TEXAS — "This year, we've had two fatalities that were directly a result from a house fire,” says Longview Fire Marshal, Kevin May.
He’s referencing just two of the eleven deaths that have come because of house fires in East Texas, and that number represents more than 10% of house fire fatalities in the state.
"Smoke is what normally causes a death in a fire. That's why as the smoke rises, we encourage people you need to stay low, crawl to safety and get out to the smoke."
According to a new report by ASecureLife.com, Texas leads the nation in the number of house fire fatalities between the start of the year through August. Included in the state’s total are two home fire-related deaths in Kilgore, one in Tyler, and another in Athens.
"The most common cause still is unattended cooking or a cooking fire, somebody putting on a pot of grease and forgetting about it,” says May.
The online report confirms that information. In Texas, nine fire fatalities were caused by unattended cooking --- that's more than any other state.
The report also found that heating equipment is also another common cause of house fires. This includes space heaters and fireplaces.
"As we leave the summer months and we start into the winter, we encourage people to start looking at their space heaters. They need to have their furnaces checked by a professional, and the space heaters, whether they be gas-operated, propane-operated, you always need to keep your combustibles three feet from all the way around the space heater."
Another big culprit of house fires is smoking, whether it be cigarettes or cigars.
May says that no matter the cause, one thing that is typically missing in most causes of house fires are smoke detectors.
"People need to have working smoke detectors. Most fire fatalities, they've gone back, and they've noticed that there were no working smoke detectors in the house."