The key to handling any emergency situation as calmly and safely as possible is by practicing your procedure beforehand. It is very easy to panic as soon as you see flames in your kitchen or hear the smoke detector go off. However, if you have dedicated time to practicing safe habits and how you will handle an accidental fire than you can immediately jump to safe resolutions first. Having a checklist of things to do and check is a great way to start your fire safety regime.
Kitchens are one of the biggest fire threats to your home, and so should be first on your list:
• Is there always an adult in the kitchen when food is being cooked on the stove?
• Is the stovetop clean and not cluttered?
• Are there always potholders within easy reach of the stove?
• When you cook, do you make sure the handles of the pots are always turned inward and away from people?
• Are there any curtains or loose fabrics near the stove?
• Is there always a 3-foot radius around the stove that is childfree when cooking is being done?
• Are the electrical appliances like the microwave, blenders, and coffee maker plugged into different outlets to prevent overloading a single outlet?
The next big threat to having an accidental fire in your home is the heating and electrical appliances. So it should be added to the list:
• Are heaters always turned off when no one is home or when everyone is asleep?
• Are the heaters always placed at least one meter away from anything flammable?
• Does the fireplace have a screen to catch stray sparks?
• Are the furnace and chimney properly cleaned and inspected at least once a year?
• Has the family had a fire drill at home in the past few months?
• If you have propane tanks, are they stored securely outside?
• Do all members of the family know how to contact emergency services?
• Are all extension cords safely secured to the floor and not lying across doorways or under carpeting?
• Have you checked all the electrical cords to be sure they are in good condition recently?
• Are electrical appliances unplugged when they are not being used?
Of course an important safety feature of any home is the smoke alarms and fire extinguishers. These should be on every floor of the house. But just having them there is not enough; there are other things to be added to the checklist as well:
Do you have smoke alarms on every floor of the house, including outside the kitchen, sleeping areas, the basement, and attic?
Do you test the smoke alarms to ensure the batteries are working at least once a month? And do you use the test button to test their functionality regularly?
Have you identified more than one exit from your home? Are these exits kept free of clutter and do you have an escape plan for all of these exits?
Do you have a meeting place outside the home that everyone in the family is aware of?
If you can confidently answer all of these questions in the affirmative then you are doing everything you can be ready in case of an accidental fire. If the answers are mostly yes then there are some things you need to work on but are mostly doing well. If less than half of these can be answered with yes then you need to seriously reconsider your home safety plan and get serious about fire safety.
