A grease fire in a Grove Street apartment Wednesday was one of nearly 30 home fires suffered by Vicksburg and Warren County residents in the last 12 months.

The fires —some accidental, some due to faulty wiring and some blamed on arson — have destroyed or damaged about 40 permanent or mobile homes and a number of apartments. Three people have died, at least 16 have been injured — one critically — and many more have been displaced.

At least one of the injured has been treated at Mississippi’s new in-patient burn center, the Burn and Reconstructive Center at Crossgates River Oaks Hospital in Brandon. The center is an affiliate of the world-class Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga.

“It’s extremely important to have a burn center here in the state,” said Amanda Fontaine, executive director of the Mississippi Firefighters Memorial Burn Association, a charitable organization dedicated to helping burn victims and their families. “It doesn’t just benefit the patient — it also helps the family members.”

Fontaine told members of the Vicksburg Rotary Club this week that many people in the state are unaware of the Brandon facility, which opened in July.

For about four years, Mississippi did not have its own burn center. The former Mississippi Firefighters Memorial Burn Center at Delta Regional Medical Center in Greenville was forced to shut its doors in 2005 after a funding scandal and staffing problems.

Though Vicksburg legislator George Flaggs, a Democratic state representative, hoped a replacement would be funded as part of University Medical Center in Jackson, and the Legislature authorized it, the money was not there and the state remained without a burn center until River Oaks upgraded last summer from the strictly outpatient care it had offered since March 2008.

Since River Oaks’ burn unit opened, 224 patients have been admitted, Fontaine said, averaging 23 per month at first but recently increasing to 40. The center has treated patients ages 3 months to 70 years.

Mississippi leads the nation in the number of burn victims from various causes, including vehicle and other accidents, Fontaine said. About 30 percent are children.

As executive director of MFMBA, Fontaine said her work encompasses helping victims and their families, assisting with medication, transportation, temporary lodging and other needs. “They’ve just got to have antibiotics and pain medication,” Fontaine said, but many people don’t have insurance and some expenses aren’t covered by Medicaid or Medicare.

The association gives out gift cards for gas, household supplies and groceries, especially important if families have suffered house fires. They sometimes give vouchers for hotel rooms.

“We never give out cash,” she said —  but the association is dependent upon donations to fund its work.

“In addition, we’re trying to build a home-away-from-home for family members of victims,” Fontaine said.

Patients burned over more than 30 percent of their body continue to be sent to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center, which is the largest burn care facility in the country and the third largest in the world. It opened in 1978, treating 40 patients that year. More than 2,500 inpatients and 21,000 outpatients received care there in 2008.

Many burn injuries can be prevented by smoke alarms in the home.

 A recent federal grant was announced by Commissioner of Insurance and State Fire Marshal Mike Chaney of Vicksburg that will provide about 58,000 home smoke alarms for low-income, senior citizen, disabled and other qualifiers.

“Having working smoke alarms in your home can cut your risk of dying in a fire by almost half,” Chaney said in a statement. “Of the 29 fire deaths the State Fire Marshal’s Office has investigated this year our investigators have found working smoke alarms in only one fire. Smoke alarms were found but not working in three other fires.”

Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com