According to a Office of State Fire Marshal report, Kansas is well on its way to reducing structure fires, including residential fires. There was almost an 11 percent decrease in structure fires last year alone.
There were 488 fewer structure fires in 2015 than 2014. Residential fires in the state have accounted for about 75 percent of structure fires during the past 15 years. Last year, nearly a third of structure fires were residential fires.
One in three home fires in Kansas were cooking-related, causing a reported loss of more than 1.5 million dollars. Alcohol, drugs and sleepiness are causes for cooking fires year-round.
Impairments and sleeping were involved in nearly 30 percent of fatal cooking fires over the last 15 years.
Unsupervised children cooking in the kitchen caused 98 fires last year in Kansas.
The report also showed equipment-caused fires were the second most common type of structure fires in 2015.
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Carla Eckels is assistant news director and the host of Soulsations. Follow her on Twitter @Eckels.
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