Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2005 | ||
Bad Links? | Americans mistaken about fire safety of homesSurvey reveals vast majority wrongly believe they are safer from fires at home than when inside public and commercial buildingsA nationwide survey conducted by Bethesda, MD-based Society of Fire Protection Engineers reveals that 87 percent of Americans believe, inaccurately, that they are safer from fires at home than when inside public and commercial buildings. In fact, most building fires occur in homes, according to federal government statistics. While public and commercial buildings are subject to tough fire-safety regulations and inspection throughout the nation, homes in most parts of the country are not. Fewer than 10 percent of Americans believe they are safer from fires inside public and commercial buildings, according to the survey. "People may be more confident about fire safety in the home because they have more control over their surroundings," said SFPE's technical director Morgan Hurley. "The fact of the matter, however, is that public buildings and commercial offices are much better protected than the average American home. This is in large part due to the fire-safety strategies and technology designed into work and public places by fire protection engineers." Along with a false sense of fire-safety in the home, complacency typifies many Americans' attitudes toward fire, according to the survey. The survey revealed that, while 56 percent of Americans think about the threat of fire to people and property either daily, weekly or monthly, a sizable 44 percent think about fire once a year or less. "Given the fact that fires lead the local news almost every night, it's surprising more people don't consider the danger it poses more often," said SFPE's executive director David Evans. The presence of children in the home made no difference to how frequently Americans think about fire, according to the survey. Women are more likely to think about fire weekly or monthly, the survey showed; and residents of the Northeastern states are more likely to think about fire daily than their counterparts in other regions of the country. Americans also are mistaken when it comes to counting fire fatalities. The survey by SFPE revealed that nearly one-third of Americans underestimate the number of deaths that occur each year from fires in the U.S. Approximately 3,000 deaths occur each year due to fires, according to government statistics. Thirteen percent of Americans are aware of the approximate number of fire-related deaths that actually take place each year in the U.S. The survey showed 31 percent of Americans believe fewer than 1,000 fire-related deaths occur annually in the U.S., while 41 percent believe 4,000 to 100,000 fire-related deaths occur annually. "As a nation, we face widespread misconceptions about fire safety, and that's worrisome," said SFPE's engineering program manager Chris Jelenewicz. "As professionals who devote our careers to protecting people and property from fire's ravaging effects, fire protection engineers especially want to see that more information gets into the public's hands. Feb. 20-26 is National Engineers Week, and to mark the occasion, SFPE will introduce a new page on its Web site, www.sfpe.org, designed to shatter some of the biggest myths about fire safety." The survey, commissioned by Society of Fire Protection Engineers and conducted January 2005 by Synovate, polled more than 1,000 American adults. The findings have a margin of error of plus (+) or minus (-) three percent. Organized in 1950, Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) is the professional society for engineers involved in the field of fire protection engineering. The purposes of SFPE are to advance the science and practice of fire protection engineering, maintain a high ethical standing among its members and foster fire protection engineering education. SFPE's worldwide members include engineers in private practice, in industry and in local, regional and national government. Chapters are located in Canada, France, Italy, Sweden, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Spain, New Zealand and the United States.
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