| Fire Prevention Week 2007 |
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| Plan Your Escape |
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Home Fire Safety is Up to YOU!
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It's Fire Prevention Month,
Plan and Practice Your Escape Plan
Plan Your Escape flyer
October is National Fire Prevention Month and State Fire Marshal Nancy Orr reminds Oregonians to have an established and well-practiced escape plan in the event of a home fire.
The Office of State Fire Marshal (OSFM), the Oregon Volunteer Firefighters Association (OVFA), the Oregon Life Safety Team (OLST) and fire departments statewide have teamed up in support of the national fire prevention campaign titled, Plan Your Escape to remind Oregonians when fire strikes, often there are only seconds to escape.
Knowing what to do now by planning and practicing an escape plan will save lives later.
“If families take the time to develop an escape plan and practice it, they increase their chances of surviving a home fire,” says Oregon State Fire Marshal Nancy Orr. “In addition to a home fire escape plan, having working smoke alarms on every level of your home and outside every bedroom can mean the difference between life and death,” stated Orr.
From 2000 through 2006 in Oregon there have been 24,819 residential fires resulting in 195 deaths and 1,284 injuries. Being alerted to a fire and knowing what to do to escape are extremely important, yet according to the National Fire Protection Association, only 23% of households nationwide have planned and practiced a home fire escape plan.
Fire Prevention Month is a good time to develop and practice your home fire escape plan:
- Draw up escape routes from all areas of the house.
- Plan alternate routes out of each room.
- Pick a place outside to meet safely away from the house.
- Once everyone is safe, find a phone and dial 911
- Practice – don’t just talk about it – practice:
- At night when the lights are off.
- A surprise drill in the morning.
- On hands and knees to simulate being surrounded by smoke.
Fire Prevention Month is observed annually throughout North America and Europe, observing the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire known form destroying a large part of the city and killing 250 people on October 9, 1871.
For more information on fire safety, contact your local fire department.
The OLST and OSFM supports this effort and is requesting fire departments and districts throughout Oregon reinforce this message with materials available from OSFM.
The OVFA received funding from the Department of Homeland Security to have a home fire escape flyer designed and inserted into 58 newspapers with a subscription of 240,000 readers. The flyer compliments a PSA on smoke alarm maintenance being broadcast through Comcast. The flyer includes a place to draw a family escape plan. It is intended to be kept on the refrigerator after it is completed.
Also included in the OSFM Fire Prevention Month campaign is a smoke alarm education campaign tool kit "A Smoke Alarm That Doesn't Work...Doesn't Work." This kit provides the tools to implement a community outreach and media campaign to show the importance of maintaining a working smoke alarm and having a home escape plan.
Media Campaign Tool kit
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