Obscure Fire Stories and How to Prevent Them

“I had an uncle who smoked cigars,” said Pete Zotos on San Angelo LIVE!’s Facebook page, “and one Christmas he struck a match. It split, and part of it landed on a pajama set in a box with tissue paper. It went up like gasoline.”

Today kicks off day one of Fire Prevention week nationwide, and though we all know the basic rules of fire safety, most of us have also seen at least one obscure fire-related accident first-hand that could have ended without laughter.

“Once, my friends decided to start a bonfire in their plastic trashcan!” writes Jennifer Corder. “We were around 10 or 11 at the time…Luckily the carpet and trashcan were the only things damaged.”

Be it a greasy frying pan or Hershey’s kisses in the toaster, the majority of fires take place in the home. It’s not that we meant to catch the plastic top of the toilet tank on fire with a candle, it’s that our homes are where we tend to spend a majority of our time, thus home is where most accidents occur.

“Your home is your castle,” Fire Marshall Ross Coleman said. “Of all the buildings and occupancies we inspect, we don’t inspect your home. You’re not under any regulation or license to live in your home. Coincidentally, the largest number of fires we have are in homes. Where we live is where we’re most susceptible, we spend a lot of time there.”

Traditionally, Fire Prevention Week has focused on educating children on fire safety, and emphasizes exiting the building, getting down low to avoid inhaling smoke, and of course, stop, drop and roll.

This week, two firemen will be attending public schools in San Angelo, passing out stickers and plastic fireman hats and showing children the trucks and equipment that are a part of the job.

In the future, Coleman would like to expand the program to include adult education.

“I’m hoping next year to maybe get some people lined up, maybe head up some groups and do some adult fire prevention education,” Coleman says. “Talk about some of these historic fires and some of these issues and the need to leave the building.”

Fire Prevention Week originated in the wake of the Great Chicago Fires back in 1871. Popular legend holds that the fire was started by a cow kicking over a lantern in a small barn in an alley near downtown, although that account has been reputed to be a bit of creative writing done by a reporter at the time.

The fire, which started on Oct. 8, quickly picked up, and by the time it was extinguished, over 300 people had died and another 1,000 were left homeless. Ever since then, Fire Prevention Week has been slated for the second week of October.

Coleman currently holds fire prevention training for adult groups upon request. City employees also receive the training. When the training takes place, Coleman focuses on incidents that have happened in the past and their causes, and also examines the human element involved in creating the fires.

“We build a good building and then we put people in them,” Coleman says. “We change things, we have our habits, we lock doors, we put things in front of doors and exits and we create our own problems.”

Of the most common causes of fires in San Angelo, Coleman says that most fires are caused by unattended cooking, poor electrical work, poor storage of combustible liquids, and just overall poor housekeeping.

With few a few exceptions given to mother nature, Coleman says that every fire in San Angelo is preventable.

“Just a few weeks ago, we had a guy who left food unattended,” Coleman said. “We also had a cooking fire a couple of months ago in an apartment.”

The National Fire Protection Association names a theme each year for Fire Prevention Week; this year the theme is “Stop Kitchen Fires”. Students participating in activities this week will have the opportunity to win a plaque for creating the best poster inspired by the theme, and winners will be announced on Friday.

But if people remember nothing else this week, Fire Marshall Coleman says the biggest takeaway is: “If you’re at home, be sure you can get out of it. Make sure all your doors and windows are working and that you have working smoke detectors. But the name of the game for us is exiting the building. Leave the firefighting to the firefighters.”