Residential fire fatalities dropped 70 percent in Prince George’s County during 2006, a year in which Maryland had its fewest such deaths statewide in recorded history, fire officials said.
In 2006, 43 Maryland residents died in residential fires including three in Prince George’s County and four in Montgomery County. The numbers are down from 2005 when there were 60 statewide, 10 in Prince George’s County and five in Montgomery County. Statewide records date back to 1975.
“I think the state experiencing the lowest numbers were primarily because Baltimore City and Prince George’s County, who typically have a higher number, had lower numbers,” Montgomery County’s Fire and Rescue spokesman Pete Piringer told The Examiner on Tuesday.
“I know in both jurisdictions there has been a lot of public outreach in terms of education, distribution of smoke alarms …”
Prince George’s acting Fire/EMS spokesman Maj. Chauncey Bowers said his department has been stressing “prevention before response.”
The key, Bowers said, is ensuring that people have smoke alarms, a functional home escape plan and carbon monoxide detectors. The Prince George’s County fire department is in the midst of amultiyear effort to visit every residential home in the county, according to Bowers. The visits include checking and sometimes replacing smoke alarms, as well as discussing escape plans.
As of Jan. 1, Prince George’s became the first jurisdiction in the state to require smoke alarms, sprinkler systems and carbon monoxide detectors in all new homes, the county’s fire department said. Bowers said there are four major causes of residential fires: cooking, smoking, candles and space heaters.
Smoking fires have been the biggest problem in Montgomery County. In the past two years, Piringer said, seven of the county’s nine residential fire deaths were related to smoking, and eight of nine involved citizens older than 75.
“Our focus is always on smoke alarms and residential sprinklers,” Piringer said, “but clearly the trend of seniors citizens dying in fire caused by cigarettes is our top priority.”
