Thanksgiving Fire Statistics
Thanksgiving is the peak day for home cooking fires with more than three times the daily average for such incidents. Christmas Day and Christmas Eve ranked second and third, with both having nearly twice the daily average.
Unattended cooking was by far the leading contributing factor in cooking fires and fire deaths. Cooking causes half (52%) of all reported home fires and nearly two of every five (36%) home fire injuries, and it is a leading cause of home fire deaths (17%). On Thanksgiving day alone, an estimated 1,610 home cooking fires were reported to U.S fire departments in 2022, reflecting a 399 percent increase over the daily average.
Top Safety Tips
- Stay in the kitchen when you are cooking on the stove top so you can keep an eye on the food.
- Stay in the home when cooking your turkey, and check on it frequently.
- Keep children away from the stove. The stove will be hot and kids should stay three feet away.
- Make sure kids stay away from hot food and liquids. The steam or splash from vegetables, gravy or coffee could cause serious burns.
- Keep knives out of the reach of children.
- Be sure electric cords from an electric knife, coffee maker, plate warmer or mixer are not dangling off the counter within easy reach of a child.
- Keep matches and utility lighters out of the reach of children — up high in a locked cabinet.
- Never leave children alone in room with a lit candle.
- Keep the floor clear so you don’t trip over kids, toys, pocketbooks or bags.
- Make sure your smoke alarms are working. Test them by pushing the test button.
Candles which are another popular element in holiday decorations can also be a fire hazard. NFPA reports that during 2012-2016, U.S. fire departments responded each year to around 8,200 home fires started by candles. Annually, the fires caused an average of 80 deaths, 770 injuries, and $264 million in direct property damage. In addition to keeping candles away from decorations and other flammable materials—and never leaving them unattended—NFPA has a list of other Winter Holiday Safety tips.
November 2024
The town of Fredericktown, Missouri, facility where the fire occurred is “one of the world’s largest lithium-ion battery processing facilities.” The 225,000-square-foot structure and a partially caved-in roof can be seen in the photo. Officials have not yet said what might have caused the fire or what fire protection systems were in place. But the company that operates the plant where the fire occurred, says on its website that the facility contained one of the “most sophisticated automated and remote supervised and controlled fire suppression systems in the world.”
Although the facility appears to have sustained significant damage in the blaze, there have been no reports of any deaths or injuries from the event.
Lithium-ion battery fires happen for a variety of reasons, such as physical damage from force, electrical damage from overcharging, exposure to extreme temperatures, and manufacturer defects. More specifically, lithium-ion battery fires often involve a chemical process known as thermal runaway, in which the battery essentially continuously overheats and over-pressurizes and is prone to fires, off-gassing, and sometimes explosions.
Recycling lithium-ion batteries is a complex and inherently risky process, explains NFPA® Senior Technical Services Engineer Brian O’Connor. Several factors contribute to this, including:
•Batteries arriving at facilities damaged.
•Stranded energy (residual energy).
•The recycling process involves shredding.
O’Connor says there are several steps facilities and workers can take to help them stay safer while carrying out this dangerous work.
“First and foremost,” he says, “always follow the applicable fire and life safety codes.” NFPA codes and standards such as NFPA 1, Fire Code; NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®; NFPA 13, Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems; and others could apply to the types of industrial occupancies where battery recycling might take place.
Relevant Fire Projects from November 2024
Stadiums and arenas are transforming into multifunctional spaces, offering more than just spectator events. The shift towards year-round usability includes hosting conferences, banquets, private events and various other activities. The multi-purpose use introduces a range of hazards that demand the expertise of design teams and fire-safety engineers, extending beyond the traditional challenges associated with large assembly spaces.
Stadiums now place a premium on crowd safety, incorporating features such as ample entrances and exits, major incident plans (MIPs) and the use of non-combustible construction materials like concrete and steel. International safety standards provided by organizations like the International Building Code (IBC) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) guide these design choices, ensuring a consistent and globally recognized benchmark for safety. Reference to the relevant local building codes, Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) requirements and safety regulations must be acknowledged within stadium design along with involvement with all relevant stakeholders.
Last month, we delivered a new fire water pump package for a Sports Arena in Latin America:
- 1 Electric pump 500 GPM@169 psi
- 1 Diesel pump 500 GPM@169 psi
- 1 Jockey pump 7 GPM@181 psi
- UL/FM Approved Fire Pump
- FM Approved Control Panel
- 300 Gallons Double Wall Tank UL-142
Click here to get more information about our Pre-packaged Fire Suppression Systems
The Great Chicago Fire
The Chicago fire disaster, which began on October 8, 1871, and raged until early October 10, devastated a significant portion of the city.
In the mid-19th century, Chicago experienced remarkable growth, with the population soaring from around 30,000 in 1850 to nearly triple that figure just a decade later. Affordable transportation encouraged middle-class families to move to the outskirts, while poor neighborhoods near downtown became overcrowded. Many structures in these areas were built of wood, making them particularly vulnerable to fires. However, none could compare to the blaze that ignited on October 8. Months of drought had parched the landscape, and the intense heat, combined with a major fire the previous night, had exhausted firefighters and damaged their equipment.
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The Great Chicago Fire began on the city’s West Side, in the De Koven Street barn of the O’Leary family, though it is not known the real cause of how the blaze started. Misdirected fire equipment arrived too late, and a steady wind from the southwest carried the flames and blazing debris from block to block. The slums became kindling for the downtown conflagration, where even the supposedly fireproof stone and brick buildings exploded in flames as the destruction swept northward. Only rainfall, the lake, and stretches of unbuilt lots on the North Side finally halted the wave of destruction on the morning of October 10.
The Chicago fire, the most famous in American history, claimed about 300 lives, destroyed some 17,450 buildings covering almost 3.5 square miles (9 square km), and caused more than $200 million in damage. Roughly one-third of the city laid in ruins, and an equal proportion of the population, nearly 100,000 people, was homeless.
While the fire had devastated the downtown and North Side of Chicago, the stockyards and lumberyards on the South and West sides remained intact. The city rebuilt quickly, and by 1880 its population had reached a half million. A new generation of even taller downtown buildings became under construction. Department stores and offices crowded into the central area, and industrial growth along the river branches and rail lines grew rapidly.
Since 1922, the NFPA has sponsored the public observance of Fire Prevention Week. In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed Fire Prevention Week a national observance, making it the longest-running public health observance in our country. During Fire Prevention Week, children, adults, and teachers learn how to stay safe in case of a fire. Firefighters provide lifesaving public education in an effort to drastically decrease casualties caused by fires.
A wildfire is an uncontrolled burn of plant life, including the burning of savannas and forests, grasslands, shrublands, and croplands. Wildfires sometimes are caused by human activity like unattended fires and the loss of control of planned burns, but also by natural causes, such as lightning.
The proliferation of wildfires is determined by a range of elements, such as the amount and types of dry vegetation in the surrounding area, wind direction and speed, moisture levels, and heat. The amount of area burned by wildfires and the impacts on ecosystems, is driven by a combination of weather patterns, human activity, the management of plant life and landscapes, and responses to suppress their spread.
Everyone is affected by wildfires both directly and indirectly. In recent years, several people have died directly from the wildfires. Also, more than ten thousand people have been evacuated, or in some cases, permanently displaced from their homes. Wildfires also emit pollution and carbon dioxide and damages our health.
To track the sequence of wildfires over the years and understand historical trends in these fires, scientists have used satellite imagery obtained from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite), the NASA and UN´s space program working together in a joint initiative.
Relevant Ruhrpumpen´s Fire Projects from October 2024
The VTP pump line is specifically designed for operation in wells or sumps. Its bowl assembly features a suction case or bell, one or more pump bowls, and a discharge case. This assembly is positioned at an appropriate depth in the sump or well to ensure proper submergence. These vertical turbine pumps, available in both single and multi-stage configurations, are ideal for firefighting applications. They are UL listed and FM approved for suction lift conditions and can be powered by either diesel or electric drive.
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The vertical turbine portrayed above is a Ruhrpumpen VTP model size 20C-600, with a rated flow of 3,500 gpm, equipped with a noise enclosure to provide noise attenuation to the engine as well as protection from the environment.
Applications: Commercial, municipal and residential high-rise buildings, Large industrial premises and storage warehouses, Offshore and remote facilities, Airports, Power stations.
CHARACTERISTICS
- Stuffing box machined with bushing to guide shaft
- Discharge head provides support for motor and entire pump
- Column connections can be flanged or threaded with coupling
- Bearings available in a variety of materials
- Line shaft couplings machined from solid steel stock
- Column assembly manufactures in-plant to ensure accurate fit
- Sleeve bearings to provide long life and low friction
- Enclosed impellers designed for long life and high efficiency
- Standard tapered collets to secure impeller to pump shaft
- Suction bowl that provides rigid support of the lower end of the pump shaft
- Strainer to prevent entry of foreign objets into pump suction
- Diesel or electric driven
Ruhrpumpen's vertical turbine fire pumps are available as single pumping units or complete pre-packaged fire systems (with or without enclosure). See more details of the VTP Pump doing click here.
