Fire Prevention Week begins
[anvplayer video=”5195336″ station=”998128″]
(ABC 6 News) – The nationwide campaign educates everyone on fire prevention.
It commemorates the Great Chicago Fire, and the week has been observed every year since 1922.
Throughout the next couple of days, firefighters will open their doors and speak with the community to remind them on some fire safety tips.
The theme for this year is “Cooking Safety Starts with YOU.”
Unattended cooking is the leading cause of cooking fires and deaths.
The nationwide campaign educates everyone on fire prevention. It commemorates the Great Chicago Fire, and the week has been observed every year since 1922.
This kind of blaze requires a special extinguisher you might not know about.
“Don’t use water if it’s an oil fire, you want to use an extinguisher, if it’s an oven fire you want to make sure you keep your oven closed to contain it, and if it’s a big fire you can’t handle, get out of the house, call 911 and let us handle it,” Rochester firefighter Mandee Marx said.
Jose Laureano and his three-year-old son recently had to escape their burning home last month.
The cause was accidental after a box sitting on the stove went up in flames while a burner was left on.
Despite the house being uninhabitable Laureano and his son were not hurt during the incident.
“It was either or we stay there, or we die, or we save our life, so my thinking was just jump in and save our life and everything else is material.”
They currently have a GoFundMe set up for anyone who wants to donate.
Laureano said the plan is to have the house cleaned up before winter so they can start to rebuild.
This kind of house fire could happen to anyone and that’s why it’s the focus theme for this year.
Rochester fire along with many local departments and those nationwide are partaking in this campaign.
They want to remind everyone to make sure they have working smoke detectors and to have a plan in place if they ever experience a house fire.
“If there is a fire please get out of the house, have an emergency plan, an escape plan with your family so we know everybody’s out of the house, so when we show up, we can get going to put that fire out,” Marx said.
Some activities the Rochester fire department is doing this week is to hold open houses at all their stations and perform live demonstrations for the public to watch.
To learn more about the events this week, click HERE.