Fire Department

Fire Prevention Week (Oct 7th - Oct 13th)

As Fire Prevention Week approaches the Washington City Fire Department encourages residents to “Look. Listen. Learn.” What does that mean? Today’s home fires burn faster than ever. In a typical home fire you may have as little as one to two minutes to escape safely from the time the smoke alarm sounds. Knowing how to use that time wisely takes planning and practice. The Washington City Fire Department is teaming up with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) the official sponsor of Fire Prevention Week™ for more than 90 years to promote this year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign, “Look. Listen. Learn. Be aware. Fire can happen anywhere™,” which works to educate the public about basic but essential ways to quickly and safely escape a home fire. NFPA statistics show that the number of U.S. home fires has been steadily declining over the past few decades. However, the death rate per 1000 home fires that are reported to fire departments was 10 percent higher in 2016 than in 1980. “These numbers show that while we’ve made significant progress in teaching people how to prevent fires from happening, there’s still much more work to do in terms of educating the public about how to protect themselves in the event of one,” -Lorraine Carli, NFPA’s vice president. There are three steps people can take to help quickly and safely escape a fire, first Look for places fire could start, second listen for the sound of the smoke alarm, and third learn 2 ways out of every room. For more information on Fire safety please visit FirePreventionWeek.org.

-Fire Department

(435)673-4788