Distressing statistics lead to a fire safety campaign for South Carolina
South Carolina doesn’t want to lead the pack anymore, at least not in the number of annual fire deaths.
For the past three years, the Palmetto State has been one of the three states with the highest number of fire-related deaths. The state’s fire death rate last year, 168, was believed by state officials to be the highest in the country.
In response to those dismal statistics, the state kicked off a “Get Alarmed, South Carolina!” public awareness campaign in late spring. A long-range goal is to reduce the number of fire deaths by 50 percent during the next five years.
The state legislature provided $50,000 for the campaign. The state fire marshal’s office used some of that money to give 100 smoke detectors to each of South Carolina’s 46 counties. In turn, the counties have been challenged to provide additional detectors to its high-risk citizens.
“We wanted to provoke an immediate impact on the fire death figures, and we thought smoke detectors would do that,” says Mary Lee Maiden, a spokeswoman for the state fire marshal’s office. “In the long run, though, public education will be the answer.”
Public service announcements, billboards, and buttons are all part of the campaign. A coordinator was appointed in each county to work with the fire service, community organizations, churches, schools, and businesses in a partnership effort.
The Southern region traditionally has the highest fire-related death rate in the country. Maiden says substandard housing and the misuse of portable heaters in many of those homes contribute to the high number of fire deaths.
The leading cause of fire deaths in South Carolina for the first six months of this year was related to heating; smoking was the second, followed by cooking.
