THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 10, 1996 TAG: 9610090144
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 55 lines
The Fire Department is observing Fire Prevention Week, with activities at each of the fire stations and city schools and at Peanut Fest.
Mayor Thomas G. Underwood proclaimed Oct. 6-12 as Fire Prevention Week throughout the city.
All city fire stations are hosting open houses from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. each day through Saturday.
Fire inspections are being conducted in all the city's schools this week. Kindergarten students have been given Junior Fire Marshal literature, and those who complete a certificate of merit will be named Junior Fire Marshals and receive helmets at the end of the week.
On Friday, the school with the most students completing the Fire Prevention Program will be presented a certificate of achievement.
Sparky, the Fire Dog, will join firefighters and the Suffolk Fire Department Auxiliary at Peanut Fest to remind residents to check their smoke detectors to make sure they are working properly and the batteries are fresh.
Students in kindergarten through fifth-grade will be invited to participate in a coloring contest at the Fire Department's tent at Peanut Fest. The entries will be judged Saturday night and prizes awarded Sunday.
Brochures with puzzles and word games that teach children how to prevent fires also will be given to children at the Peanut Fest tent and at the fire stations.
Suffolk's three paid departments and four volunteer companies responded to 3,026 calls in 1995, according to Lieutenant Jeff Messinger, the department's public information officer.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, a fire department responds to a fire somewhere in the U.S. every 15 seconds. Nationwide, there was a civilian fire death every 123 minutes and a civilian fire injury every 19 minutes.
Nearly half the home fires in 1994 occurred in homes with no smoke detectors, and about three-fifths of all home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes without smoke detectors, according to the NFPA. Approximately one-fifth of all homes have some detectors that do not work properly. The primary reason for detector failure is dead, disconnected or missing batteries.
Fire Prevention Week was inspired by one of the worst fires in America's history - the great Chicago Fire of October 9, 1871, which claimed more than 250 lives and destroyed 17,430 buildings.
In 1911, on the 40th anniversary of the fire, the Fire Marshals Association of North America proclaimed the nations' first Fire Prevention Day to promote public awareness of fire safety.
In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge declared Fire Prevention Week an official national observance. Since then, the week containing the October 9th Chicago Fire anniversary has been the focus of an annual fire safety awareness campaign sponsored by the National Fire Protection Association. MEMO: For more information on fire prevention or fire safety issues,
call Messinger at Suffolk Fire Department at 539-8787. by CNB