Texas Has Huge Fire Problems; Nearly As Bad As Last Year

No one wants to see their house get damaged in a fire. It's a common occurrence to see a house fire story in the news; we see one every week happen in Texas. Usually it's the cause of weather, by either a lightning strike, or a wildfire.  Sometimes it's a freak accident & it happens everywhere in the state of Texas.

According to the U.S. Fire Administration, there were 112 house fire fatalities in 2021 & that's not all:

• Texas alone has a higher average of EMS incidents (66%) compared to the rest of the country (64.6%)
• Texas averaged 82.5% of injuries compared to the national average of 84.9.
• 72.8% of injuries were a result of structural fire;
• Vehicle injuries were 10.7%, the national average was 7.7%.
• Currently Texas has nearly 100 house fire fatalities in 2022 (nearly beating the total from last year)
• You can see all the statistics on the USFA website.

And that's not even considering the damage caused by wildfires: we've already exceeded the number of wildfires in the state we've had since 2021:

• In 2021, 6,284 wildfires occurred destroying 168,734 acres
• This year, currently, 6,809 wildfires has destroyed 596,427 acres
• Texas is currently ranked #9 in a list of the highest damages caused by wildfires.
• Most fires occur in central Texas so if you want to see where one is occurring, there's a map that tracks all the active fires that is regularly updating.

Now sometimes a fire is unavoidable so it's important to know what to do IF it happens. The Texas Department of Insurance offers their 7 tips on how to prevent a house fire:

• Test smoke alarms.
• Install carbon monoxide detectors in your home.
• Watch the cooking; don't leave the kitchen unattended while making food.
• Be careful with space heaters.
• Inspect any electrical cords.
• Be wildfire aware. Even in areas where we don't have forests (Like El Paso), it's still very possible to have fires occur because of the dry air.
• Have an escape plan.

Other helpful places you can go to:

• The El Paso County Sheriff's Office posted 3 tips on what to do if you need to evacuate
• The El Paso Fire Department has posted many tips on what to do to keep your house from space heaters catching on fire. They're also not afraid to be festive giving helpful fire safety tips.

You can find a list of EVERY Fire Department in Texas on the Texas Commission of Fire Protection website.

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