Firefighters in Whittlesea and Hume were called to 79 preventable house fires last year, prompting a warning about fire safety during winter.
Latest data from the MFB and CFA shows Whittlesea’s brigades were called to 44 house fires in 2015 that could have been avoided, while their Hume counterparts attended 35 avoidable fires.
Across the state, firefighters responded to more than 3000 avoidable house fires last year. Almost half of them started in kitchens and were most often caused by unattended cooking.
MFB chief officer Peter Rau said the causes of fires varied from faulty electrical appliances, to overcharged laptops, heating, or clothing left to dry too close to a heater, but all had serious consequences.
“Most preventable house fires are triggered by a simple, avoidable mistake,” he said. “A moment of distraction, carelessness or neglect, which can have lifelong impacts.”
Mr Rau said it is believed that there are many close calls that go unreported.
CFA chief officer Joe Buffone said, despite common misconceptions, more people were killed in preventable house fires than in bushfires. He said children under five years old and people aged 65 years or more are twice as likely to be killed in a residential fire than the rest of the population.
“What we are trying to do is to get people thinking about those other small mistakes – things like overloading your power boards, or burning candles too close to the curtains,” he said.
“We want people to think twice before putting their homes and their families at risk.”
The CFA and MFB joined forces last month to launch their Safe Mistake Zone campaign to increase awareness of the thousands of preventable home fires that are caused by small mistakes each year.
Details: safemistakezone.com.au
