Cooking is one of the leading causes of house fires in Grande Prairie. Fire Marshal James Kostuk says that will be one of the focuses for this year’s Fire Prevention week starting on Sunday.
“Over the last 10 year period for the most recent stats we have, 22 per cent of residential fires were caused by cooking and 15 per cent were caused by smoking materials in Grande Prairie.”
Fire Prevention Week is held during the second week of October. It’s the department’s chance to speak to locals about the importance of fire safety. Kostuk says the theme of this year’s event is “look, listen and learn.”
“We want to cover all the basics. We want people to look for places where fire can start. We want you to listen for your working smoke alarm in your home and we just want you to learn about… how to get out of a home safely.”
Even though the event started 20 years ago, Kostuk says he still hasn’t seen any change in the number of preventable fires in the area.
“We can see the trends and we know where we’re putting our focus and our energies, however, were not seeing a drastic decrease in those areas. Its 100 per cent preventable fires that are behaviour based. People need to change their behaviours, stop being complacent in the home and take measures to protect themselves.”
Kostuk says people can help prevent these fires by making sure they are paying attention while cooking and checking to make sure they have working smoke alarms. Fire Prevention Week in Grande Prairie runs from October 7th to 13th.