FIRES UP,
DESTRUCTION DOWN IN LINCOLN, NE
December 24, 2014
More fires damaged more buildings this year than last,
but they did significantly less damage.
Lincoln, Nebraska firefighters tackled nearly 2,000
fires in the first 11 months of this year and are on track to go out to 2,150,
an 8.2 percent jump over a year ago, Lincoln Fire and Rescue Chief John Huff
said.
The fires this year caused $4 million in damage to
buildings and belongings, a 23 percent drop from the $5.3 million in
destruction they did in 2013, according to LFR data.
“I’m glad to see loss is down,” Huff said.
It's hard to figure out why, in any given year, fires
would go up while the damage they do would fall. LFR could be doing a better
job, or the fire department -- and property owners -- might be getting lucky.
But, Huff added, he hopes it means his firefighters are
getting to and putting out fires fast.
“If we make a good, aggressive attack, we get there
quickly before the fire’s burned for any length of time,” he said. “We stop the
fire before it spreads.”
Nationally, both the number of fires and the amount of
damage they do fell recently and those numbers have been falling for decades,
according to National Fire Protection Association statistics.
Their number dropped nearly 10 percent last year to an
estimated 1.2 million, and the amount of damage fell 7.3 percent to $11.5
billion, according to the data. That’s part of a 35-year trend in which the
number of fires in the United States plummeted by two-thirds.
But the number of deaths jumped 13.5 percent to 3,240
nationwide, while Lincoln saw its first death in two years back in June.
Brianna Johnson, 30, died June 15 after a cooking fire
in her apartment at 26th and J.
Last year, no one died in a fire in Lincoln.
No matter what the dollar figure does, Huff said he’d
like to see the number of deaths drop back to zero and stay there.
“Property’s property, but the most important thing is
citizens’ lives,” the chief said.