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Amanda Butterfield ReportingChief Steve Foote: "Obviously we want to look into this and find out what's happening here."
The numbers are in for fire related deaths in Utah in 2005 and Fire officials around don't like it. Usually fire deaths in Utah only reach into the single digits and fire officials don't even like that, but last year was one of the most deadly years in over a decade.
Twenty fire related deaths for 2005, that's the number that has fire officials worried. As we look back at the year, you can see why fire officials hope not to repeat it for 2006.
The year started deadly in Cache County. Two fires in one day left four people dead. The first killed a mother and her two young kids when a fire ripped through an apartment complex. Later that same day, in Smithfield a 12-year old girl died inside a burning mobile home.
Within the first month of 2005, fire related deaths were close to what you'd expect for an entire year.
Steve Foote, South Salt Lake Fire Chief: "We had 20 deaths in 2005, which is the most amount of deaths we've had fire related since 1992. When you hear numbers like that it gets people to perk up and say, 'Why, what happened, what are the causes?'"
In South Salt Lake one cause may be limited resources.
Steve Foote: "I think the growth in the valley is catching up to us, and we're struggling to keep resources out on the streets and respond to these fires."
Here some of the major causes of fires according to a few agencies we talked to: unattended candles, cigarettes, and alternative heating sources. Fire officials speculate high fuel costs have led people to find money saving ways to heat their homes.
That's what caused a mobile home in Uinta County to go up in flames. The man living there used gasoline to light a wood-burning stove; a two year old died in the resulting explosion. It was the last death of the year that brought the count to 20.
Prevention campaigns will be huge for fire agencies this year and they will be stressing the importance of smoke detectors -- you're 50 percent more likely to survive a fire with one.
