To help residents prevent fires in their homes, the Ventura County Fire Department will host information booths from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, Thurs., Oct. 9, at The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fri., Oct. 10 at the Simi Valley Town Center.

Fire department personnel will be in the booths to talk about smoke detectors, home escape plans, cooking safety, heating safety, electrical safety, candle safety and many other fire prevention topics.

In 2007, the Ventura County Fire Department responded to more than 2,200 fires. Many of these were residential structure fires. Nationwide, the figures are even more serious. In 2006, fire departments responded to almost 400,000 structure fires in homes, and these fires killed more than 2,500 people.

"The good news is, many home fires are preventable," said Fire Marshal Christina Jamison. "The leading cause of home fires is cooking, and, in most cases, the fires occur when cooking is left unattended. By simply paying attention while you're cooking, you can save your home and possibly your life."

Smoking materials, heating equipment and electrical equipment account for most of the deaths in home fires, but there are simple measures that can be taken to reduce the risk of death in a home fire.

"The easiest thing you can do to protect yourself from a home fire is to install smoke detectors," said Jamison. "These inexpensive devices unquestionably save lives, and new regulations requiring fire sprinklers in homes will further reduce the loss of lives and property in home fires."