Columbia Fire Department Announces Two Public Awareness / Education Campaigns

(COLUMBIA, MO) - Fire prevention through education is a core tenant of the Columbia Fire Department. A careful review of all investigated fires in Columbia over the past ten months has shown two leading causes of structure fires in Columbia - improperly discarded smoking material and unattended cooking. We responded to and investigated fifty eight structure fires between October 1, 2017 and August 16, 2018. Of those, seven were attributed to improperly discarded smoking material and six were determined caused by unattended cooking. These were the two most common, preventable causes of fire during this time period. The department will be conducting public awareness and education campaigns to help citizens understand how to prevent these types of fires. Our public education efforts for the remainder of August through September 30th will be devoted exclusively to educating the community on smoking and home fire safety. These efforts will include a robust social media campaign and a coordinated effort from all Columbia Fire Department personnel who participate in public relation events during this time period. The holiday months of November and December will be devoted exclusively to unattended cooking with social media campaigns and discussion and educational material distributed at all public relation events we attend. We're hopeful these efforts along with assistance from our media partners will bring more awareness and education to the community and bring these numbers down.