Question:
A couple weeks ago, on a Sunday morning, I had just gotten out of bed and was sitting at my computer. My wife was just getting out of the shower. My kids (11 and 12) were downstairs, presumably just getting up, though they could've been upstairs (stairs are on the opposite end of the house from the computer room). I smelled something burning. I stood up from the desk and moved towards the kitchen, since my first thought was that someone was burning breakfast. As soon as I moved away from the desk, the smell went away. At about the same time, my wife asked if I smelled something odd. It didn't take long to realize it was coming from the heat vents. I went running downstairs and found my 11-year-old son kneeling at the *gas* furnace with little pieces of paper and his thin, plastic pick-up sticks. He was sticking the pieces of paper into the furnace and watching them burn, and melting the plastic sticks. So I got him away from the furnace, put out the very small fire and turned off the furnace's switch. Opening up the furnace, I found that he had melted about a quarter- to half-inch section of the plastic electronic ignition case, and melted the insulation off several of the wires. We called a repairman who quoted us $800 to fix the ignition, so we replacemed the furnace (it was about 20 years old anyway). Aside from being grounded for a few weeks, and generally being much more closely supervised all the time, my wife and I decided that he should write a 4-page report on fire safety in the home, including some statistics of home fires, their cause, and results. I took him to the local library to find some resources for his report, but to my dismay, was unable to find anything appropriate. There were books aimed at very young children ("don't touch the stove" sort of advice), and books about what a firefighter does, but really nothing that I could find on home fire safety, or statistics of home fires. So, long story short, that's why I'm here. Can anyone point me in the right direction for some good resources (books, online, etc) on home fire safety, and home fire statistics? We're also thinking of taking him down to our local fire station to talk with them about this topic. Are there any appropriate questions that we should be asking?

Answer: Well first off I am only an EMT and a FF wanna-be, not a FF yet. Anyways I think *every* kid plays with fire. I would try to talk to him about how dangerous fire is and how it works and/or take him down to the fire station. I know I did plenty of stupid things with fire when I was young, but nothing beats my brother and step brother... When I was 13 I caught my 10 year old brother and 11 year old step brother in the kitchen with rolled pieces of notebook paper with aragano in them, they were lighting them over the stove and trying to smoke them!!! I told them to put it out, but they didn't until I threated to call the fire captain down the road, my friend's dad and that stopped them REAL quick. That was too funny. I would not worry about it too much, but make sure you talk to them about fire