How To Be Prepared For A Fire In Your Home

When it comes to your home, noth­ing is more dev­as­tat­ing than a fire. You can nev­er be too pre­pared for an emer­gency sit­u­a­tion and the fol­low­ing ways will help you in the event of a fire in your home.

Have your phone handy

When you go to sleep, ensure that your phone is on a bed­side table. If you’re awak­ened in the mid­dle of the night by an alarm or the smell of smoke, you can eas­i­ly make a 911 call with­out hav­ing to root around in your purse or pants pock­et to locate your phone. Depend­ing on which alarm com­pa­ny is secur­ing your home, they will dis­patch the fire depart­ment to your home when smoke is detect­ed. How­ev­er, it’s bet­ter to be safe than sor­ry.

Have a fam­i­ly plan

Teach your kids about fire safe­ty at an ear­ly age. Warn them about the dan­gers of play­ing with match­es and lighters, and ensure that they know the stop, drop and roll rule. You will also need a fire escape route that ends in a meet­ing place out­side. Prac­tice your escape route twice a year so that every­one knows where to go in the event of a fire. It’s impor­tant that your meet­ing place is not in your back­yard. A good meet­ing place is a side­walk in front of your home.

Check your smoke alarms

You should install smoke alarms on every floor of your house. Smoke alarms need to be replaced every 10 years and you should be test­ing them once per month to ensure that they are work­ing effec­tive­ly.

Don’t take any­thing with you

In the event of a fire, do not grab any­thing as you’re escap­ing. Your main pri­or­i­ty dur­ing a fire is get­ting your fam­i­ly out safe­ly and if you stop to get a piece of valu­able jew­ellery or arti­cle of cloth­ing, you risk get­ting burned. Items can be replaced but your life can­not.

Clear high-risk areas

Also, keep areas near the fur­nace, out­lets and water heaters clear so there’s no chance of any­thing over­heat­ing and catch­ing on fire. Leav­ing some­thing as small as a rag on top of your fur­nace can turn into a poten­tial­ly haz­ardous sit­u­a­tion.

Make sure your secu­ri­ty sys­tem has fire pro­tec­tion includ­ed. Most alarm sys­tems have fire, smoke and car­bon monox­ide detec­tion includ­ed in their secu­ri­ty pack­age. If your sys­tem does not come equipped with extra secu­ri­ty, con­tact us and we’ll pro­tect your home from bur­glary, fire and nox­ious gas­es.