It seems recently we have seen an increase in the number of tragic and devastating fires on the newscasts. Winter brings along many challenges for residents to heat older homes, and people start using fireplaces that haven鈥檛 been used for months or adding space heaters to those draughty basement rooms. The Christmas season encourages everyone to add lights, trees and candles to enhance the spirit and we entertain more, stay up later, and drink a bit more and maybe just get a bit more careless than usual.

For many years I sat on building and fire code committees. We would work diligently to bring about national or provincial regulations that would make homes more fire resistant, buildings stronger to withstand storms and be still standing after earthquakes.

We would study fires and collapses and experiences from across the country, we would recommend changes to construction standards and promote the use of safer interior finishes and upgraded heating and cooking systems. It was our goal to ensure that the dwellings being built, whether single family homes or multi-family complexes, were safer than they had ever been.

Then we did the worst thing we could do to these new homes. We allowed people to move into them. Furnace rooms became storage closets. Holes were poked in fire walls to run computer cables or phone lines through. Extension cords and power bars were run behind couches or under rugs and they cursed the stupid breakers that kept going off and had to be reset.

Barbecues sprang up on combustible balconies next to vinyl siding and fireplaces were stuffed with unseasoned wood and newspaper. Slowly, many of the life-saving features built into the home were simply bypassed by the home owner.

I hated investigating house fires. The smell of wet, crumbling gyproc, melted plastic and smouldering furniture made me physically sick. It always meant pain, sorrow and loss. It was often easy to spot the point of origin of the blaze, and having to point out to the homeowner who or what was responsible for the fire was never an easy task.

It was never easy to stand in someone else鈥檚 living room and trace the fire from the Christmas tree to the drapes, across the ceiling and onto the new La-Z-Boy. It was even harder to see Grandpa鈥檚 clock knocked from the mantle and smashed on the floor or the family Bible, open to the Christmas story, scorched and trampled into the melted carpet and the toys in the kids鈥� rooms destroyed beyond recognition.

Then, one of the firefighters from outside would say, 鈥淭he homeowner鈥檚 just pulled up.鈥� That was not the time for blame or to discuss cause. It was a time for consolation and to hear the questions about the whereabouts of family pets or valuable documents, photographs or jewelry. With every recent newscast, the smells, those questions and their tears all come back in an instant.

So many times the cause could have easily been avoided with just a little more care, a little more common sense.  A visit from an electrician to put in another outlet or two, a regular check of the furnace, a call to a chimney cleaner or a regular clean-up of junk and debris can save a lot of tears. Working smoke alarms and sprinklers do save lives.

Houses are built safer today than ever. Don鈥檛 you be the biggest hazard in your family鈥檚 home. At least that what鈥檚 McGregor says.