October 9th – 15th 2022 is Fire Prevention Week, let’s get down to basics with some tips to keep your family and home safe!

Our focus for this month is fire safety. With Fire Prevention Week coming our way October 9th – 15th we thought we would go back to basics with some fire safety tips to help keep you and your family safe!

  • Take the time to plan escape routes. The NFPA recommends planning 2 ways out of your home. We recommend holding a family meeting to discuss the best way to escape the home in the event of a fire.
  • It is also important to establish a central meeting spot AWAY from your home so that you can do a head count in a place that is a safe distance away from the home to make sure everyone made it out OK.
  • In the event of a fire at home, we highly encourage that as you make your escape, you take a second to close the door behind you. This may not be your first instinct, you’ll more likely be focused on leaving safely. However, you should know that a closed door will slow the spread of smoke and fire and could save your home.
  • Smoke detectors are important! If you have battery-operated smoke detectors check them frequently (like once a month) by pressing the test button. It is also important to change the batteries regularly. Using the change of seasons as a signal to change the batteries in your smoke detectors is a great tip we love to share.
  • If your battery-operated smoke detectors are more than 5 years old, it is time to invest in new ones. It is also a great excuse to upgrade to smoke alarms that are interconnected. Meaning that if one sounds, they all sound.
  • Place smoke detectors outside of every bedroom and make sure they are placed on each floor of your home.
  • Consider upgrading to a central station fire and burglar alarm. When a fire occurs, every second counts and with a central station alarm, the authorities are alerted right away. This means you don’t have to rely on someone seeing the fire and calling the fire department. The seconds saved could make the difference between saving your home and possibly saving a life!
Laura Hausler
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