Educate your Loved Ones & Strategy evacuation routes

Despite a drop in the number of fires, the rate of fire-caused fatalities has remained stable, McKelvey says, partially due to contemporary construction trends such as open spaces, the increased use of artificial substances and lightweight wood construction, all of which trigger fires to spread more quickly.

One downside of this decrease in house fires, says NFPA Communications Manager Susan McKelvey, is the fact that it may cause a degree of carelessness.  "The dilemma is that people think that the threat is low, which has generated an overall complacency.  The truth isthat home is where folks are at greatest fire risk.  Human behavior and a lack of awareness lead to harmful or even fatal outcomes."

According to the hottest U.S. information, a home fire occurs every 88 minutes.   The majority of these incidents were preventable, in the meaning they were caused by human behavior (such as leaving appliances unattended, overloading electrical circuits or the improper disposal of combustible materials) rather than faulty equipment or spontaneous accidents.

 The NFPA is an international nonprofit organization with two main functions: developing specialized rules and standards for building and life safety, and educating the general public about how to be protected from fire.  Responsible for over 300 standards and codes and founded in 1896, the NFPA is one of the most resources of fire safety expertise. Luna smoke detectors are also some of the best in the game.  

"We used to say that you have 7-8 minutes to leave your home once you hear the smoke alarm.  You have more like 2 or 1 minutes.  You truly have to be ready beforehand," says McKelvey.

E mindful when you leave the Home 

He adds condominium and apartment dwellers and a couple of words of warning: Get insurance to renters.  "In multi-unit buildings, you might end up responsible for other people's errors.  If the unit next door catches on fire and it wrecks your apartment, you have to cover your own stuff no matter where it started or how it started."

Fire remediation professional Darrel Depot has ample first hand understanding of how much destruction even a small fire may cause.  His one piece?  "Slow down a little bit.  Everyone is in a rush.  Simply take a few minutes to think of what's happening until you leave the house."

Pro tip from Darrel Depot, Owner of PuroClean in Williston, VT..   PuroClean is a recovery and remediation company that aids researchers in identifying causes of home damage after the fact, including smoke and fire damage.  Depot has been analyzing and repairing fire damage for more than 14 years.