Fifteen-Minute Fire Safety Checklist
It takes no time at all for a fire to grow from the size of your hand to filling a room. This video shows just how a housefire can become an uncontrollable blaze. While housefires can be a terrifying thing to have to think about, Ideal Partners has a fifteen-minute checklist that you can use to identify and eliminate dangerous situations in your home where fires are most likely to occur.
Smoke Alarms
These lifesavers are hiding in plain sight, but if you don’t maintain them, they may not be there for you when you need them. Take a couple minutes to test your smoke alarms and change out the batteries in them. The batteries in smoke alarms need to be changed twice a year, so try to change them when you must change your clocks for daylight savings. The Department of Homeland Security gives recommendations on smoke alarm maintenance and more in this article.
Check your Fire Extinguishers
This one only takes minutes. Fire extinguishers need to be maintained and check at regular intervals. Check out this helpful explanation on how to inspect a fire extinguisher quickly and effectively. If you’re still not sold, check out our article on why it is important to check fire extinguishers regularly. Ideal Partners makes it easy. You can pick up a fire extinguisher from the office or schedule to have one delivered to your home.
Make a Plan
Every family or household should have a fire escape plan in place if a housefire prevents everyone from escaping together. Start by ensuring that every room has a viable rapid escape option other than the door entering the room. This could mean attaching a rope ladder to an upstairs window or replacing a closed window with one that opens fully. Next, have a place far enough away from the home to be safe to have everyone meet after escaping. This allows for an easy headcount so you can tell firefighters who is still inside and where they may be.
Mind your Appliances
Nine out of ten appliance fires start with the dryer. Check your dryer to make sure that lint isn’t built up in the filter screen and be sure to remove lint between every use. Also check your dryer to make sure that you know how many screens there are. Some newer dryers come with two lint filters, so be sure to know about your dryer.
Cooking fires are the most common types of housefires. Always be aware of what you have in cooking appliances like a microwave, oven or air fryer. Additionally, never leave something cooking on the stove while you leave the room to do other things. When cooking on an open stovetop, oil and other flammable ingredients can splash onto the cook surface and ignite, starting a fire.
Lastly, be mindful of heating appliances like space heaters. If you need to use a space heater, be sure to place it on a stable, flat and nonflammable surface like a ceramic tile and away from things like rugs, carpet and curtains.
Ideal Partners can help you be prepared for fires by installing and maintaining fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, and even residential fire sprinkler systems. If you want to ensure your home is protected, call Ideal Partners for a free estimate.
