Smoke alarms best tool in fire safety

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Wal-Mart Canada, in an effort to reduce property damage, injury and death from fire in Aboriginal communities in Alberta, has donated 300 smoke alarms to be distributed to Aboriginal families throughout the province.

The donation was made during the 82nd anniversary of Fire Prevention Week Oct. 3 to 9, the theme of which this year was Test Your Smoke Alarms.

Statistics provided by the Fire Commissioner's Office show that smoke alarms were installed in only 66 per cent of the homes in Aboriginal communities that experienced fire, and that of those smoke detectors, 15 per cent did not activate during the fire emergency. This was in large part due to either mechanical failure or that they did not have a power source, either battery or electricity.

"Smoke alarms, when properly installed, tested and maintained, provide an early warning of smoke and fire danger, which can increase the chance of escape and/or putting out the fire, said fire commissioner Pat Graham. He was onhand at the Metis education centre on Oct. 6 to help present fire safety information to a group of three and four year old children from the Mother and Me Aboriginal Head Start program.

The youngsters were allowed to climb up into a fire truck and examine some of the equipment fire fighters use in the course of their work. Sparky, the fire dog was accompanied by T.J. Smart of the Edmonton fire service to help teach the children about what to do in case a fire breaks out in their homes.

The children practiced crawling to safety beneath imaginary smoke. They were told how to react if people around them were behaving in a dangerous way that could cause fire, like if someone were to smoke in bed or play with matches or lighters, and they got to hear the sound of a smoke detector and told how to respond.

Metis Nation of Alberta President Audrey Poitras was in attendance and glad to support the fire safety awareness efforts of the fire commissioner's office and fire etc., the Fire Emergency Training Centre. Both organizations are making concerted efforts to bring fire safety to Aboriginal communities in Alberta.

Poitras said it was important to talk to the very young about fire safety as a first step to increasing awareness in Aboriginal families. The children would have their own unique way of driving the message of fire safety home to parents and friends, she said.

Statistics demonstrate that the fire death rate in Aboriginal communities is as much as 11 times higher than in other communities.

Judy Harvie, a former firefighter and now advisor to the fire commissioner on behalf of Aboriginal people, said the remoteness of some communities, a lack of fire safety education and the lack of installed and fully operational smoke detectors in the homes of Aboriginal people were major reasons that explain the higher rates of injury and death due to fire.