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“Firefighters’ work goes beyond blaze” (Metro, Feb. 4) applauded suburban fire departments for their efforts in educating the public after fires occur, in order to give them more information on how firefighters go about extinguishing fires. We at the Chicago Fire Department would like to join in applauding that effort, but would add the fact that for more than 12 years, Chicago’s fire department has been aggressively using public education as a method of providing proactive information aimed at preventing fires from occurring, as well as door-to-door canvasses when people are killed in a fire.
In Chicago we have seen an overall reduction in fires and a remarkably dramatic decrease in fire deaths from 131 in 1988 to 47 in 1998.
