Burn Awareness Week takes place from Feb 7-13, 2010. According to the American Burn Association, this week is designed to provide an opportunity for burn, fire and safety educators to unite in sharing a common burn awareness and prevention message in our communities.

British Columbia has chosen to focus on child scalding prevention this year, the most common cause of childhood burns.  A scald is a burn injury from hot liquid or steam that damages one or more layers of skin.  These injuries can be avoided if adults use fire and safety precautions and teach children about the dangers associated with hot liquids and appliances. It is also critical to supervise young children in the kitchen and the bathroom at all times.

Here are some important safety tips to keep your children safe from scalds and burns.

• Always test young children’s bath and sink water before using it.
• Teach children to never touch anything on the stove or to open the oven.
• Adults should always turn pot handles inward when cooking to avoid knocking them over.
• Never carry children when cooking or handling hot food.
• If a child is burned, place the burned area as quickly as possible in cool (not cold) water for 10 to 15 minutes.

For more Burn Awareness Week safety tips, please visit the British Columbia Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund website. This organization has also put together an online program with age appropriate burn awareness safety lessons.

Fire Safety For All is dedicated to providing safety tips like these to help prevent fires and fire-related deaths and injuries.  If you have a fire safety tip you’d like to share, please email editor@firesafetyforall.com.