The Minot Fire Department will join departments around the United States in recognizing Fire Prevention Week from Oct. 4-10.

Stuart Hammer, fire inspector for the Minot Fire Department, said this year’s national Fire Prevention Week focus is kitchen fire safety. Since local firefighters won’t be able to visit schools and daycares because of the coronavirus pandemic, they are finding new ways to spread fire prevention messages.

“We’ll be sharing a fire prevention video with the schools and other organizations, because even though we can’t visit them personally, we want to continue to educate everyone about fire pre-vention and fire safety,” Hammer said.

Hammer said about 50% of fire calls the Minot Fire Department responds to are for cooking fires, with unattended cooking being the major cause. Nationally, about 172,900 home fires per year are caused by home cooking activities.

“In a lot of these cases, it only takes a little bit of material to start a fire, but once it gets going it can burn cabinets, walls, and anything else that it can ignite,” Hammer said.

More information on fire safety can be found at nfpa.org.