Every year over 12,000 lives are snuffed out by fires in the United States alone.
The average person suffers from FIRE every 12 years!
Here is what you can do to protect your family from the Blazing Fury of FIRE!
A RAGING inferno in the dead of the night; screams and wails, crying children, weeping adults, panic-stricken at the hot lash of thick smoke and searing flames. Like a scene from Dante's inferno.
Your Chances
Your chances of suffering from a fire during the next twelve years are extremely high. According to fire department statistical estimates, the "average" person is a victim of fire every twelve years or five times during his lifetime! This could include fire in your home, automobile, place of business, or on a camping trip. It may include loss of property, burns, even death!
Are you prepared for the time fire may strike your family?
In 1968, fire killed almost as many Americans as the Vietnam War! Over 12,000 were killed. Multiple other thousands were maimed, scarred, burned, crippled, and disfigured.
Fire is one of man's greatest servants, but it can be a vicious killer! It frequently strikes in the dead of the night, when people are unaware, asleep. It strikes often suddenly, stealthily, seemingly silently. It is no respecter of persons. It has no regard for human values or human life.
The Frightful Scourge
Fire can be a horrible enemy when out of control, on the rampage, stirred to a frenzy by dry timber, oil-soaked rags, gasoline, a faint stirring breeze. It can kill scores at a time, devastate buildings, desecrate forests, prairies and grasslands, and scorch the earth with its unrelenting heat and savage fury.
Every year fire costs the American people over $2,000,000,000 loss in property damage.
Yet, authorities state that 95 percent of all fires could be prevented! Think of it! There is no excuse for 95 percent of all fires ever occurring!
Yet it happens. Daily. Hourly. Every day in 1968 there were an average of over 6,500 fires (2,400,000 in the year). Somewhere in the United States, a fire erupts into spontaneous fury, devouring property, possibly life and limb, every 13 seconds. These fires sent at least 12,100 people to death.
Fires in the U.S. cost a whopping $6 million every single day — or over $4,000 every minute. Millions of dollars' worth transformed into smoke and ashes, not to mention lives destroyed. And 95 percent of it could be avoided!
According to the National Fire Protection Association, every single day fires in the United States alone claim an average of 33 human lives, 1,510 homes, 167 apartments, 23 schools, 10 churches, 21 hospitals and nursing homes, 149 farm buildings, 126 industrial plants, and 208 stores, restaurants and offices.
That's every single day!
Residential fires alone kill at least 6,500 people, including 2,100 children, one third of whom are alone or without proper supervision at the time of the fire.
Said an article in the Chicago Tribune, "The United States has the highest death rate per capita from fires of any of the world's major nations. . .
"J. Herbert Holloman, Acting Under-Secretary of Commerce, said the United States rate is twice that of Canada, four times that of the United Kingdom, and 6 times that of Japan" (April 6, 1967).
That's nothing to be proud of. But regardless of where you live, fire can catch you unawares and horribly mutilate, massacre, and murder innocent people, including young children.
Unfortunately, most people dismiss fires as just "bad luck." They call them "accidental."
Not at all! Fires are not unavoidable. How "unavoidable" is smoking cigarettes? Is "bad luck" to blame for over loading electric circuits? Is a poorly maintained heating unit or cooking equipment "accidental"?
Time Was When the Fireman . . .
In years gone by, the fireman was loved by children, and many young people wanted to be firemen when they grew up. Time was when the fireman was a much honored, respected member of any community. But times have changed.
What other conclusion can one reach when today firemen are often pelted with rocks, sniped at when battling a blaze, cursed or taunted, jeered and hooted by malicious, angry crowds?
Firemen haven't earned that hatred! They haven't changed from the protectors of life and preservers of property. But times have changed. Today, arson is becoming more commonplace, false alarms are increasing. Ghetto hatred of anybody in a uniform has grown tremendously. Today, it is dangerous to be a fireman in a big city or metropolis like New York City, Los Angeles or Gary, Indiana. Last year alone New York City experienced 127, 956 fires — an increase of 40 percent over the previous year. Since 1960 in Los Angeles, fires have more than doubled!
In 1968 New York firemen experienced 947 attacks and 125 firemen were injured by angry people they were attempting to help. Three times as many firemen proportionately are killed in the line of duty as policemen.
In large cities and especially ghetto areas, being a fireman is fast becoming one of those "thankless jobs."
Anybody wearing a badge, or toting a fire hose, or wearing a uniform today is a symbol of authority — represents the "establishment" — and therefore seems to be "fair game" for dissidents, mobs, the disenchanted and disenfranchised.
Hindering a fireman in the performance of his duty is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. It's comparable to smashing your fist through a window to see if it'll bleed.
Firemen are protectors of property and life for all segments of our population equally and certainly do not merit hindrance in their humanitarian effort.
Are YOU Prepared?
In 1968 in the United States alone there were an estimated 2,400,000 fires, costing a total of $2,180,000,000.
But the stark tragedy of fires is not revealed in mere numbers and dry statistics. It is revealed in the personal agony, anguish and suffering of flesh and blood human beings like you and me.
Fire unleashed can be a deadly foe — a dangerous killer — and expensive!
What can you do about it? There are positive steps you can take to prevent fires — to safeguard your own family and protect your property!
But the question is — are you willing to take the time to not only read what safety experts say, but also to implement their suggestions and precautions into your own home and family life?
Or are you too calloused, too negligent, too unconcerned, like some, to make the effort to protect your family?
What would you do if your house caught fire? What if some rioter threw a fire-bomb through your front window, where it smashed on your floor and erupted into flame — what would you do?
Most people would panic. They are unprepared. If fire strikes them, they jump in terror from high ledges without thinking. They flee in confusion and forget their children left behind until it is too late. They rush headlong into the wrong course of action, because of ignorance and/or lack of training.
Since the law of averages has already virtually picked you out, singled you out for a fire within the next twelve years, at the outside, you need to take steps now to "lessen the odds" by practicing fire prevention.
You can lessen the odds, and increase your chances of avoiding serious fire, if you are willing to spend the time and energy to take the necessary action!
The CAUSE of Fires
What causes fires?
Lightning strikes timber and causes a sizeable number each year. But man's carelessness and negligence is far and away the number one cause!
This is especially true in home and industrial fires.
Several years ago, a study by the National Fire Protection Association, of fires that caused four or more deaths showed 43.5 percent were caused by heating and cooking equipment, 13.2 percent by flammable liquids, the same percentage by children playing with fire (or matches), 11.8 percent caused by matches and smoking, and the same percentage also by faulty electrical wiring or equipment.
The Royal Bank of Canada Monthly Letter revealed: "Nearly all fires are due to human blunders. Having an alarm system, fire extinguishers and escape routes do not provide the security you can obtain by taking all possible precautions to prevent fires from starting.
"House fires in Canada are caused, according to the federal fire commissioner's office, by: smokers' carelessness 47 percent; heating equipment 16 percent; rubbish and trash 12 percent; electric wiring 10 percent; flammable liquids 4 percent; ashes 3 percent; others (usually not connected with home fire safety) 8 percent."
The most frequent causes of building fires in the United States are: smoking, matches — 23%; heating, cooking equipment — 21.4%; electrical — 13%; flammable liquids — 9%; chimneys and flues — 9%; and so forth.
The fact is, lightning — which is not humanly preventable — is responsible for only five percent of building fires in the United States or Canada!
These are some of the causes of fires. Now consider how to prevent them.