While it’s essential to always think about fire safety, Fire Prevention Week­—October 5-11—is a good time to make sure you and your family prevent a tragedy from happening at your home.

A 2006 fire in my suburban New York town illustrates just how quickly disaster can strike: A local family had gone out to dinner, leaving behind a teenaged houseguest. After the kid started to heat up some food in a skillet, he went upstairs to take a shower. The teenager forgot about the food, and within minutes, the charming Arts & Craft home was in flames. The house and everything in it were destroyed; luckily the teenager escaped uninjured.

Last year, fires in homes across the United States killed about 2,900 people and injured 14,000 others, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Cooking fires are the leading cause of fires in the home and fire injuries, according to the NFPA.

About one-third of cooking fires happen because nobody is keeping an eye on the stove. So stay in the kitchen whenever you fry, grill, or broil food, and when you leave the room, even briefly, turn off the stove. In other words, to quote from the NFPA’s current fire-safety campaign, “don’t be a doofus.”
Fire Prevention Week is a good time to develop a fire escape plan and practice it with your family. Also follow our basic safety tips for smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms and the advice on the NFPA site.—Kimberly Janeway

Essential information: Read our buyer’s guide to smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms.