Most residential fire deaths occur because of inhalation of toxic gas, rather than contact with flames. The tragedy is that many of these deaths could be prevented by taking a few precautions.
Lean how your family can prevent home fires, escape from your home in fastest possible way in the event of a fire and provide your home with helpful fire safety products.
General Fire Prevention Tips
How To Prevent A Fire
- Do not plug too many appliances into an electrical outlet.
- Make sure that combustibles are not too close to stoves.
- Never smoke in bed or soft furniture.
- Do not use damaged or frayed electrical cords or extension cords.
- Keep matches and lighters out of the reach of children.
- Teach your children about the dangers of playing with fire.
- Never use extension cords with heating or air conditioning equipment.
- Purchase smoke alarms and fire extinguishers for each floor of your home.
Fire Safety Devices In The Home
Equip your home with smoke alarms and other tools that can help you gain precious seconds in a fire, The earlier a fire is detected, the less risk there is to your life. Fire alarms and smoke detectors play a very important role in this.
Smoke Alarms
- Purchase a smoke alarm for every floor of your home, and read the instructions on how to use it and where to position it.
- Smoke alarms should be placed near bedrooms, either on the ceiling or six to twelve inches below the ceiling on the wall. Do not place it within 6″ of where the wall and ceiling meet on either surface.
- Test your alarms regularly to ensure that they still work.
- If you have a battery-powered alarm, change the battery every six months when you change your clocks.
- For maximum protection, install BOTH ionization and photoelectric smoke alarms in the home for the optimum detection of fast flaming fires and slow smoldering fires.
Fire Extinguishers
To guard against small fires or to keep a small fire from developing into a big one, every home should be equipped with fire extinguishers. Because almost all fires are small at first, they might be contained if a fire extinguisher is handy and used properly.
You should take care, however, to select the right kind of fire extinguisher, because there are different ones for different kinds of fires. Install fire extinguishers on every level of the home and include the kitchen.
Exit Drill In The Home (E.D.I.T.H)
Have an Emergency Escape Plan and practice it frequently.
In your Plan always have 2 ways out of every room,
Make sure that screens and security features for windows can be easily removed from inside.
If you are exiting with young children, the parent to which the children are most attached to, should lead the way, as children will be more likely to follow. Establish a meeting place outside your home to be sure everyone has escaped. Every family member should participate in practice escape drills.
In the event of fire, do not stop to get dressed or gather valuables. Seconds count – do not search for the family pet.
Teach your family that in a fire they must stay low to the floor to avoid smoke.
Passageways may be completely filled with dense smoke, so everyone should practice exiting on their hands and knees while blindfolded.
Establish a rule that once you’re out, you never re-enter under any circumstances. As soon as two people have reached the meeting place, one should call 311 from a neighbor’s house.