October 10, 2000 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (SH100070) FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION R. Steve Huffman Public Information Officer (334) 208-5806/Fax: (334) 208-5813 E-Mail: huffman@ci.mobile.al.us NATIONAL FIRE PREVENTION WEEK OCTOBER 8-14 THEME: “FIRE DRILLS: THE GREAT ESCAPE!” It’s National Fire Prevention Week time again across the United States and Canada. National Fire Prevention Week begins on Sunday, October 8 and ends officially on Saturday, October 14, 2000. But Fire Prevention is a never-ending effort especially in Mobile. This years theme “Fire Drills: The Great Escape!” focuses on planning escape routes and practicing escape plans regularly. In a continuing effort to reduce the number of fire deaths and injuries Mobile Fire-Rescue Department will conduct safety classes at area schools and businesses. There have been 3 deaths in Mobile in so far in 2000. Today, Tuesday, October 10, 2000 State Farm Insurance Company donated 200 smoke detectors to the Mobile Fire Rescue Department to assist people in the Mobile area that do not have working smoke detectors. Mobile Fire-Rescue Department has partnered with Mobile Community Action to install the detectors, as well teach people how to maintain them in the future. On Sunday, October 15, 2000 Mobile Fire-Rescue Department will hold it’s annual Firefighters Mass at Saint Catherine Catholic Church, located at Springhill Avenue and Item Avenue. The Mass will be conducted by Mobile Fire-Rescue Catholic Fire Chaplain, Father Steve Williams who will say the Mass on behalf of the safety of the city, firefighters and families of firefighters. The Mass is held to ask for the protection of all firefighters and for the prevention of fires in our community. Prevention is the key but knowing how to react in the event of a fire will save lives. 1. Install, maintain, and test smoke detectors 2. Plan and practice escaping from the home in the event of a fire, every room should include two ways out. 3. Sleep with doors closed to prevent the smoke and heat from reaching sleeping occupants. 4. Once Out - Stay Out, never return inside a burning building. 5. Call 911 from a neighbor's house, unless you are trapped in the fire. Personal safety should come first! Fire fatalities dropped 11% in 1999 compared with 1998. The total approached 3<570, which averaged out to one fatality every 2.5 hours. Even though the fire deaths decreased this year over last, the number of fires increased by 4% to 1,823,000. Property damage was also up by 16% to an estimate slightly over $10 billion. Every 24 minutes, someone was injured in a fire, and a fire broke out in a home every 85 seconds. Fire Prevention Week was inspired by one of the worst fires in our nation’s history: the Great Chicago Fire of October 9, 1871, which took 250 lives and destroyed 17,430 buildings. In 1911, on the 40th Anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire the former Fire Marshals Association of North America (now the International Fire Marshals Association or IFMA) first designated the anniversary of this tragedy as Fire Prevention Day, dedicated to encouraging fire safety. In 1920, President Woodrow Wilson issued the first National Fire Prevention Day proclamation and since 1922, National Fire Prevention Week has been observed on the Sunday-through Saturday period in which October 9 falls. A National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Committee extended the observance to a week and assumed sponsorship of the event. Three years later, in 1925, the entire week containing October 9 was officially proclaimed National Fire Prevention Week by President Calvin Coolidge. ###