Friday, March 9, 2007

Bronx Fire

A widely reported story yesterday details a horrible fire in a Bronx, NY home. The blaze killed several adults and children among the 22 people living there. The usual culprit, a space heater, appears to have been the cause of the fire. The reason for so many deaths was likely this fact reported by the Boston Globe...

"The home had two smoke alarms, but neither had batteries."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/03/09/woman_8_children_die_in_bronx_fire/

Many comments posted on news sites claim society is responsible for this tragedy and others like it, blaming the poor living conditions under which these people were forced to live.

Such comments ignore the fact that the numerous deaths in fires like this are largely preventable if just one adult in the household would take personal responsibility for the people living there. Blame society for the poor living conditions if you must, but society is not to blame for not putting batteries in people's smoke alarms. No one is too poor to spend a couple dollars on batteries for something as important as this.

The fact that adults continue to endanger the lives of their children by not following simple fire safety precautions is an outrage.

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