sure everyone knows where to go and later meet after a fire has occurred.  Get out before you call 911 to report a fire.