After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, cities began to host an annual Fire Prevention Week with the goal of raising public awareness around fire in order to save lives [1]. This photo depicts a Los Angeles Fire Department fire truck that visited Laurel Grade School during Fire Prevention Week in 1951. Similar demonstrations took place at other local schools, including a demonstration of an 85-foot aerial truck for 200 elementary school students, stressing the theme of Fire Prevention Week: prevention through education [2]. In addition to education, Fire Prevention Week was also used as an opportunity to publicize new legislation, particularly in the case of efforts to reform building codes “to conform to modern requirements for construction and fire prevention” made in 1924 [3].

Announcements and bulletins marking the start of Fire Prevention Week were often accompanied with staggering statistics on the fire damage of previous years to emphasize the importance of prevention. For instance, a 1951 Los Angeles Sentinel article noted that fire killed 10,000 Americans each year and that each day, there were 700 house fires in the United States [4]. A 1952 article from the same publication added that fire loss that year was predicted to amount to $855,000,000 and stressed that 90 percent of fires were preventable, a clear plea for the public to do their part in preventing future fires [5].