In Houston, TX, a man fell asleep while cooking at night. A stovetop fire erupted in his home, damaging his property and taking the life of his sleeping wife. One innocent mistake cost him everything.
Cooking is the #1 cause of residential fires. The moment you walk away from your stove, you endanger yourself and your family. If you live in multi-unit housing, a fire on a neighbor's stove could destroy your life.
Prevent a tragedy from happening to you. Sign this petition, and tell your local fire chief and city council members that cooking fire suppression systems should be mandatory.
... In 2007 alone, home structure fires caused 77% of civilian fire injuries and 84% of civilian fire deaths.To the members of my city council:
As a member of a growing group of concerned citizens who have seen cooking fires result in extensive property damage and lost lives, I am asking you to take action.
Cooking is the #1 cause of residential fires in America. It isn't intentional. It isn't malicious. It's an accident that happens every day, but it's an accident that leads to more fires, personal injuries, and possessions lost than electrical fires, smoking, and arson
combined. More than half of cooking fire injuries occur when people try to fight fires themselves.
Residents and owners of multi-unit housing are at the greatest risk. Millions of citizens--from the youth in college dormitories to families in high-rise apartments to the elderly in assisted living facilities--remain markedly unsafe. Approximately 26% of all U.S. families live in buildings with two or more units. Many of these households are defenseless against fires (a fire starts in an apartment building every six minutes), particularly those which originate
outside their units.
Residents cannot rely on smoke detectors alone: from 2003-2006, more than one-third of residential fire deaths occurred in homes with smoke detectors. Residents often remove the batteries or forget to replace them--at any given time, over 30% of all smoke detectors do not work.
Numerous effective and affordable stovetop fire protection systems are available, but until they are widely used, these dangerous trends will continue. Help me--and the other signers of this petition--reduce the #1 cause of residential fires. Pass an ordinance making automatic stovetop fire suppression systems in our community a requirement--not an option.
