Fire Prevention Week from Oct. 7-13 is about teaching people how to protect themselves from home fires, which is a matter of life and death now more than ever.

Residential fire rates have been decreasing. That is the good news.

But the bad news, which makes Fire Prevention Week extremely important, is the death rate per home fires is 10 percent higher in 2016 than 1980.

While there are less home fires, the fires occurring are more lethal. If more people knew that information, it would save lives.

Like many other situations in everyday life, situational awareness is the key. Situational awarness — being aware of place, what is going on and preparedness to deal with what happens — is a heroic quality. Think fictional master spy Jason Bourne, whose greatest defense in avoiding his demise is situational awareness.

In recognition of Fire Prevention Week, here is a course in learning and instilling situational awareness when it comes to fire emergencies. These principles also are applicable in other situations:

•Be Aware of Time — Use it Wisely: Today’s home fires burn and spread faster than ever. Because newer homes and furniture burn faster due to lightweight materials, you have as little as one to two minutes to escape safely from the time the smoke alarm sounds.

•Develop a Sense to Predict Events: This does not require special extrasensory powers. It requires a smoke alarm. Working smoke alarms cut the risk of dying in a home fire in half. Cooking is the leading cause of home fires and home fire injuries, so be alert and cautious in cooking.

•Identify Elements Around You: Of course there are ovens and burners, but space heaters need space, since they are the type of equipment most often involved in home heating fires.

•Trust Your Feelings: Deploy all five senses, plus the sixth one — not the one where you see dead people, but the one also known as common sense. This year’s Fire Prevention Week theme is “Look. Listen. Learn. Be aware. Fire can happen anywhere.”

•Avoid Complacency: People feel safest in their home, which is natural, but that feeling can contribute to complacency that delays a response to an emergency, especially when you have not thought about fire emergencies in a while.

•Evaluate and Understand the Situation: Learn two ways out of each room. Teach the whole family those ways and practice fire escapes. Planning and practice can prevent situational overload in emergencies.

•Continually Assess the Situation: This goes back to smoke alarms, which do much of that assessing. Look for places fires can start.

•Monitor Performance of Others: Take the attitude that there is always more work to do when it comes to learning and practicing fire safety. This is why advance planning is so vitally important. These are home fires you do not want to keep burning.