A young De Soto child's death in a fire on Wednesday brings the state's number of fire deaths to 30 in 2008. The total matches the number of lives lost by fire in all of 2007.

Candles haven't been lit in jack-o'-lanterns, Christmas lights haven't been plugged in and heaters haven't been fired up to fend off the first chill.

"We still have four months left to go. This spike in fire deaths has got to fall," Kenkel said. "We truly need Iowans to start taking fire safety in their homes seriously before another person needlessly dies."

Decades had passed since the city of Spencer last saw a fire fatality. That changed on the night of Monday, June 30, when a 47-year-old Spencer woman was trapped in an apartment fire. The cause was ruled accidental.

The 30 Iowans who have died in fires in Iowa so far this year come from all regions of the state, according to Kenkel's statement from the fire marshal's office. Eleven of the fires occurred at residences, five in manufactured homes, three in apartments, three in vehicles, one in a garage, and two in exterior spaces.

Of the fires with known causes, six incidents were due to the careless discarding of smoking material -- by far the leading cause of fire fatalities. Kenkel said any of the home fires that claimed lives this year either had no smoke detector or a smoke detector that did not work.

"The information is out there," the state fire marshal said. "Now is the time to use it. Take 20 minutes tonight when you go home and test all of the smoke detectors in your home. If you don't have smoke detectors, get some --tonight. Then, gather your family to plan and practice how you'll escape your house in the event of a fire."