Fire Safety

First, you need to install smoke detectors on every floor of your home, especially near bedrooms. Make sure you replace the battery at least once a year. Use the test button to check each smoke detector once a month. Regularly check for fire hazards in your home. Make sure your windows are not stuck and that the screens can be taken out easily. If you have smokers in your home, they should use heavy safety ashtrays and discard ashes and butts in sealed containers or the toilet. Have a working fire extinguisher in the kitchen. But have it located on the opposite side of the kitchen from your oven. You don’t want to be reaching over a fiery stove to get to the extinguisher. Get together with your family and establish escape routes. You need to have two escape routes from each room. Practice these escape routes with your family. Establish a meeting place outside your home so your family will know where to go. Tell your children to never run back inside the house looking for other family members. If someone is missing, tell the firefighters. They have special clothing and equipment for saving people. To make learning the escape routes fun for your children, you may try helping them to draw an escape maze. This will also help them to remember it. You should practice your escape routes every year. Teach your family that in a fire, you should never hide in closets even though it may be frightening. The best thing to do is go outside. Make sure everyone in your family knows your local emergency number. Put stickers and magnets with emergency numbers on your refrigerator and every telephone in the house. If there is a fire at your house, choose one family member to leave your meeting place and call the fire department from a neighbor’s phone.
Remember fire safety during the holidays. Choose a tree with fresh needles that are green and don’t break off easily. Make sure your tree is not old before you purchase it by bouncing the trunk on the ground. If a lot of needles fall off it has probably been cut too long ago and is dried out. Do not place your tree next to heater vents, fire places or wood burning stoves. The heat will dry it out quicker and it will be easily ignitable. Inspect your holiday lights before hanging them. Be sure there aren’t any frayed wires or bare spots. Never leave holiday lights on unattended. Don’t overload your electrical outlets and don’t link more than three light strands, unless the directions say it’s safe. If you use candles, make sure they are in stable candle holders and put them where they cannot be easily knocked over.

• Teach your family escape routes from each room in your house.
• Practice using them with your children often.
• Put stickers with emergency numbers on all your phones.
• Teach your children to never hide during a fire.