---
title: Carelessness Causes Fires!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/carelessness-causes-fires-navy-safety-1945/
description: 'Navy safety sheet: a burning match under winged smoke clouds heads four panels with instructions on rags near welding, torches left on.'
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Carelessness Causes Fires!

[![Carelessness Causes Fires!, 1945 US poster: Navy safety sheet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/carelessness-causes-fires-navy-safety-1945.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/carelessness-causes-fires-navy-safety-1945.jpg)

# Carelessness Causes Fires!

Navy safety sheet: a burning match under winged smoke clouds heads four panels with instructions on rags near welding, torches left on, overheated stoves and smokers' sparks near paint or oil. It is mainly instructional; the fear-appeal is mild, carried by the flame and the headline.

## 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

```
CARELESSNESS
CAUSES
FIRES!
REMOVE RAGS AND WASTE FROM
VICINITY OF WELDING OPERATIONS
TURN OFF TORCHES WHEN NOT
IN ACTUAL USE
AVOID OVERHEATING STOVES
OR SALAMANDERS
SMOKERS' SPARKS ARE DANGEROUS
NEAR PAINT OR OIL
NAVY DEPARTMENT SAFETY POSTER
[imprint:] ☆ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1945—O—634666
```

[← Carelessness breeds FIRE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/carelessness-breeds-fire-army-conservation-1945/) [Charter of the United Nations, 1945 →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/charter-of-the-united-nations-1945/)

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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.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
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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.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)