Cooking mishaps are leading cause of house fires in Melbourne’s north
Careless and accident-prone home chefs are behind a quarter of all house fires in Melbourne’s north, and firefighters have offered some important advice to avoid becoming a statistic. See the breakdown of incidents in your area.
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Cooking mishaps have been revealed as the leading cause of house fires in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
MFB data, released exclusively to Leader, showed a quarter of the 505 residential structure fires across the region in the year ending November 30, 2019 were caused by cooking accidents.
The figures also showed Hume was the hotspot for suspicious fires with 91 incidents, followed by Darebin with 80 and Moreland with 67.
During the 12-month period from December 1, 2018 to November 30, 2019, Darebin had the highest number of MFB emergency call-outs with 2004, including 834 for false alarms.
Moreland was the most fire-prone municipality with the highest number of structure fires at 146, followed by Darebin with 140 and Maribyrnong with 115.
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Moonee Valley residents were the best protected, with 92 per cent of homes where there was a fire having at least one smoke alarm present.
Whittlesea and Hume were the least protected areas with 20 per cent of homes that experienced a fire not having a smoke alarm.
MFB firefighters in Darebin and Moreland responded to the highest number of medical response calls, with 545 and 517 each.
During the 12-month period MFB firefighters responded to more than 10,000 incidents across northern suburb municipalities of Banyule, Moreland, Darebin, Hume, Moonee Valley, Maribyrnong, Nillumbik, and Whittlesea.
MFB’s Acting Deputy Chief Officer of Community Resilience Adam Dalrymple said the most important home fire safety measure was to have working smoke alarms in bedrooms and all living areas.
“Without one you are putting yourself and your family in danger,” he said.
“Working smoke alarms provide a vital early warning and are designed to help you and your loved ones escape during a fire.
“You must have a fire escape plan in place and practise it regularly with your family. If there is a fire in your home you should get out, stay out and call triple-0.
“Most fires start in the kitchen, you should never leave cooking unattended and you should ensure your stove top, griller, oven, rangehood and cooking areas are free from built-up grease, dust and oil.”
Each year more people die and are injured in house fires than bushfires, according to the MFB.
In the 2018-19 financial year there were 1460 preventable house fires in Melbourne resulting in two deaths.
A woman died in a house fire in Sunbury last month, while a portable heater left too close to flammable items sparked a blaze that killed a woman in West Footscray in 2018.
In January, two young policemen dragged a man to safety from inside his burning garage in Jacana, while a cooking explosion caused by methylated spirits in Hillside resulted in a child being taken to hospital earlier this month.
For advice on how to prevent a fire around the home, download the MFB’s Home Fire Safety Booklet.
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