Melton residents are urged to be extra vigilant this summer after firefighters responded to 63 preventable house fires over the past year.
Almost half were as a result of unattended cooking disasters, recent Country Fire Authority data reveals.
Melton brigade’s officer in charge Jayson Hirt said kitchen fires were a regular occurrence in the municipality, as were electrical faults caused by overloading power boards.
“People don’t realise that they’re fire hazards,” Mr Hirt said. “And another one is [people leaving] clothing too close to heaters.”
Mr Hirt said he expected this year’s fire season to be worse than the last.
“We’ve had significant grass growth, and grassfires are an issue in our urban interface areas,” he said. “So with the growth, it could lead to more grassfires than the last fire season.
“And cooking and overloading powerboards, doesn’t matter what time of the year, those fires occur.”
Mr Hirt said numbers of preventable house fires are decreasing, thanks to greater community awareness about the dangers. But, he said, it was sad when families lost their properties in circumstances that were avoidable.
“A small fire can cause significant damage to houses,” he said.
A CFA spokesman said almost half of the house fires around the state started in the kitchen, with the most common causes being unattended cooking, faulty electrical appliances or bad power distribution, and heating appliances.
“Never leave cooking unattended, keep items such as tea towels and curtains away from cooking and other heat sources, keep pot handles turned in when cooking on stoves [and] always supervise children in the kitchen,” the spokesman said.
CFA and the Metropolitan Fire Brigade’s home fire safety campaign, Safe Mistake Zone, aims to raise awareness about small mistakes that can cause house fires, and what people can do to reduce the risks of fire.
For more information, visit safemistakezone.com.au, and spread the message using the hashtag #safemistake on social media.
