Monday begins National Fire Prevention Week and the theme this year encourages North Georgia residents to take action and make a plan: "Every second counts, have two ways out."
The National Fire Protection Association hosts the prevention effort each year, but Hall County Fire Department is extending the week to the whole month of October. Fire Marshal Bryan Cash said about a third of Americans have never practised a home escape plan.
"A family should sit down and talk about if you have a fire, where you'd get out of the home? If the means of egress - means of exit - is blocked, what would be your secondary means of getting out of the house?"
Cash said many people use a side door or a garage door and not the front door to get in and out, so it's important remember that you'll go to the door you normally go to out of habit.
"You kind of have to train yourself that if that means of exit is blocked, maybe you have to go a different way. It could be as simple as going out a window in a bedroom."
And, he said to practise both plans. "I would practise a couple of different ways, one in the daytime and one in the nighttime. Obviously at night, it changes the dynamics of it."
Have a meeting place for the family to meet after the escape. This way, if not everyone is accounted for, family members can tell firefighters where the person may be in the home and they can be located more quickly.
Next, be sure to check your smoke detectors and alarms to make sure they work or have fresh batteries.
"A working smoke alarm in your home reduces the risk being trapped inside and possibly dying in a fire. We know when a smoke alarm fails to operate, it's usually because the batteries are old and they're not working," said Cash. He said they typically encourage homeowners to change the batteries of smoke detectors when the time change comes around twice a year.
If you need help or can't afford a smoke detector, Cash said to call the Hall County Fire Department and they will help get and install one in your home.
"When you're talking about cutting down on the risk, it greatly increases your chances of getting out. We in Hall County have been pretty fortunate we haven't had any fire fatalities over the last year or so, our last fatality was in 2015. But when you look at the number, nationally, about seven people per day that die in a house fire," said Cash.
He said in the past 23 years, 44 people have died in fire in Hall County, but in the past 10 years, that number was only nine. He credited the decrease to community outreach, like smoke alarm blitzes where firefighters install smoke alarms in homes in certain areas of the county.
"Just last year, we had a large smoke alarm blitz down in the south end of Hall County and we put up in just a single day almost 600 smoke alarms in houses. When we get out here and put those smoke alarms up, that helps us and it decreases our chances of having someone get caught in a fire."
Cash said the next blitz will be in the Chicopee area in the coming weeks, and they plan to install about 250 smoke alarms then. They also go out into the community, businesses and schools to educate both children and adults about fire safety.
