Fire Prevention Month in West Chester

10/23/2019 (Permalink)

At SERVPRO, we are very passionate about Fire Safety Month. Fire Safety Month for 2019 is in October. This year the Fire Prevention campaign is, “Not Every Hero Wears a Cape. Plan and Practice Your Escape!” works to educate everyone about the small but important actions they can take to keep themselves and those around them safe. 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. Making a plan with your family to practice and plan an escape during a fire will be critical if you ever need to use that plan. Making a plan with your family is very important. It can literally be the difference between preventing a horrible tragedy. Protecting your family is obviously everyone’s top priority, and making sure you have a plan in place to do so is an important thing to do. Hopefully you will never have to utilize that plan, but being able to have it in place, and practice it is key.

               Fire prevention week started in 1922. In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed Fire Prevention Week a national observance, making it the longest-running public health observance in our country. This does not just include schools, and children. It is important to educate all walks of life. Senior citizens, and disabled people can also be at risk, as sometimes they are limited in their motility. Making sure you have proper and working smoke alarms is key.  Fire Prevention Week is observed each year during the week of October 9th in commemoration of the Great Chicago Fire, which began on October 8, 1871, and caused devastating damage. This awful fire killed more than 250 people, left 100,000 homeless, destroyed more than 17,400 structures, and burned more than 2,000 acres of land.

               At SERVPRO of West Chester, we are passionate about helping the community, and making sure we are taking all necessary steps to inform the community about ways to prevent disasters.