That's why firefighters in McCook, along with hundreds of thousands of others across North America are participating in the National Fire Protection Association's Fire Prevention Week October 5 - 11, 2003.  Each year our department works hard to get the word out on fire safety.  Our theme this year is, "When Fire Strikes:  Get Out! Stay Out!

In schools and elsewhere around the community, we'll be teaching these life-saving rules:

The McCook City and Volunteer Firefighters work everyday to make the public safer through education.  Fire Prevention Week, now in its 81st year is the week in which October 9th falls-to commemorate the great Chicago fire of October 8-9, 1871.

That fire killed more than 250 people, destroyed some 17,400 structures and left 100,000 people homeless.  You may have heard that the fire began when a cow kicked over a lamp in a barn, but the facts of the fire's origins are lost to the mists of time.  What we do know is that another big fire occurred in Wisconsin and Michigan that same day.

These two fires still the third costliest and third deadliest fires, respectively, in U.S. history have inspired nearly a century of work on fire prevention and improvement.  On the 40th anniversary of the Chicago and Peshtigo, Wisconsin, fires, the Fire Marshall's Association of North America (now known as the International Fire Marshals Association) sponsored the first National Fire Prevention Day.  In 1920, President Woodrow Wilson issued the first National Fire Prevention Day Proclamation, and it became a week-long event in 1922.  Every year since 1925, the president has signed a proclamation calling for national observance of Fire Prevention Week.  The observance is sponsored by the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association), a nonprofit agency that advocates for fire and building safety.

This year firefighters are planning activities in McCook to drive home the "Get Out! Stay Out!" message.  These activities include visiting the schools and spreading the word about fire safety.  

Everyone has a role in safety.

Please join us in making McCook a safer place to live.