---
title: Avoid Fires!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/avoid-fires-1944/
description: 'Safety sheet in black and red: a matchbox and scattered matches with a tall red flame, beside five arrowed rules such as ''Don''t smoke in bed''.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Avoid Fires!

[![Avoid Fires!, 1944 US poster: Safety sheet in black and red](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/avoid-fires-1944.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/avoid-fires-1944.jpg)

# Avoid Fires!

Safety sheet in black and red: a matchbox and scattered matches with a tall red flame, beside five arrowed rules such as 'Don't smoke in bed'. The flame image and the headline carry a mild fear-appeal; the rest is plain instruction.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
AVOID FIRES!
Be careful with matches
cigarettes, cigars, etc.
Be sure they are out before
you throw them away
Use safety matches or keep
matches in metal boxes
Keep them out of reach of
small children
Don't smoke in bed
MATCHES
[imprint:] NATIONAL HOUSING AGENCY / FEDERAL PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY
[imprint:] U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944-O-610518
[imprint:] SAFETY POSTER No. 4
```

[← Aufruf! / Poziv! Männer der Jahrgänge 1914-1926 (call-up in the Adriatic Littoral)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/aufruf-poziv-adriatisches-kuestenland-1944/) [Avoid Sunburn →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/avoid-sunburn-navy-1944/)

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- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
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- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
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