October is Fire Prevention Month, and as a way to make sure individuals and families are safe and prepared for potential fires, numerous events revolving around community education have been planned.
Springfield firefighters are visiting 35 area elementary schools to provide fire safety lessons to kids in kindergarten through fifth grade. Altogether, they will visit almost 400 classrooms and teach around 10,000 students. These visits began on October 6th and will continue through the month of October.
Also, to coincide with Fire Prevention Month, last week the Springfield Fire Department and volunteers from the American Red Cross targeted high-risk neighborhoods in the west central and southwest areas of Springfield to educate individuals on fire safety. In the door-to-door campaign, residents were provided fire safety education and were encouraged to allow fire officials to install smoke alarms or replace the batteries on existing smoke alarms.
According to the Red Cross, having working smoke alarms in your home cuts the risk of dying in a fire in half. Nationally, about two-thirds of fire-related deaths occurred in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.
The National Fire Protection Agency, or NFPA, recommends that you install a smoke alarm in and outside every bedroom and on every floor of the home including the basement. NFPA also suggests that you should test your smoke alarm once a month by pushing the test button.
For more information on fire safety, visit nfpa.organd click on the “Safety Information” tab.