Residential Fire Safety

Smoke Alarm Facts:

A working smoke alarm is not present in 2/3 of the residential fires in which a child is injured or killed.
The chances of dying in a residential fire are cut in half when a working smoke alarm is present.
70% of older Americans who die in fires do not have a working smoke alarm.

Maine Fire Facts:

A 1995 telephone survey revealed that 96.4% of Maine residents had at least one smoke alarm, however, due to a variety of reasons, up to 50% of these alarms may be non-functioning. Only 43% reported checking their smoke detector in the last month.
In 1999 alone, Maine experienced a loss of $18million as a result of fire damage
Residential fires and fire deaths are most frequent during the winter months when residents resort to various means of heating their homes, such as space heaters and wood stoves.
In 24% of all residential fires in Maine in 1999, smoke alarms were present but did not operate.
In Maine a average of 4 to 5 deaths occur each year from residential fires for ages birth to 24. Due to their inability to self evacuate, 50% of these deaths were children under the age of 5. In Maine children under five years of age and adults over the age of are the most at risk of fire death and injury.

National Statistics:

Nearly 1,000 children ages 14 and under die in residential fires every year. Nearly 47,000 children ages 14 and under are injured in residential fires each year.
Children ages 5 and under, representing 9% of the population and 22% of all fire-related deaths in the home, are more than twice as likely to die in a fire than the rest of the population.
More than ½ of children ages 5 and under who die from home fires are asleep at the time.
Every year more than 1,000 Americans over age 65 die on home fires.
The fire fatality rate for adults age 65 and over is twice the national average.
Smoking-related fires are the leading killers of older fire victims.
The U.S. continues to have the second highest rate of per capita fire deaths in the industrialized world, ranked behind Hungary.