Fire Prevention

Fire Safety Home Inspections

The South Oldham Fire Department is offering a free fire safety home inspection for residents in our fire district of Crestwood and surrounding communities. The program is voluntary for residents and in not regulated by any local fire codes or regulations. Contact the station at 241-8992 Monday - Friday from 9-5 to schedule an inspection.

Smoke Detectors

A smoke alarm is critical for the early detection of a fire in your home and could mean the difference between life and death. Fires can occur in a variety of ways and in any room of your home. But no matter where or how, having a smoke alarm is the first key step towards your family’s safety. This document is not intended to be all inclusive, but it is intended to inform the reader about some of the safety aspects and importance of having and maintaining working smoke alarms. Click HERE for useful information on types of detectors, how they work, where to install and much more information about them.

According to the United States Fire Administration, more than 600,000 residential fires occur annually, resulting in $5 billion in property damage. In addition, an estimated 1,000 children age 14 and under die and another 11,400 are injured in residential fires each year. More than 60 percent of these children are age 4 and under.

Most people vastly underestimate the importance of having working smoke detectors in their homes. The reality is that smoke detectors can often mean the difference between life and death. Your chances of dying in a fire are cut in half by the presence of a working smoke detector.

To assure proper placement and maintenance, the Kosair Children's Hospital Office of Child Advocacy recommends following these guidelines:

· Place a smoke detector in and near each bedroom or sleeping area. People sleeping have the greatest risk of dying in fires. Toxic gases and smoke lull them into a deeper sleep, eventually killing them.
· Place a smoke detector on each level of the home. If you live in a multi-level home, one on every level can provide up to three minutes to escape.
· Position smoke detectors on ceilings or high walls. Smoke rises, so detectors should be placed high and close to the middle of the room.
· Do not place the smoke detector on a wall that faces the outside if you live in a poorly-insulated or mobile home. The temperature of the wall may vary and cause the detector to malfunction.
· Position the detector away from cooking or furnace fumes, fireplace smoke and dust to reduce unwanted alarms. The best location is three feet away from an air vent or air conditioning unit since they can inhibit the detector's ability to sense smoke.
· Test detectors once a month. Follow the manufacturer's guidelines for testing and maintenance.
· Clean the detector regularly. Dirt can "confuse" the detector and lead to false alarms or impair its ability to detect smoke.
· Replace the batteries in your detector at least once a year. The best way to remember to change the batteries in your smoke detector is to change them when you change your clocks to Daylight Savings Time.

Fast Fire Facts

- On average, a fire department responded to: A fire every 25 seconds, A structure fire every 65 seconds, An outside fire every 56 seconds, And a vehicle fire at the rate of 1 every 167 seconds. Fire claimed nine lives every day.

- In 2013, U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 1,240,000 fires. These fires caused 3,240 civilian deaths and 15,925 civilian injuries.1 In the same year, 97 firefighters were fatally injured while on duty.2 There were 69,400 firefighter injuries in 2012.3

- In 2013, home structure fires caused 83% of the civilian fire deaths and 78% of the civilian fire injuries. Homes include one-and two-family homes, apartments, townhouses, row houses, and manufactured homes.

- Heating equipment was involved in one of every five home fire deaths. Heating equipment ranked second in reported home fires, home fire deaths and home fire injuries. Portable and fixed space heaters, including wood stoves, are involved in more fires than central heat. These fires are also more likely than central heating fires to result in death.

- Intentional fires are the third leading cause of home fires. According to FBI statistics, two out of every five of the people arrested for arson in recent years were under 18.

Information Source:

Plan Ahead. If a fire breaks out in your home, you may have only a few minutes to get out safely once the smoke alarm sounds. Everyone needs to know what to do and where to go if there is a fire.

Click Here to Learn More

Home Fire Sprinklers

Because fire sprinklers react so quickly, they can dramatically reduce the heat, flames, and smoke produced in a fire. Properly installed and maintained fire sprinklers help save lives.Fire sprinklers have been around for more than a century, protecting commercial and industrial properties and public buildings. What many people don't realize is that the same life-saving technology is also available for homes, where roughly 85% of all civilian fire deaths occur.

Facts About Home Fire Sprinklers
Automatic sprinklers are highly effective and reliable elements of total system designs for fire protection in buildings. According to an American Housing Survey, 4.6% of occupied homes (including multi-unit) had sprinklers in 2009, up from 3.9% in 2007, and 18.5% of occupied home built in the previous four years had sprinklers. Source: U.S. Experience with Sprinklers

85% of all U.S. fire deaths occur in the home.
Home fire sprinklers can control and may even extinguish a fire in less time than it would take the fire department to arrive on the scene.
Only the sprinkler closest to the fire will activate, spraying water directly on the fire. In 84% of home fires where the sprinklers operate, just one sprinkler operates.
If you have a fire in your home, the risk of dying is cut by about one-third when smoke alarms are present (or about half if the smoke alarms are working), while automatic fire sprinkler systems cut the risk of dying by about 80%.
In a home with sprinklers, the average property loss per fire is cut by about 70%
(compared to fires where sprinklers are not present.)
The cost of installing home fire sprinklers averages $1.35 per sprinklered square foot

Sprinklers decrease the fire death rate per 1,000 reported home fires by about 80% and the average loss per home fire by about 70%. NFPA’s Fire Sprinkler Initiative: Bringing Safety Home is a nationwide effort to encourage the use of home fire sprinklers and the adoption of fire sprinkler requirements for new construction. See www.firesprinklerinitiative.org.

Kids Activity and Resource Center

Fire Safety for Kids

Check out Sparky.org for interactive activities to help your kids learn about fire safety.