Fire Prevention is a function of many fire departments. The goal of fire prevention is to educate the public to take precautions to prevent fires, and be educated about surviving them. It is a proactive method of reducing emergencies and the damage caused by them.

Stop, drop and roll

If your clothing catches on fire, the most effective method of extinguishing the fire is to stop, drop to the ground, and roll back and forth to smother the flame.

Don't run around because it fans the flames giving more oxygen to feed off.

Smoke detectors save lives

Working smoke detectors reduce the chances of death in a fire by half.
Nearly 900 lives could be saved annually if every home had working smoke detectors.
Nearly half of all fire survivors remember hearing their smoke alarm.
Deaths due to fire have decreased by half since the invention of the smoke detector.
Most deaths due to fire occur at night when people are sleeping

Smoke detector maintenance

The most common cause of smoke detector failure is missing or disconnected batteries.
Nuisance alarms are the most common reason for deliberately disconnecting batteries.
Missing, disconnected, or dead batteries account for 73% of smoke detector failures.
Smoke detectors should be installed on every level of your home.
Change your batteries twice a year.
Clean your detectors also.
Replace the entire unit every ten years.

Smoke detectors are just a start

Smoke detectors only wake you up.
Never assume that someone has already called the fire department, or that it was automatically notified.
Know tonight what you will do if you are ever woken up by your smoke detectors.
Make sure your family and friends know also.

Don't Just Leave to Do Something Else

One of the most common reasons for fires is how people often leave stoves, ovens, toasters, clothing irons, barbecues, and candles unattended. Therefore one must always be aware when using the aforementioned appliances.

Get out and stay out

Each year, many people are injured or killed because they reenter their burning homes. If you are lucky enough to have escaped, stay out.

Firefighters are your friends

One of the most critical jobs of a firefighter is search and rescue. For young children, it is important that firefighters are seen as people they can follow and trust. A firefighter in firefighting gear breathing out of an air tank can be scary. One way a child can get use to or trust a firefighter is seeing a firefighter dress up step by step seeing that it is a person inside. Also being able to walk up and touch him can reassure them that he is a real person. (which is a step that has already been implemented by many fire departments across the world during fire prevention week).

Don’t play with fire

Playing with fire causes many unnecessary emergencies, and hurts and kills many people, and is a leading cause of forest fires.

For more information on Fire Prevention, refer to the following websites or contact the St.Paul Fire Department: