Number of house fires is down, but deaths are up - here's why

Fewer fires have been reported in the United States, but more the number of fire deaths is on the rise. How could that be? 

The West Bloomfield Fire Department wants to get ahead of next year's statistics and save lives. 

"They're not getting the message. Even in our community, we're seeing less than 50 percent of our homes have working smoke detectors. That's a terrible number," said Dave DeBoer, the deputy fire marshal with the West Bloomfield Fire Department. 

That "terrible number" is just part of the story. 

The number of fires across the nation is down but the number of fire deaths is up. The burning question is, why? The problem is in your furniture.  

"Everything is plastic. The clothing we wear; the phones that we have; all of the things in our house has some sort of plastic. It releases much more energy much quicker and more toxic gases that are exposed to a fire today than it would have been 20 years ago," DeBoer explains.

Carbon monoxide detectors can mean the difference between life and death for your family. Make sure you have several throughout your house, not just for when you sleep. 

Then there's the dangers of exhaust from a running vehicle in an attached garage.

"We've got to pull the car out of the garage and get it away from the house so that exhaust doesn't blow back in," DeBoer said. "If the wind is blowing towards your garage, it could blow that gas back in and we see that happening regularly." 

Same thing with generators. Don't crack a window or door; they just don't belong inside the house. Period.  

If you can't afford heat, call THAW, the Heat And Warmth Fund, at 1-800-866-THAW.   

And finally, your furnace. This is the time to have an inspector come by, even if it's a new one. One crack could mean leaking gas.