Fire Prevention Week 2018 starts today! This year’s “Look. Listen. Learn.” campaign highlights three steps people can take to help quickly and safely escape a fire:
• LOOK for places fire could start.
• LISTEN for the sound of the smoke alarm.
• LEARN 2 ways out of every room.

This video is a quick demonstration of why a home escape plan is so important. The legacy room contains older furnishings, probably pre-1950s. The modern room contains furnishings you probably have in your home now. The newer materials burn hotter and faster, greatly reducing escape time when a fire breaks out.

Have you ever wondered why we observe Fire Prevention Week every October? (Hint: Don’t blame Mrs. O’Leary’s cow for this one either.)

Some interesting history… (Borrowed from the Dover F.D. facebook page)

On October 9, 1871, one popular legend claims that Mrs. Catherine O’Leary was milking her cow when the animal kicked over a lamp, set the O’Leary’s barn on fire and started the fiery conflagration. The city of Chicago was fast to rebuild and soon began to remember the event with festivities. The Fire Marshals Association of North America believed the 40th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire should be observed in a way that would keep the public aware of the importance of fire prevention. On Oct. 9, 1911, FMANA sponsored the first National Prevention Day. In 1920, President Woodrow Wilson issued the first national Fire Prevention Day proclamation. By 1925, President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the first National Fire Prevention Week, which was Oct. 4-10, 1925. He noted that in the previous year approximately 15,000 lives had been lost to fire in the United States. National Fire Prevention Week is always the week in which Oct. 9 falls. Each year, a specific theme is chosen and is commemorated throughout the United States.