More than one in 10 Canadians have experienced a fire in their home, but a new study reveals many still think it won’t happen to them. This is particularly important as all North Americans head into the dog days of summer, a time when fire risks increase as families spend more time at home or the cottage, and barbecue season gets underway.

The study also found the following:

While 64 percent of Canadians claimed to have a fire escape plan in place, 63 percent of those Canadians actually failed to practice their escape plan even once last year, a jump from the 55 percent who failed to practice a fire escape plan in the previous year.

>Of those Canadians that have experienced a fire, 74 percent said

they never thought it would happen to them. And among those hit by fire, 50 percent said they had absolutely no fire escape plan in place.

Of the Canadians surveyed who have been involved with a fire, 57 percent changed their fire safety practices after the experience. For instance, many developed a home fire escape plan, started to schedule home fire drills, bought a fire extinguisher and installed additional smoke alarms.

Only 28 percent of Canadians surveyed had replaced the batteries in their alarm twice,

as recommended by the CAFC. A staggering

19 percent admitted to never having replaced the batteries – up 8 percent from last year.