---
title: 'Home Front Fires Are Enemy Victories: Prevent Fires'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/home-front-fires-are-enemy-victories-1944/
description: A painted helmeted face with an X on the helmet looms in smoke above a burning factory and houses; the headline reads 'Home front fires are ENEMY
section: Collection
---

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3. Home Front Fires Are Enemy Victories: Prevent Fires

**Content note:** Painted enemy soldier's face with dark skin and heavy features, drawn in the stereotyped style of wartime enemy imagery, rising out of smoke over a burning town. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Home Front Fires Are Enemy Victories: Prevent Fires, 1944 US poster: A painted helmeted face with an X on the helmet looms](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/home-front-fires-are-enemy-victories-1944.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/home-front-fires-are-enemy-victories-1944.jpg)

# Home Front Fires Are Enemy Victories: Prevent Fires

A painted helmeted face with an X on the helmet looms in smoke above a burning factory and houses; the headline reads 'Home front fires are ENEMY victories', with 'ENEMY' in large brush lettering, and 'Prevent fires' at the foot. The tell is fear-appeal: fire losses are framed as wins for the enemy, personified by a face rising from the smoke.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
HOME FRONT FIRES
ARE ENEMY
VICTORIES
[signature:] SCHLAIKJER 1944
PREVENT FIRES
[imprint:] U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1944--O--614736
```

[← Hit 'em where it hurts! Join the Submarine Service](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hit-em-where-it-hurts-submarine-service-1944/) [How does your driving mileage compare with these Navy drivers? →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/how-does-your-driving-mileage-compare-navy-1944/)

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- [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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