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Show r . r- --. f '( ' - ' ' ' " ' v.; ,r-- v t IMaying with matches causes hundreds of children's deaths and serious burns every year. This little girl builds a matchstick house, but she may be building a bon fire if she happens to strike one of these matches by accident. CHILDREN ARE COMBUSTIBLE A Thousands of Children Die Each Year From Careless Home Fires One cold winter morning in Baltimore last January a young couple rose early, and after looking in on their children who were still sleeping, went a few doors down the road to open their filling station for the day. The wife was cleaning around the office, the husband checking the cash when a terrified youngster burst In on them: "Your house is on fire," he shouted, "your house is on fire." The woman gasped in disbelief, "My house, but . . ." That was Impossible. She had left it 'just a few minutes before. Then in sudden horror she turned to her husband, "The children, John, the children." They ran up to the house where smoke could be seen from the kitchen kitch-en window. It was impossible to get through the door, the smoke was bo thick. Frantically the wife ran around to the side windows where neighbors were already tugging at storm shutters, the women hysterically hysteri-cally calling to the four children still in the house. The mother rushed to the windows, started to claw at the shutters, managed to rip the wood off its hinges. She smashed the glass with her fist and pulled herself up into the smoke-filled room. Rescues Children Reaching the baby's crib, she crawled with the child in her arms to the window, lifted him out to a neighbor. The woman touched him and shivered. He was already dead. In the meantime, the father had made his way into a rear room, carried car-ried out their five-year-old son. Together the husband and wife brought the two other children to the window, just got outside and collapsed themselves. The four chil-dren, chil-dren, ranging from eight months to five years, were dead. Smoke and fumes had suffocated "them. Firemen Fire-men found that a kerosene oil stove had caught fire in the kitchen, created the poisonous gases that filtered fil-tered through the rooms. One of the youngsters apparently had tried to use the telephone but had lost consciousness, a neighbor reported later. The woman found the party line open when she tried to call the fire department. The deaths were a cruel blow to the mother and father. But a fact that is more cruel is that it is not an unique accident. acci-dent. It is duplicated in many American homes every day. Thousands of children die In home fires every year. The National Na-tional Board of Fire Underwriters Under-writers reports at least 2,000 fire deaths are of children under un-der five years of age, when it is unlikely that they can help themselves in an emergency. Seeking the causes of fires in which most young children die, the U. S. Office of Education selected at random 800 cases reported in the newspapers. They found: 165 were caused by stove explosions; 100 by people who tried to quicken a fire with kerosene or gasoline; some 31 children were burned to death while playing with matches. In 300 of the fires the cause was never found, and the remaining 204 started in various ways, from defective defec-tive electric cords to spontaneous ignition of oily rags and paint cloths. Of these 800 children, more than half were under five. The survey showed, too, that in at least 250 cases the children were alone in the house. Instructions for Sitters A tragic fire broke out recently when six children were left alone in their upstate New York home overnight. over-night. All six children died in the blaze that spread so quickly neighbors neigh-bors couldn't get to their rescue. The parents had been visiting relatives rela-tives just two miles away. Children left alone need very few minutes in which to crawl into trouble, the National Board warns. There should always be an adult to Fortunately for this youngster, the portable heater she's playing play-ing with has a sturdy guard. Even with that she may get a serious burn. watch over them. If baby-sitters are left in charge of children, they should be instructed: 1. In case of emergency, to get the children out of the house immediately. 2. To call the fire department after the children are safe. (Leave the number next to the telephone. If there's no phone, see that the baby-sitter knows how to turn in an alarm.) 3. Leave a number where you can be reached during the evening. 4. Always return promptly at the time specified. . Often children are left alone in a room if their mother has gone down to the basement for a minute or two. To safeguard against their creeping Into mischief, nothing dangerous dan-gerous should be left within reach. Matches should be placed on a high shelf. If possible, children should be kept out of the kitchen. If they do go into the kitchen, see that pot handles are turned so they won't jut beyond the edge of the stove. Toasters, other electric appliances shouldn't be within reach of youngsters. young-sters. Since the stove was found by the government survey to have started one in two fires where the causes were known, that should be the logical logi-cal place to start a fire-safety check of the entire house. There should be no trouble with a stove if it's properly prop-erly constructed and tended carefully. care-fully. Guard Against Accidents Perhaps the most important rule to remember with wood or coal stoves is: Don't use gasoline or kerosene to start a fire. They are dangerously explosive. The stove should be cleaned thoroughly before attempting to start a fire. All fuel should be stored away from it. With kerosene or portable oil stoves, be sure that one you have is listed by Underwriters' Laboratories, Labora-tories, Inc. It should be of heavy enough construction and so situated that it can't be tipped over by a child. It should be cleaned and when set down, placed on level floor to avoid tipping. Don't fill it or move it when it's lighted. When using it. be sure the room is properly proper-ly ventilated. This is especially important im-portant in winter nights when windows win-dows might be closed. For children's protection, always keep a metal screen in front of the fireplace to prevent sparks from popping. r a- r - i ;. M v, B U i . - , . If there are youngsters :n your house, make sure that the fireplace has a jrotective metal screen. Children are fascinated by Fire and may be tempted ro crawl too close to the flames. |