New London — Every year around the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire — an 1871 blaze that killed more than 250 people — firefighters across the country take to the streets to raise awareness about fire prevention and safety.

Dubbed Fire Prevention Week, it’s an event that has been taking place for 95 years, with many of the years zeroing in on different themes.

This year, the focus is on how much more quickly structures burn now than they used to. That’s thanks in large part to the construction of modern homes, which feature more open spaces and plastics than their older counterparts.

According to the National Fire Prevention Association, which sponsors Fire Prevention Week, residents typically have two minutes or less to escape from their homes once an alarm has begun to sound. As such, the NFPA this year is emphasizing that everyone should take time to create and practice at least two paths out of every room in their home.

“Home is the place people are at greatest risk of fire, but ironically it’s the place they feel safest from it,” said Lorraine Carli, vice president of Outreach and Advocacy at NFPA.

According to NFPA’s annual report, there were 5.2 percent fewer structure fires in 2016 than in 2015. At 475,500, the number is the smallest the country has seen since NFPA began collecting data 40 years ago.

Still, residential fires represent almost 80 percent of all structure fires. And despite a decrease in overall blazes, 3.4 percent more civilians died in fires in 2016 than did in the previous year — a total of about 3,390 people.

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While the New London Fire Department and others this week will visit local schools and invite residents to their stations, they won't stop there.

Fire Chief Henry Kydd said his department has educational programming throughout the year. Once its new, computerized fire safety trailer is operational in early 2018, it will have even more opportunities to teach the community.

“We’ve been working on a lot of things to beef up our fire prevention education and get the community back to where we had it when we had our old fire prevention trailer,” Kydd said.

But faster burning homes aren’t just affecting the residents who have to escape more quickly. As firefighters rush toward homes filled with burning plastics, they increase their risk of being exposed to carcinogens, Kydd explained.

Indeed, research shows firefighters are more likely than the general public to get multiple types of cancer. Additionally, a late 2015 study of almost 30,000 firefighters found those who had spent more time at fires had a higher chance of lung cancer diagnosis or death. Those who had gone on more fire runs saw higher rates of leukemia death.

That comes as no surprise to Kydd. Of the people who helped train him in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Kydd said he knows of 12 who got cancer and have since died.

Because of the risks, the city department in March brought in an educator from the International Association of Fire Fighters to discuss cancer prevention.

Then, in June, it launched a new initiative to help mitigate the problem. After each blaze, firefighters are asked to put their gear through the department’s washer-extractor in order to rid the gear of any carcinogens or other materials that might be lingering. They’re also encouraged to wash their station uniforms in-house rather than bringing them home and posing a risk to their families.

Kydd from here wants to get washer-extractors and dryers in all three of New London’s stations to make it easier for the firefighters and to prevent dirty gear from being carted across the city. He hopes to secure a grant to do so.

“We’re trying to protect our firefighters more,” Kydd said. “We’re very safety conscious.”

l.boyle@theday.com