GAMEWELL VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT

LENOIR, NORTH CAROLINA

TEAM UP FOR FIRE SAFETY

Somewhere in the nation, a home fire occurs approximately every 85 seconds. The peak time for home fire fatalities is between 2 am and 4 am - when most people are asleep. Although smoke alarms are present in 94 percent of American homes, 20 percent do not work, mostly because of dead or missing batteries. That means roughly 19 million homes are at risk due to non-working smoke alarms and another 6 million homes are at risk due to no smoke alarms. This prevents the U.S. from achieving the full potential of increased fire safety from smoke alarms.

In the U.S., roughly 80 percent of fire deaths result from fires in homes without working smoke alarms. Half of the home fire deaths resulted from fires in the small percentage of homes (six percent) without any smoke alarms.

If a fire occurs, working smoke alarms cut the risk of dying in a home fire nearly in half by providing an early warning and critical extra seconds to escape.

The National Fire Alarm Code requires a minimum of one smoke alarm on each level of a home, including one inside each bedroom for new construction and one outside each sleeping area.

In addition to changing smoke alarm batteries, smoke alarms should be replaced every ten years.

Education is key. Less than one quarter of U.S. homes had smoke alarms in 1977. Although several factors such as safer products, building codes and life safety education played important roles, increased smoke alarm usage played a major role in the nearly 50 percent drop in home fire deaths since that time.

For a free smoke alarm please contact the Gamewell Fire Department 758-2581 or stop by the station at 2806 Morganton Blvd. Lenoir, NC