Fire Safety: Planning Saves Lives

Protecting your home against fire involves planning.  There are precautions you can take that can help you protect you and your family.

• Never leave small children alone in the home, even for a minute.
• Install smoke alarms in furnace and sleeping areas. Check batteries once a month.
• Plan several escape routes from the house. Plan a place to meet right after leaving the house.
• Conduct home fire drills.
• Do not smoke in bed.
• Dispose of cigarette butts, matches, and ashes with care.
• Keep matches and lighters away from children.
• Be sure your gas water heater is off the ground. Spilled flammable liquids will be ignited by the pilot light.
• Do not clean clothes with flammable liquids.
• Place a barrier around open flames.
• Do not wear loose-fitting clothing near a stove, fireplace, or open space heater.
• Have your heating system checked and cleaned yearly.
• Check electric appliances and cords regularly for wear or loose connections.
• Use only 15-ampere fuses for lighting circuits. Never use a substitute for a fuse.
• Place fire extinguishers around the home where the risk of fire is greatest – in the kitchen and furnace room, and near the fireplace.

 In Case of Fire

• Get everyone outside right away. Go to your planned meeting place.
• Do not stop to dress or put out the fire. (Most deaths occur from suffocation due to hot fumes and smoke, not from direct burning.)
• Call the fire department from a neighbor's house.