This is one of many posters produced during World War II by the National Safety Council (NSC), headquartered in Chicago. The council had been founded in 1913 with the aim of eliminating preventable accidents and deaths in the workplace and home, as well as on the roads and in communities, and it was to play a critical role in occupational safety during World War II. On August 18, 1940, long before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt directed the organization to lead a campaign against workplace accidents that might delay victory (the United States was supplying munitions to Britain to help in the fight against Germany). This simple, boldly colored composition with its blunt message about the economic cost of workplace fires was designed to attract the attention of workers.