Since 1925, the NFPA has officially sponsored Fire Prevention Week and selects the annual theme to be promoted that year. This year the theme is, “Every Second Counts: Plan 2 Ways Out!”
President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the first National Fire Prevention Week from October 4 to 10, 1925. That proclamation was the result of efforts begun in 1911 by the Fire Marshals Association of North America — the oldest membership section of the National Fire Protection Association. In 1911, the Fire Marshals Association sponsored the first Fire Prevention Day and had hoped that by holding an observance on the 40th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire it would be a way to keep the public informed about the importance of fire prevention. Since 1925, Fire Prevention Week in the U.S. has been proclaimed by the president as a national week of observance and is celebrated by fire departments and communities across the country during the week of October 9th to commemorate the Great Chicago Fire.
What is known about the Great Chicago Fire is that it started in a small barn behind 137 DeKoven Street and quickly became a conflagration. The fire burned for 27 hours before it was declared under control, starting around 9 p.m. on Sunday, October 8, 1871, to Tuesday, October 10, 1871. It’s estimated that it killed 300 people and destroyed 3.3 square miles, or more than 2,000 acres, of the City of Chicago and left 100,000 people — 1/3 of the residents of the city — homeless. Occurring on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, and often mentioned when discussing it, was the Peshtigo Fire. The Peshtigo Fire is said to have been the deadliest wild fire in history. The fire in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, on October 8, 1871, burned 1.2 million acres of forest and killed an estimated 1,500 to 2,500 people.
During his Presidential National Fire Prevention Week proclamation in 1925, Coolidge remarked that in the previous year, 15,000 lives were lost to fire in the U.S. The president called the loss “startling” and went on to say, “This waste results from the conditions which justify a sense of shame and horror; for the greater part of it could and ought to be prevented. It is highly desirable that every effort be made to reform the conditions which have made possible so vast a destruction of national wealth.”
1) Draw a map of your home with all members of your family, marking two exits from each room and a path to the outside from each exit.
2) Practice your home fire drill twice a year. Conduct one at night and one during the day with everyone in your home, and practice using different ways out.
3) Teach children how to escape on their own just in case you can’t help them.
4) Make sure the number of your home is clearly marked and easy for the fire department to find.
5) Close doors behind you as you leave — this may slow the spread of smoke, heat and fire.
6) Once you get outside, stay outside. Never go back inside a burning building.
