10 fire deaths blamed on lack of smoke alarms, escape routes, Macon fire chief says

Ten pairs of empty shoes sat on the steps of the Georgia Capitol this year, representing lives lost in Macon fires last year.

“Seven homes, no smoke alarm, no fire escape plan,” Macon-Bibb Fire Prevention Chief Brenda Thomas preached during a Fire Prevention Week kickoff at headquarters Wednesday morning. “This is exactly why it is so very, very important that each and every one of us in here, our households have a working smoke alarm and a fire escape plan.”

Thomas said this year’s Fire Prevention Week them is fitting: “Every second counts. Plan two ways out.”

Howard High School student Ashley VanAken said her family didn’t think much about a fire escape plan before a blaze in her home in February.

“We kind of blew it off because we never thought a fire would happen to us,” said Ashley, one of this year’s first place winners of the Louise Poe fire safety essay competition.

The 17-year-old was frying taco shells in the kitchen, said her mother, Stephanie VanAken.

“The grease caught on fire,” VanAken said.

All five family members and four dogs made it out safely.

The deaths of three members of the Howard family early on Mildred Court on Dec. 30 made Macon one of Georgia’s deadliest cities for fire fatalities in 2016.

“We want to reduce that number to zero,” Macon-Bibb County Fire Chief Marvin Riggins told the crowd at the fire station at First and Oglethorpe streets.

Ahead of fire prevention week activities at local shopping centers next week, Bibb County school children will have fire drills Thursday at each school.

The Bibb school system’s safety coordinator reminded kickoff attendees that the nation’s worst school tragedy was not gun violence at Sandy Hook Elementary or Columbine High School, but the Our Lady of Angels fire that killed 92 students and three Catholic nuns in Humboldt Park, Chicago, in 1958.

School superintendent Curtis Jones encouraged the award-winning students in attendance to develop escape plans at home.

“I’m getting sick and tired of seeing death and I’m getting sick and tired of seeing mistakes that could be prevented,” Jones said.

David Gowan, the school system’s director of safety and risk management, touted Macon-Bibb fire department’s Class 1 rating that keeps insurance rates lower.

The students, which included the chorus of Mount de Sales Academy, got to see a demonstration of firefighters in action.

As Riggins was wrapping up the event, the fire alarm sounded at headquarters, which sent men scrambling to a fire engine.

Riggins paused his remarks and smiled when the siren sounded.

“They’re out in less than 45 seconds. That’s what we like to see.”

This story was originally published October 4, 2017 at 3:38 PM with the headline "10 fire deaths blamed on lack of smoke alarms, escape routes, Macon fire chief says."