Fire Prevention Week Is 365 Days Long
departments
The Editor’s Opinion Page
Fire Prevention Week this year is Oct. 3-9, Sunday through Saturday. That gives the fire departments throughout the nation an opportunity to do a wide variety of things to gain the attention of the general public and try to prevent fires and deaths. We think that’s just fine—as far as it goes.
However, we have a strong feeling that Fire Prevention Week starts not on Sunday, but with the enactment of adequate life safety and fire prevention statutes, laws and codes. It progresses to the reflection of these safety measures on the drawing boards of architects. It continues with a review of these architects’ plans by fire service people who are well-informed not only in architectural design and materials but also in the transportation, storage and use of combustibles of all types—liquids, solids and gases.
Our fire prevention week progresses with equitable and strict enforcement of the statutes, laws and codes. This week of ours ends with a realistic, factual evaluation of all we have done in the earlier part of the week and the development of proposals to rectify our errors of judgment, eliminate our oversights and strengthen our influence on achieving life and fire safety. As we go through the week, we try to learn what we can do to reduce the incidence and dangers of fire, and we put more effort in those directions. We also try to learn what defies our efforts to change and we recognize the need to use our limited manpower where the payoff is greatest. We are dedicated to results—saving lives—not tradition.
There’s a strange thing about our fire prevention week. After Saturday, it starts all over again on Sunday—every week of the year.
