Advances in automatic fire and smoke detection, central station alarms, and automatic sprinklers have helped property losses decline slightly in the last decade. However, despite all of this, the number of fires in student housing buildings across the United States remains relatively consistent.
Buildings including apartments, townhouses, row houses, condominiums, and other tenement properties, tend to have stricter fire and life-safety code requirements than single family housing units.

On average, there are over 100,000 multifamily residential building fires in the United States each and every year. Here are some facts on these fires:

400 deaths on average per year
Over 4,000 injuries on average per year
$1.3 billion in property losses.
Roughly 1/3rd to 1/2 of the these stats are originating from cooking equipment mishaps:
    45 percent of reported home structure fires
    17 percent of home fire deaths
    42 percent of home fire injuries
    16 percent of direct property damage
An official report from the Fire Safety commission stated the following:
“cooking equipment was involved in more than two-thirds (69 percent) of reported apartment fires and about one-third (35 percent) of fires in one- or two-family homes, although it was the leading cause in both.”

Cooking-related fires present a significant exposure in student housing and commercial cooking properties.
Heating equipment had the second-highest fire frequency, at over 5 percent.

The remaining causes were from the following:

Appliances
Arson
Smoking-Related Incidents
The majority of multifamily residential building fires, 73.8 percent, did not extend beyond the original object or area of origin, such as the kitchen stove. Fires that did extend beyond the area of origin were usually cooking-related fires.

Rochester Smart Student Housing urges each and every student to follow proper fire safety guidelines when saying in one of our off-campus housing units.  Fire safety is imperative and can mean the difference between life and death.

The title might seem like it is directed just to student housing tenants but, honestly, this advice applies to everyone everywhere.  If you don't keep your personal space clean...it gets dirty.  Seems almost like the advice is sarcastic but it's actually that simple.

In other words...

If you want to make sure the creepy crawlies and the rodents don't show up it is always better to keep your apartment, home, or room clean.  Something most student's parents have probably told them countless times.

Clean up food spills and have no food left out for the mice to eat, including pet food and the crumbs and spills on the floor from eating around the home.  Use a wet cloth and household disinfectants, not just a vacuum.

Wash any dirty clothing in a washing machine in hot water any cloth items including blankets, rugs, and pillows. Steam any carpets if possible.

Avoid accumulating clutter. Clutter provides rodents and insects nesting areas and hiding spots. Extermination efforts are limited if the critters are hiding in boxes and personal belongings. Plastic bins and tubs can be utilized for storage..

Be aware of your living space at all times.  Are things out of place? Is there a mess somewhere? Clean it up.  The more litter and junk around, especially food, the more chance that an infestation can start.

Here is a quick rundown on how much time should be spent to ensure a living space stays clean.

Bedrooms
Approximate time: Spend 10 minutes per bedroom

Bathroom
Approximate time: Spend 10 minutes per bathroom

Kitchen
Approximate time: Spend 15 minutes cleaning the kitchen.

Living Room​
Approximate time: Spend 15-20 minutes(depending on the size) cleaning the living room

Staying on top of cleansiness is highly recommended otherwise, it is just more work a student will have to do later.  A little cleaning now can save a tenant a LOT of time in the future that could be better spent on the stuff they enjoy doing rather than janitorial work.