Oklahoma City fire deaths rise

Number this year highest in more than a decade

Shortly before noon on a Sunday earlier this month, firefighters arrived at a burning house on Oklahoma City’s northwest side.

Inside, they found the body of Charles Allen Jr., 49, the 17th person to die in a fire this year in Oklahoma City.

It’s been 12 years since Oklahoma City confronted so many fire deaths in one year. And there’s almost six months still to go.

“Honestly, it’s a little baffling why there are so many this year,” Fire Battalion Chief Benny Fulkerson said.

Fulkerson said firefighters will continue to stress the importance of smoke alarms in preventing fire deaths. In only one of this year’s deadly blazes did firefighters find evidence of a working smoke alarm.

“You have a greater than 50 percent chance of survival with a working smoke alarm,” Fulkerson said.

There was no smoke alarm found in the house where Allen died July 9.

In Oklahoma City, there

“You have a greater than 50 percent chance of survival with a working smoke alarm.” Fire Battalion Chief Benny Fulkerson

were 12 fire deaths in 2017, 12 in 2016 and 8 in 2015.

Before 2015, the fire department reported annual fire deaths by fiscal year — July 1 to June 30.

In fiscal year 2005-06 there were 18 fire deaths in Oklahoma City.

In fiscal year 20042005, the department reported 24 such deaths, including six people who died from a house fire March 2, 2005. That day, a two-story house at 1701 NW 18 caught fire. Bars on the windows hampered firefighters from getting inside, where five people died. A sixth victim injured in the fire died later in a hospital. The cause of that fire has remained undetermined.

Meanwhile, in January, there were 11 fire deaths in Oklahoma City and three of those deaths were Jan. 13 in a vacant house at 218 N Blackwelder Ave., firefighters reported. Three people died in two separate fires on the same day Jan. 9. No smoke alarms were found.

Smoke alarms are free to anyone in Oklahoma City through the Project Life program.

Anyone needing a smoke alarm may call (405) 316-2337 and request an alarm in Spanish or in English.

Firefighters will install smoke alarms at homes and businesses for free.

For Spanish-speaking people, more information on smoke alarms is available at gratisalarmasokc.com or in English at smokealarmsokc.com.

[PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE OKLAHOMA CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT] A vacant home caught fire in January in northwest Oklahoma City. Fire officials said the home was a complete loss and firefighters later found the bodies of three people in the rubble.

[PHOTO BY JIM BECKEL, THE OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVES] A boy uprights some small flowers after a gust of wind knocked them out of place at a memorial to a 12-yearold girl and a 60-year-old woman who died Jan. 29 in a house fire.