According to FEMA, each year more than 4,000 Americans die and more than 25,000 are injured in fires, many of which could be prevented. Direct property loss due to fires is estimated at $8.6 billion annually.

It must have been our local fire department which held a seminar at our children’s school about escape plans. You know, how to establish a safe way for your children to leave your home by themselves in the event of an emergency (fire, tornado, earthquake, etc.) and meet up with you at a specified location. For the very youngest children, parental assistance is still needed, but even a responsible four or five year old can shine in the midst of a crisis.

Your Family Fire Escape Plan

How about you and your family? Do your children know their escape route? If you don’t have a plan in place, I urge you to create one now. Let’s take a look at what you need to do in order to ensure your family’s safety.

Smoke Alarms, Carbon Monoxide Detector — Every home should have smoke alarms and they should be tested twice per year, usually when the time changes. Alarms should be strategically placed on each floor, including the basement, and be in the vicinity of sleeping areas as well as in the kitchen and living room. A carbon monoxide detector can save lives too, so consider installing one in a bedroom hallway and placing a second one on a separate floor.

Check Your Home — Walk through your home and check windows and doors to make sure that they are easy to open. You may be able to lift a window, but small hands and weak arms could find this to be a difficult task. Show your children how to exit a window; oil the window tracks if they get stuck. If bedrooms are on the second floor, consider having a fold up ladder in the room that can be used in an emergency situation. Place a “child find” sticker on the exterior of every window to help firefighters find your children.

Practice Your Escape — Besides a main way of exiting a home, your children should know about a secondary way of leaving. If their primary exit is blocked, your children should know of another way out. Making up a map of the home and discussing exit strategy is a good way to show your children what to do, but actually helping them to practice their escape can give them the confidence they need to take action in the event of an emergency.

Meet Up – Once everyone safely leaves the house, you’ll want to have a special meet up place. This could include a large tree in the front yard, a neighbor’s home, or some other easily defined and accessible spot. If you have pets, designate one person to make certain that they can get out, preferably an adult as children may not understand the danger that they are in when looking for a frightened cat or dog.

Call For Help — If you have access to a phone, calling 911 can be done at anytime, but it is more important for you to make sure that your family is safe before summoning assistance. Time is of the essence when an emergency strikes, mere seconds can make a difference between a safe exit or trouble.

Lastly, reward your family members with a special prize each time that they follow your instructions when practicing an emergency drill. You want everyone to take their roles seriously, but rewarding everyone for a job well done will give your family the confidence to do what they need to do in the event of a home emergency.

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Tags: carbon monoxide detector, earthquake, emergency, evacuation, fire department, fire drill, flood, smoke detectors, tornado

One of the scariest experiences I went through growing up was a household fire. It was just one week before Christmas, a howling wind was blowing, and suddenly a neighbor’s teenager came crashing through our front door to tell us that our home was ablaze. Within minutes everyone was out of the house, the fire department on the scene, but it took more than two hours to get the blaze under control. Heavy smoke and water damage rendered the home inhabitable for six months; we were forced to rent another home until the renovation could be completed.

Our story is not too different from what thousands of homeowners experience each month — a house catches on fire, but could it have been prevented? In our case, sparks from a neighbor’s chimney were to blame as they shot up and landed on our roof and wooden gutters. Flamed by the wind, the fire quickly spread and gutted the third story of our frame house.

Though we could not personally have prevented our fire from happening, a lot of home fires are preventable. Carelessness can lead to injury, even death, at the very least lead to a damaged home and destroyed possessions.

Fires are caused or could be prevented by doing the following:

A supplemental heating source — kerosene heaters, electric space heaters, and the like contribute to about one-quarter of all household fires. Left on high and left unattended, these units can quickly catch on fire and spread to nearby curtains, bedding, or other flammable material. Always turn your supplemental heater off when not in the home and keep it away from anything that could catch fire.

Check your home’s wiring — rodents and other pests love to take shelter in homes to avoid nature’s wrath as well as to propagate. They also will chew on insulation, wood, and wiring. Have a professional inspect your wiring to ensure that it isn’t frayed or broken.

Inspect your breaker box — circuit breakers, fuse boxes, or electrical panels which have overloaded can be a problem. Inspect the breakers or fuses to see if any of the connections are “piggy-backed” on them. Although these types of connections are rated for single circuit protection, they can be outdated or used in panel boxes which are too small. Sometimes, homeowners will use 2 or more wires in the terminal of a single breaker or fuse, a fire hazard that can be avoided.

Check your heating system — inspect your home’s heating system (natural gas, oil, LP, etc.) Check for fittings which are loose, valves that may be leaking, pilot lights which could be faulty, and remove any build up of flammable debris in the vicinity of your heating system. Consider similar maintenance precautions with your central air-conditioning unit and major appliances.

Maintain your fireplace – check the hearth for cracks, replace damaged sheet metal inserts, and always use glass fire doors or a wire mesh spark screen to hot embers from popping out of the fireplace. Have your chimney inspected and cleaned annually; avoid burning cedar as this type of wood pops considerably.

Miscellany — there are many other ways you can prevent a fire including: keeping flammable sources away from open flames; get rid of your Christmas tree once it has dried up; take care when using candles, open flame decorations, or oil lamps; make sure that all lamp and other connecting chords are not frayed; and keep the batteries in your smoke alarm fresh. Consider a carbon monoxide unit too — in some jurisdictions they are required by law.

You can prevent most household fires, reducing the chances that someone will be injured or killed as a result. If you have young children in your home, develop an exit plan and never encourage youngsters to light matches, play with candles, or perform any task involving an ignitable source without adult supervision.

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Tags: appliances, carbon monoxide detector, electricity, fire alarm, fire prevention, furnace, heater, house fires, household fires, oven, smoke detector