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Smoking is the leading cause of fire-related deaths.
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Cooking is the primary cause of residential fires.
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Approximately half of home fire deaths occur in homes without smoke alarms.
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Most residential fires occur during the winter months.
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Alcohol use contributes to an estimated 40% of residential fire deaths.
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In September 1666, much of London vanished in the Great Fire.
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The first automatic sprinkler system was patented by Philip W. Pratt of Abington, MA, in 1872.
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On February 10, 1863, the fire extinguisher was patented by Alanson Crane.
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On Jan. 1, 1853, the first practical fire engine was tested in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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On April 21, 1878, the nation's first firehouse pole was installed in New York City.
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On May 30, 1821, the first rubber-lined cotton web fire hose was patented by Joseph Boyd of Boston.
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On May 7, 1878, the fire escape ladder was patented by Joseph Winters.
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On November 11, 1890, Daniel McCree of Chicago invented a portable fire escape ladder .
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During World War II, Percy Julian used a soy protein to produce AeroFoam, which suffocates gasoline and oil fires.
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The ionization chamber smoke detector was invented in the early 1940s in Switzerland , and introduced into the U.S. in 1951.
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The first fire alarm telegraph system in the world was invented, constructed and placed in operation in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 28, 1852. The first alarm was received over the system on April 29, 1852 at 8:25 p.m.
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The fire hydrant was invented by Birdsill Holly around 1869.
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On April 1, 1853, the Cincinnati Fire Department became the first full-time paid professional fire department in the country.
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The Montreal Fire Department is Canada's oldest paid fire department. It was established 01 May 1863 by absorbing the city's volunteer brigades.
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On average in the United States in 2003, someone died in a fire about every 2 hours (134 minutes), and someone was injured every 29 minutes.
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Four out of five U.S. fire deaths in 2003 occurred in homes.
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In 2003, fire departments responded to 402,000 home fires in the United States, which claimed the lives of 3,145 people (not including firefighters) and injured another 14,075.
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Most victims of fires die from smoke or toxic gases and not from burns
