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A Weekly Note from Mayor Gary L. Graham
“Traditional Values, Progressive Thinking”
With January being a peak month for home structure fires, this week’s column is devoted to providing you with some home fire prevention safety tips that will assist you in keeping your family safe this winter.
The leading causes of fires in the home are cooking, heating equipment and electrical.
Cooking equipment (mostly the kitchen stovetop) is involved in more than one-third (38%) of the reported home fires and fire injuries each year. The typical cooking fire occurs when cooking is left unattended.
Cooking Safety Tips:
- Pay attention to your cooking. Stay in the kitchen when you are frying, grilling, or boiling food.
- If you must leave the room for even a short period of time, turn off the stove.
- When you are simmering, boiling, baking, or roasting food, check it regularly, stay in the home, and use a timer to remind you.
- If you have young children, use the stover’s back burners whenever possible.
- Keep children and pets at least three feet away from the stove.
- When you cook, wear clothing with tight-fitting or short sleeves.
- Allow food cooked in a microwave oven to cool for a minute or more before you remove it from the oven; remember to use an oven mitt.
- Open microwaved food slowly. Hot steam escaping from the container can cause painful burns.
Almost half (44%) of home heating equipment fires are reported during the months of December, January, and February.
Heating Safety Tips:
- Keep space heaters at least three feet from people and from anything that can burn, such as curtains and bedding.
- Turn space heaters off when you go to bed or leave the room.
- Have heating equipment professionally inspected and serviced each year.
- Have your chimneys cleaned and inspected before each heating season.
On average, electrical distribution and lighting equipment is involved in 20,800 home structure fires per year, averaging 330 fire deaths. Electrical distribution and lighting equipment includes fixed wiring; transformers, meters or meter boxes; power switch gear; switches, receptacles and outlets; cords and plugs; and lighting equipment.
Electrical Safety Tips:
- Replace or repair loose or frayed cords on all electrical devices.
- Avoid overloading receptacles.
- Plug only one high-wattage appliance at a time into a receptacle outlet.
- Avoid running extension cords across doorways or under carpets.
- Install arc fault circuit interrupters (AFCIs) to protect electrical outlets. AFCIs protect against fire by continuously monitoring the electrical current in a circuit and shutting off the circuit when unintended arcing occurs.
- Install ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) electrical outlets in kitchens, bathrooms, outdoor areas, basements, and garages. GFCIs greatly reduce the risk of shock by shutting off an electrical circuit when the circuit could be a shock hazard.
The safety of our residents and their loved ones is very important to me and by working together we can make sure that everyone remains safe and sound. The strong working relationship between City Hall and the residents we serve is yet another example of why O’Fallon is such a great community in which to live.
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