MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — This year’s Fire Prevention Week (October 4-10) is focused on fire safety in the kitchen. As the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has long reported, cooking is the leading cause of home fires and fire-related injuries. It is also the second leading cause for fire-related deaths and causes more than $1 billion in direct property damage every year. This year’s focus on kitchen fire safety is even more significant due to the effects of COVID-19. With millions of Americans working from home, fire departments are reporting an increase in cooking fire incidents, making cooking fire safety very relevant and important.
As you gear up for participation in this important annual educational campaign, consider all high-risk cooking fire properties in your community. Did you know that households with electric ranges have a higher risk of cooking fires and associated losses than those using gas ranges? Keep in mind individual risks vary too. Do you have older-adult or low-income apartment buildings? Maybe your area has on- or off-campus student housing? According to NFPA, people aged 55-64 have the largest share of U.S. home cooking fire deaths while young adults (aged 20-34) have the highest rate of injury.
For many CRR professionals, a key strategy in their educational outreach has been the support of proven prevention technology. For example, SmartBurner is an easy to install replacement for electric coil elements that virtually eliminates the risk of cooking fires. Each burner uses patented temperature limiting controlä technology to keep the cooking temperature below the auto-ignition point of most cooking oils. This technology, developed by Pioneering Technology, has been installed more than 1 million times in homes and apartments across North America without a single cooking fire.
“It’s not just SmartBurner’s cooking fire prevention track record that is impressive,” says CEO Kevin Callahan. “This product can also deliver significant cost savings including relief on operating expenses, or repairs and restoration, and all without any change in cooking behavior. Increasingly, property owners and managers are recognizing that SmartBurner is a smart investment that helps save people, property and money.”
To help fire departments broaden their public safety outreach, Pioneering Technology is offering free resources on the website PreventCookingFires.com. The information is designed to help fire department personnel work with local building owners and managers of housing with high-risk occupants to educate and install replacement burners. For a limited time, free educational samples of SmartBurner are also being offered.
Installing proven technology to battle the problem of cooking fires is effective Community Risk Reduction. Make it part of your Fire Prevention Week 2020 outreach.
About Pioneering Technology Corp.
Pioneering Technology is North America’s leader in innovative cooking fire prevention technologies and products. Our mission is simple: to help save lives and property from the number one cause of household fires – cooking fires. We do this by engineering and bringing to market energy-smart solutions that make consumer appliances safer, smarter and more efficient. Our patented cooking-fire prevention products address the multi-billion-dollar problem of cooking fires. Pioneering’s proprietary cooking fire prevention solutions include SmartBurner, Safe T Element, SmartRange, Safe T Sensor and SmartMicro, and are suitable for the majority of the more than 140 million ranges and microwave ovens currently in use throughout North America. For more information, visit www.pioneeringtech.com.