"Malibu beach houses and mobile homes all burn down. Any home can catch fire and any home owner can die in the blaze. In 2009, house fires caused 2,565 deaths, 12,650 injuries, and $7.6 billion in direct damage. Usually one or two people die per fatal fire. But that’s not always the case. Last year, nine fires resulted in 59 deaths. While these numbers symbolize staggering amounts of loss, they are on the decline.
Some of the most devastating structure fires happened decades ago. On April 21, 1930, 320 people died in a fire in an Ohio penitentiary. Twenty-seven years prior, 602 people were killed in a fire in a Chicago theater. Another 27 years before that, 295 people died from a fire in a Brooklyn theater.
But arguably the most famous fire is the one that took down nearly an entire city. From October 8 through October 9 in 1871, the Great Chicago Fire blazed through the Midwestern hub, causing 250 deaths. The events in Chicago inspired the creation of the first Fire Prevention Day on October 9, 1911.
Today we have Fire Prevention Week that lasts from October 3 through 9, sponsored by the NFPA. To contribute to the awareness of fire safety and prevention, and to mark this noteworthy anniversary, we offer readers a reminder of the deadly power of fires and key tips for prevention." [Continue reading...]
No comments:
Post a Comment