Chatham-Kent has gone another year without a fatal fire, a trend Chatham-Kent's fire and Emergency Services chief hopes to see continue.
Bob Crawford said 2018 marked the second year in a row the municipality has not seen anyone die in a fire and he attributes that to better community understanding and safety enforcement.
"I think our statistics reflect that this is a safety conscious community," he said.
With 19 fire stations in Chatham-Kent, Crawford said all of its members have helped enforce fire safety standards. In recent years, fire crews have taken on an active role in educating the public about safety through various initiatives.
"We're reaching [out] in a number of places. It's with school children through the Safety Village, through our school programs, but it's also with our Older and Wiser program," said Crawford.
He also mentioned that they're always looking for new ways to educate about fire safety.
Although Chatham-Kent has not had a fatal fire recently, the same can't be said for the rest of the province. Crawford said statistics provided by the Ontario Fire Marshal's Emergency Management Office show that in 2017 there were 73 fatal fires reported across the province and 93 in 2018.
"We're still going to have fires, they're going to occur. We're still going to see some occasional fires that are accidental in nature and occasionally set," he said. "But if the public listens to the message that we continue... it's cool to be safe, it's cool to do the right thing."
Stepping aside from fatalities, Chatham-Kent does see its share of residential fires that cause structural damage. In many cases, Crawford said these fires are the result of unattended "ignition sources" which include stoves and candles.
"We continuously come back to the same challenges largely because they do account for a lot of the problems. Unattended fires, open flames and discarded smoking materials -- that's a very difficult one for us," he said.
Residents who want to have their smoke alarms or carbon monoxide detectors checked are encouraged to take advantage of the CHIRP program and call (519) 360-1998 or visit their website.
Crawford said they do plan to take an in-depth report with statistics to council sometime within the new year.
