October is Fire Prevention Month, and the Lundar Fire Department is reminding residents that fire safety is important year-round.
Davina Mason, fire and safety educator with Lundar Fire, says her top three tips are simple but lifesaving — avoid overloading outlets, keep heaters away from anything combustible, and never leave anything cooking unattended.
“It can take only seconds for a situation to go from completely normal to having flames in your home,” Mason said. “We want to prevent that from happening as much as we can.”
Fire Prevention Month dates back to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, a devastating blaze that destroyed thousands of buildings and left lasting lessons in fire safety.
“Everything then was built with wood, and once the fire started, it just kept spreading because of the endless fuel,” Mason explained. “It was a true disaster.”
For more than a century, fire departments across North America have used October to raise awareness and promote safety. This year, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has chosen the theme Charge into Fire Safety, highlighting the risks associated with lithium-ion batteries.
Mason notes that these batteries are everywhere — from cellphones to musical greeting cards.
“These batteries can overheat and cause fires,” she said. “In landfills, greeting card batteries are actually one of the leading causes of fires. And once they ignite, they’re very hard to put out because water doesn’t work well on them.”
Her advice: use only safety-certified charging cords, avoid charging devices for long periods of time, and keep them off soft surfaces that can trap heat.
“We want people to know that the cheap chargers are cheap for a reason. They aren’t going to charge your phone as safely as the higher quality and more expensive chargers do — it could be an investment that saves your life.”
When batteries reach the end of their life, proper disposal is critical. Through the Call2Recycle program, lithium-ion batteries can be collected and recycled at no cost. In Lundar, residents can drop off batteries at the RM office at 35 Main Street, Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
This month, Mason will also visit local schools and daycares to teach children about fire safety and the importance of having a family fire plan.
“We want families to create a plan together,” she said. “That means knowing how to call 911, not being afraid of firefighters when they arrive, having two ways out of every room, and knowing where to meet once outside.”
A safe meeting place could be something nearby, like a trampoline or swing set, or farther away, such as a neighbour’s house — as long as everyone knows where it is.
“We want these plans to become second nature to the kids so they don’t have to think twice about it. Fire plans are much like insurance — we want to know we have it in the back of our minds, but we don’t ever want to have to use it.”
