Potentially one of the most frightening events that occur is an uncontrolled fire. In 2020, according to a report, in the US, the fire department responded to a fire on average every 23 seconds. A home fire was reported every 89 seconds, with a death caused by home fire happening as much as every three hours and 24 minutes, and an injury caused by home fire happening every 46 minutes.
The causes of house fires are varied with the following factors as the most common influencers on home fires:
- Faulty electrical appliances, wiring malfunction and cooking cause the greatest number of house fires.
- Heating devices such as heaters, and fireplaces, are another major factor. Usually, it’s when people place furniture or clothes too close to a source of heat that can cause the heater to get too hot and start a fire.
- Cigarettes are a major cause of house fires, when the cigarette falls onto furniture.
But it’s not just the risk of personal injury. House fires can consume a lifetime’s worth of valuables and sentimental. In fact, fires are responsible for almost 12 billion dollars every year in the US. And of course, photos and personal documents once lost are impossible to replace.
How the blockchain can preserve documents forever
One blockchain-based project called Blockademia is helping users to save their personal documents on the blockchain. The blockchain is decentralized which means that the data stored on it is distributed across thousands of computers worldwide. In contrast to when we store our personal information and documents on the internet using a single entryway, eg. a signal server, on the blockchain it is nigh on impossible to hack into a user’s personal data. Blockademia is a project that works on the basis of decentralization. It can effectively transform all types of data including diplomas, certificates, contracts, certificates of ownership, insurance policies, state documents, source code, video & music files, and other documents by fulfilling entries directly onto the Cardano blockchain. It not only checks the authentication of the document but also guarantees the permanence of the entries on the blockchain, therefore, preserving them forever. Cardano entries are public, and transparent, which means institutions, or in fact anyone you need to see the data can do at any time, and Blokademia records the exact time and date of the entry.
No Smoke Without Fire
Of course, it is better to avoid fires in the first place. Here’s how.
Did you know that smoke alarms can increase a person’s chance of survival by 2 or 3 times? But that is not enough, you also need to test your smoke alarms monthly. And replace batteries biannually. A good rule of thumb is to change batteries whenever the clocks move. You should always have smoke alarms right outside of areas you sleep in. Keep several fire extinguishers in the house, specifically an all-purpose one in your kitchen, and train every member of the family to use them. Finally, keep appliances unplugged from the wall whenever you are not using them.