Over the past many decades, thanks to better public education about fire safety (most of us now know better than to leave candles unattended and are mindful to dispose of smoking materials safely) and more advanced fire protection systems (hooray for sprinklers, 10-year smoke alarms and alarm monitoring), we have access to more information and fire safety tools than ever before. Unfortunately, despite all of this, far too many people are injured or worse in residential fires. In my city, the leading causes of residential fires are unattended cooking and careless smoking, and both are within our control to prevent.
