Do you know what the top causes of fires in the home are? How about the top causes of deaths and injury from fires in the home? 

Interestingly, the National Fire Safety Association continually reports that smoking is the #1 cause of deaths and injuries from fires in the home, with kitchen fires coming in second.

Also interestingly, whenever there's a fire in the paper, the cause is never reported as smoking or kitchen fires. I'm wondering if the smoking and kitchen fires cause more deaths and injuries but don't actually destroy the building so that it makes the news headlines or the newspapers.

One of the most common causes of fires that makes the headlines are these:

A recent fire at a condominium complex in Del Mar was blamed on an unattended candle. The fire damaged all six condominiums in the three-story building, and one person was hospitalized with burns. It took dozens of firefighters ninety minutes to get the fire under control.

An October 2007 report from the U.S. Fire Administration's National Fire Incident Reporting System and the National Fire Protection Association's annual fire department experience survey estimated that candles were the heat source in about 20,900 reported home structure fires per year from 2000-2004. They caused 200 civilian deaths per year, 1,790 injuries per year and $459 million in property damage, per year. Over one third of the fires started in the bedroom, with over half of them resulting because the candle was too close to flammable objects, such as curtains and towels.

Candles being used as a light source pose a greater risk of fatal fire.

If you love candles, and I'm one of them -- those in the picture are mine -- give yourself a Whack! upside the head every time you light one and look around to make sure that the flames are not near any flammable materials.

Another thing I've found useful is to set the alarm for when I want to put out the candles so that I don't go to bed with one accidentally list. You can use either the bedside alarm or the alarm on your cell phone.

What? You didn't know your cell phone has an alarm? How do you think I take cat naps?

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Just 6 days left in the ActiveRain "Nature & Marketing" contest.

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Last week's posts

1. Ssssspeechlesssss Sssssunday at the Sssssan Diego Zoo - 8/9/09
2. Speechless Sunday with Spit - 8/9/09
3. Just 7 days left in the ActiveRain Nature & Marketing contest - 8/9/09
4. How to stay spider free - 8/8/09 - reblogged
5. Here's where we stand with the ActiveRain Nature & Marketing contest - 8/8/09
6. San Diego home inspections: Using flies to detect gas leaks - 8/7/09
7. San Diego home inspections: Are you still a property inspector? - 8/7/09
8. San Diego home inspections: Just because you CAN re-use something doesn't mean you should.... - 8/6/09
9. San Diego home inspections: Sometimes I have to laugh at disclosures.... - 8/6/09
10. San Diego home inspection FAQs: What if I have questions after the inspection? - 8/6/09
11. WWW (Wordless Wednesday with Words): Censored - 8/5/09
12. San Diego home inspections: Why get all worked up over a little crack.... - 8/4/09
13. Just 12 days left in the ActiveRain "Nature & Marketing" contest - 8/4/09
14. San Diego home inspection: Just because the sinks drain well.... - 8/3/09
15. I'm getting really lucky lately - 8/3/09

Previous week's posts

1. Just how helpful can a seller be? - 8/2/09
2. SST (Speechless Sunday with Text): Huge, monster, gigantic.... - 8/2/09
3. Lucky 7's? - 8/1/09
4. There's a dip in the floor.... - 8/1/09
5. It happened again less than 24 hours later! - 7/31/09
6. Cut your commission? Maybe, maybe not.... - 7/31/09
7. San Diego home inspection FAQs: When will we get the report? - 7/30/09
8. ....and how much are you paying me? - 7/30/09
9. It's all in your perspective.... - 7/29/09
10. I'm confused -- An open blog post to Realtors - 7/28/09 (Featured)
11. San Diego home inspection FAQs: Do you inspection the property or just the house? - 7/27/09
12. San Diego home inspections: ....in terms you'll understand - 7/27/09

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