As Little as Two Minutes: Smoke Alarms and Fire Safety, From the NPS's Fire Prevention Week

In a home fire you may have as little as 2 minutes to get out, and a smoke alarm senses smoke well before you can. That is the case the National Park Service's Structural Fire Program made for Fire Prevention Week 2024 (October 6–12), under the theme "Smoke Alarms: Make them work for you."

Why October

The National Fire Protection Association has held Fire Prevention Week every October since 1922, in memory of the Great Chicago Fire, which began on October 8, 1871. It killed more than 250 people, left 100,000 homeless, destroyed more than 17,400 structures and burned more than 2,000 acres.

The case for alarms

The NPS proclamation, signed on October 2, 2024, at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, by Christopher Wilcox, chief of the NPS Division of Fire and Aviation Management, and Shane Crutcher, branch chief for structural fire, set out the numbers (from the NFPA):

Homes are where people face the greatest fire risk. So:

• Install smoke alarms in every sleeping room, outside each separate sleeping area and on every level of the home.
• Test them at least once a month.
• Plan and practice a home fire escape plan — people who have are better prepared and more likely to survive.
• Make sure alarms work for everyone in the household, including people with sensory or physical disabilities; the NPS committed to this for its own employees and their families.

In a park building

• Find the emergency exits, and be ready to leave immediately and safely if an alarm sounds.
• Follow evacuation plans and the instructions of emergency officials and park staff or volunteers.
• Staying overnight? Tell park staff if you or someone with you may need help in an emergency.

Sources

Based on "National Park Service Structural Fire Program observes Fire Prevention Week 2024," National Park Service, including the NPS Division of Fire and Aviation Management's 2024 Fire Prevention Week proclamation, which cites the National Fire Protection Association; a work of the United States government in the public domain.