This Home Fire Drill Can Save Your Family’s Life

House fires are deadly and all too common

A house fire happens every 86 seconds, and with winter coming, the risk of a house fire in your own home is about to go way up, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Here are the NFPA’s sobering statistics of U.S. home fires between 2011 and 2015:

• Fire departments in the US responded to an estimated average of 358,500 home structure fires per year, resulting in:
  • 2,510 civilian deaths, or 93 percent of all civilian fire deaths
  • 12,300 civilian fire injuries, or 87 percent of all civilian fire injuries
  • $6.7 billion in direct damage
• On average, seven people die in U.S. home fires per day.
• Cooking equipment was the leading cause of home fires. Heating equipment came in second.
• Smoking was the leading cause of civilian home fire death.
• Home fires spread so rapidly that by the time a fire alarm sounds, there may be as little as two minutes for a family to escape a house fire.
• Although the sheer number of deaths from home fires has decreased, the rate of death per house fire is up by 10 percent since 1980, indicating that more progress has been made in preventing home fires than in preventing deaths as a result of a home fire.

Here are some fire hazards to keep in mind if you want to learn how to prevent house fires.