Fire Safety Tips for Your Family

4/26/2023 (Permalink)

According to the American Red Cross, if there is a fire in your home, you may have as few as two minutes to escape. Two minutes sounds like an impossibly small amount of time. However, through fire safety techniques such as prevention, preparedness, and practice, you can keep your family safe. Use the following tips to minimize fire damage to your loved ones and your home.

Fire Prevention

Effective fire prevention measures minimize the risk of fire damage to your home. These are things you can do before a home fire is even a threat.

• Equip your house with smoke alarms on every floor, and both inside of and outside of wherever people sleep.
• Test smoke alarms monthly. Replace batteries when needed.
• When cooking, keep fire safety at the forefront of your mind. Cooking fires are the leading cause of home fires and home fire injuries.
  • Never use the oven or the stove in an impaired state.
  • Keep children away from hot ovens.
  • Always stay in the kitchen when frying, boiling, broiling, and grilling food.
  • Keep flammable items away from the stovetop.
• Never leave portable heaters, space heaters, fireplaces, candles, etc. unattended. Keep flammable items at least three feet from these types of heating devices. Children and pets should be kept away from space heaters.
• No smoking in the home.
• Keep an eye out for damaged or frayed electrical cords and wires. Replace these types of fire hazards to minimize fire damage to your home.
• Matches and other fire starters should be kept in a locked cabinet away from children.

Fire Preparedness

Many home fires are preventable. Still, accidents happen. When fire prevention strategies fail, ensure you and your family are prepared to deal with a potential fire.

• Install fire extinguishers in your home. Contact the local fire department for training on how to use the fire extinguisher. Use proper fire extinguisher protocol and do not delay in calling 911.
• All fire safety measures call for a fire escape plan. Create a home fire escape plan with your family. Ensure all family members know what to do and can escape within two minutes. Include animals in the plan.
• Have a designated meeting place outside of your home once all family members have escaped.
• In the case of a fire, get out of the home and stay out of the home!
• Part of the fire safety plan should be to teach children how to get out of the house on their own, in the event an adult is unable to get to them. Tell children that they should never hide in an emergency fire situation.
• Once everyone is in a safe place outside of the home, call 911.

Fire Practice

Establish your family’s fire safety plan and be certain that everyone practices at least twice per year. Practice during the day and during the night to adequately prepare for any emergency fire situation.

• Educate all family members in fire safety protocol.
• Ensure your family knows about the fire escape plan. Go over the plan with younger family members in an age-appropriate manner.
• Practice the fire escape plan at least twice per year. Test the speed with which family members evacuate the home. Try to move at a quicker pace with each drill.
• Instruct children when to stop, drop, and roll, and to low crawl.
• Reiterate the importance of remaining calm in an emergency situation. The adults should set a positive example for a deliberate, practiced, composed escape from the situation.

Fire damage can be a catastrophic event. Fires destroy homes and lives. The best way to protect your family and your home is to be prepared. Institute fire safety precautions and have a plan in place should the precautions fail. As always, call on the fire damage experts at SERVPRO of Delray Beach for all of your fire and smoke cleanup needs.