FIRE PREVENTION AND SAFETY

At this time of year it seems that every morn­ing the news reports are about a fire and dev­as­tat­ing injuries, and loss.  Here are some tips and rec­om­men­da­tions on fire pre­ven­tion and what to do if one starts.

Check to see if your Heat­ing sys­tem is func­tion­ing prop­er­ly, free of leaks, and have it ser­viced annu­al­ly.  Use cau­tion with space heaters, adhere to man­u­fac­tur­er rec­om­men­da­tions and avoid using exten­sion cords.  If you are using a wood burn­ing fire place or stove, have the chim­neys cleaned and inspect­ed reg­u­lar­ly, use only sea­soned hard­woods, install a pro­tec­tive mesh grate or glass shield that pre­vent sparks and logs from enter­ing into the room. An unsu­per­vised fire is dan­ger­ous.

Be care­ful around your elec­tri­cal sys­tem. Avoid over­load­ing cir­cuits, and long exten­sion cords,  dis­card dam­aged exten­sion cords and appli­ances.  Insure that appli­ances have ample air cir­cu­la­tion space to pre­vent over­heat­ing. Reg­u­lar­ly clean your clothes dry­er lint trap and vent­ing. Lint build up is a fire wait­ing to hap­pen.

In the kitchen avoid deep fry­ing when­ev­er pos­si­ble, keep the Stove Vent Hood free of grease build up. Your Stove vent should be met­al and exhaust out­side your home, not into your attic. Every kitchen, base­ment and garage should have ful­ly charged fire extin­guish­ers read­i­ly avail­able, insur­ing they are designed for mul­ti­ple fire types.  Nev­er use water on an elec­tri­cal or oil fire! Use an appro­pri­ate fire extin­guish­er, designed for organ­ic, elec­tri­cal and oil fires.

In many juris­dic­tions it’s the Law to have a work­ing smoke detec­tor on every lev­el of your home. It’s also com­mon sense. Even bet­ter is to have a Mon­i­tored smoke detec­tor that can call for help in your absence.  Make it a habit to change your smoke detec­tor bat­ter­ies twice a year, on the day you change to or from Day­light sav­ings time. If in doubt about the age of smoke detec­tor batteries…change them.  The rec­om­mend­ed max­i­mum lifes­pan of a smoke detec­tor is 10 years. Young chil­dren sleep sound­ly, so smoke detec­tors should be locat­ed in sleep­ing areas. The best smoke detec­tors are inter­con­nect­ed when one detects smoke all detec­tors are acti­vat­ed. The bot­tom line is that work­ing smoke detec­tors save lives.

Pre­pare your fam­i­ly for the worst case sce­nario of a home fire.  Have a fire escape plan, a des­ig­nat­ed meet­ing place out­side of the home, and instruct chil­dren on how to call for help once out­side of the home.

For increased Fire Pro­tec­tion talk to your Alarm Com­pa­ny about ulti­mate life safe­ty solu­tions.