Let’s Start With The Basics!

If a fire occurs, remember what you learned in kindergarten: heat rises so stay low and make your way to safety by crawling out of the room. Some additional basic tips to keep in mind in the event of a fire at home are:

• Plan your escape routes. Try to find two ways out of your home and review the plan with everyone living in the home.
• If a fire occurs while you are at home, when you make your escape, we encourage you to close the door. A closed door will slow the spread of smoke and a fire and could save your home.
• Create a central meeting spot away from the home so that you can ensure that everyone makes it out safely.

All About Smoke Alarms

Smoke alarms are one of the best ways to keep your family safe should a fire occur in your home. They are a key part of your fire safety plan!

• If you have battery-operated smoke detectors in your home, be sure to check that they are working properly each month.
• Again, with battery-operated alarms, be sure to change the batteries frequently. The change of seasons is a great time to do so.
• If your battery-operated smoke detectors are more than five years old, it is time to invest in new ones.
• It is best to use interconnected smoke alarms so that if the alarm sounds in one, they all sound.
• Place smoke detectors outside of every room in which someone sleeps and have one placed on at least each floor of your home.
• Consider upgrading to a central station fire alarm so that in the event of smoke or a fire, the authorities will be alerted right away! Every second counts and waiting for a fire to be detected and reported with a traditional smoke alarm can be the difference between saving your home and losing it.

Fires In The Kitchen

According to the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association), the #1 reason for home fires and home fire injuries is cooking. Below are tips for keeping your kitchen safe and fire-free.

If you are cooking, don’t leave. If you are baking or roasting anything, don’t leave the house. If frying, boiling, grilling, or broiling food, do not leave the kitchen. If you need to leave, even for a little while, turn the burners off.

Pay attention to what you are wearing when you cook. Loose clothing, scarves, or long sleeves can catch fire.

Keep towels, oven mitts, food wrappers, and wooden spoons away from the stovetop. It is also a good idea to keep all cords away from the stove and the edge of the counter.

Keep a lid close by so that if a small grease fire occurs, you can quickly put it out by sliding the lid over the pan and turning off the burner.

As The Contractor Who Cares, we strive to do what we can to help our neighbors protect their homes and families. We hope you have found our Fire Safety tips helpful. We invite you to be a part of Fire Prevention Week by sharing this blog with your friends!

For further viewing on the topic, check out the following videos on our YouTube page:

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