Of the 100 cities in the United States with the highest risk of home fires, ten are among the top Hispanic markets, according to a report by insurer Hartford.
The so-called “Hartford Household Fire Index” places New York City in 14th place, followed by Hialeah (Florida) in 19th place, Newark in New Jersey, 24th and Miami in 1930.
Also noteworthy are Chicago at 32, Houston at 45, Dallas at 50, Fresno (California) at 72, Tampa at 87 and Los Angeles at 92.
According to the report, one in eight Americans has suffered a home fire, and the main causes of the fires that occur are electric, in 26% of cases; Accidents in the kitchen, by 25%, or with a candle, by 12%.
The report indicates that while Hispanic residents in the United States are prepared to face a fire, many of them have habits or behaviors that could endanger them.
By 2016, 89% of Hispanics in the United States had to charge electrical equipment overnight, and 43% did so in their own bed during the night, which put them in danger of an electric fire.
47% left their kitchen lit with something cooking on the stove and about a third (30%) left a lit candle in a room.
Charging a phone at night is a moderate risk of fire, but doing it at night in bed is considered a high risk, as is leaving the kitchen unattended with fire or a candle lit in a room, according to the insurance company.
In the United States a fire is reported every 86 seconds and 33 percent of home fires are started by children between the ages of 6 and 9. This data shows that prevention of home fires involves the education of parents and children to avoid a preventable tragedy, a task that the Hartford insurer has been developing for decades.
To mark the 70th anniversary of the “Junior Fire Marshal”, one of the nation’s oldest public education programs, Hartford is committed to donating $ 2 million to school districts and fire departments to Education and information on fire protection and safety in the next three years (2017-2019).
In addition, the company, which has been in the market for 200 years, will provide educational materials to 1.5 million children, from infants to third grade, living in the 100 cities identified in the risk report.
Since 1947, more than 110 million children have been named “Junior Fire Marshals” and well-known personalities such as Ron Howard, Dick Van Dyke and Ronald Reagan contributed to honor the children participating in the show.
Hartford has also created a mobile fire safety unit that visits schools to perform safety demonstrations on children simulating different home fire scenarios.
