Fire Safety Campaign Working; House Fires Down to 12%

Kenneth Mortis

It’s been some time now since we’ve reported on a fire, as they’ve been few and far apart in this second half of the year.  The Independence Day fire at the corner of Mex Avenue and Fairweather Street is the most recent.  Station Supervisor at the National Fire Service, Kenneth Mortis, explained that data is showing a decrease in the number of house fires for 2023 when compared to the same period last year. Mortis believes that their fire safety campaign has been working.

Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, National Fire Service

“Our fire safety campaign is working. I just shared off the record to some of you guys that the statistics for the second half of the year now versus last year has fallen to an approximate twelve percent. Last year, this time, we were still busy scampering around outing fires here there and everywhere. Yeah, we do have those one, one, one, one, but the statistics is a proof that our fire safety campaign is working and I applaud the citizens for those who take the educational pamphlets to good use. It is not about the fire department versus the community or the community versus the fire department; it is about what we can do as a community fire department oriented type. We can only try our best to emphasize the importance of fire safety. As an individual, we can take it and apply it or we can take it and ignore it.  So kudos to the residents out there who are applying these fire safety message from us and like I said, the statistics have shown that the fires have decreased for the second portion of the year.”

Duane Moody

“What are some of the tips given?”

Kenneth Mortis

“Well we have been focusing a lot on the need for fire extinguishers in the home; the need for smoke detectors. We’ve been heavily publicizing our 990 numbers which is our immediate hotline numbers; it is no longer 911. So we are getting more and more calls from our 990. We still have a few coming from the seven digits and from 911. We’ve been working hand in hand with government and nongovernment departments; we’ve been doing the school visits. So those are some of the basics that we have been doing. What we plan to do in the near future is now start doing community outreach whereby you might see us in the streets doing house to house campaign in terms of fires and fire safety.”