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Food blaze
spike alarms Rotorua fire experts
(05.05.2008 by Kelly Makiha, The Daily Post)
Rotorua's Glenn Kereama takes
more care when cooking. Ben Fraser 010508AW10
Glenn
Kereama only left the heating plate of chips on the stove
for a few minutes.
But that was all it took to start a fire that destroyed his
family's possessions.
The Clinkard Ave fire last April was part of a disturbing
trend in Rotorua last year which saw careless house fires
rise by 55 percent.
There were 45 fires between July 1, 2006 and June 2007,
which could have been prevented.
The
previous year - July 2005 to June 2006 - there were 29
careless fires.
Local fire experts are unsure why there has been a sudden
spike, and are worried people will have to experience their
own disaster or death before learning a basic fire safety
lesson.
Mr.
Kereama, 19, knows he learned the hard way.
Luckily the four adults and one baby inside the burning
Clinkard Ave home got out safely but the family lost
everything.
He said it was a harsh lesson to learn.
"I make sure I stand in front of my cooking. It took me a
while to cook chips again. I'd microwave everything
instead."
The main cause of careless fires in Rotorua is food left
unattended or people falling asleep while cooking.
There were 24 fires in 2006/2007 caused by food left cooking
unattended in kitchens - twice as many as the 12 recorded in
the 2005/2006 year and the 19 recorded in the two years
before that. Already in the 2007/2008 year, there have been
16 kitchen fires with two months of the year still to go.
Firefighters hope a new hard-hitting New Zealand Fire
Service national campaign will get the message across.
Rotorua Fire Service chief fire officer John Booth couldn't
explain why the numbers of house fires suddenly rose last
year.
"Maybe
it was just a period where people forgot the basics.
"Mankind has used fire since existence but not all of us
have realised how destructive it is."
Mr. Booth said Rotorua firefighters planned to boost the
national campaign by talking to as many people, media and
groups as possible about the risks of home fires. "We'll be
using operation staff to bolster the message.
"We are the experts of fire and know the misery it causes
people because we see it every day."
Mr. Booth said about 85 per cent of Rotorua homes had smoke
alarms but he was worried many of them didn't work.
He said smoke alarms cost less than $10 and lasted up to 10
years.
Rotorua Fire Service senior station officer Warren Flay said
there were simple steps people should follow to keep safe
this winter.
These included putting hot ashes in metal containers or
burying them in the garden, cleaning lint filters in dryers
after every load, checking electric blankets every year,
abiding by the "heater metre" rule and cleaning chimneys
before the first fire is lit.
"Every year we say it, but every year there is always a new
generation of people who have not listened," he said.
New Zealand Fire Service National Commander Mike Hall said
the three main causes of fire were men, women and children.
"People tend to blame the flame but if they took more
responsibility for eliminating hazards in their homes, we
wouldn't have to attend thousands of house fires a year."
The new Fire Service campaign will run throughout the year
and features a series of advertisements, targeting different
at-risk groups, including smokers and household cooks.
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