Fire Prevention

Links

1. Links Annual Fire Prevention Week 2006 – Prevent Cooking Fires
2. NFPA – National Fire Protection Agency

Fire Prevention Games

1. Sparky The Fire Dog • More Games

Below is a list of different types of fire prevention tips and Carbon Monoxide safety tips:

Fire Escape Planning Tips

• Pull together everyone in your household and make a plan. Walk through your home and inspect all possible exits and escape routes. Households with children should consider drawing a floor plan of your home, marking two ways out of each room, including windows and doors. Also, mark the location of each smoke alarm. For easy planning, download NFPA’s escape planning grid (PDF, 73 KB). This is a great way to get children involved in fire safety in a non-threatening way.
• Make sure that you have at least one smoke alarm on every level of your home.
• Everyone in the household must understand the escape plan. When you walk through your plan, check to make sure the escape routes are clear and doors and windows can be opened easily.
• Choose an outside meeting place (i.e. neighbor’s house, a light post, mailbox, or stop sign) a safe distance in front of your home where everyone can meet after they’ve escaped. Make sure to mark the location of the meeting place on your escape plan.
• Go outside to see if your street number is clearly visible from the road. If not, paint it on the curb or install house numbers to ensure that responding emergency personnel can find your home.
• Have everyone memorize the emergency phone number of the fire department. That way any member of the household can call from a neighbor’s home or a cellular phone once safely outside.
• If there are infants, adults or family members with mobility limitations make sure that someone is assigned to assist them in the fire drill and in the event of an emergency. Assign a backup person too, in case the designee is not home during the emergency.
• If windows or doors in your home have security bars, make sure that the bars have quick-release mechanisms inside so that they can be opened immediately in an emergency. Quick-release mechanisms won’t compromise your security – but they will increase your chances of safely escaping a home fire.
• Tell guests or visitors to your home about your family’s fire escape plan. When staying overnight at other people’s homes, ask about their escape plan. If they don’t have a plan in place, offer to help them make one. This is especially important when children are permitted to attend “sleepovers” at friends’ homes.
• Be fully prepared for a real fire: when a smoke alarm sounds, get out immediately. Residents of high-rise and apartment buildings may be safer “defending in place.”
• Once you’re out, stay out! Under no circumstances should you ever go back into a burning building. If someone is missing, inform the fire department dispatcher when you call. Firefighters have the skills and equipment to perform rescues.

Putting your plan to the test

• Practice your home fire escape plan twice a year, making the drill as realistic as possible.
• Allow children to master fire escape planning and practice before holding a fire drill at night when they are sleeping. The objective is to practice, not to frighten, so telling children there will be a drill before they go to bed can be as effective as a surprise drill.
• It’s important to determine during the drill whether children and others can readily waken to the sound of the smoke alarm. If they fail to awaken, make sure that someone is assigned to wake them up as part of the drill and in a real emergency situation.
• If your home has two floors, every family member (including children) must be able to escape from the second floor rooms. Escape ladders can be placed in or near windows to provide an additional escape route. Review the manufacturer’s instructions carefully so you’ll be able to use a safety ladder in an emergency. Practice setting up the ladder from a first floor window to make sure you can do it correctly and quickly. Children should only practice with a grown-up, and only from a first-story window. Store the ladder near the window, in an easily accessible location. You don’t want to have to search for it during a fire.
• Always choose the escape route that is safest – the one with the least amount of smoke and heat – but be prepared to escape through toxic smoke if necessary. When you do your fire drill, everyone in the family should practice crawling low on their hands and knees, one to two feet above the ground. By keeping your head low, you’ll be able to breathe the “good” air that’s closer to the floor.
• It’s important to practice crawling on your hands and knees, not your bellies, as some poisons produced by smoke are heavier than air and settle to the floor.
• Closing doors on your way out slows the spread of fire, giving you more time to safely escape.
• In some cases, smoke or fire may prevent you from exiting your home or apartment building. To prepare for an emergency like this, practice “sealing yourself in for safety” as part of your home fire escape plan. Close all doors between you and the fire. Use duct tape or towels to seal the door cracks and cover air vents to keep smoke from coming in. If possible, open your windows at the top and bottom so fresh air can get in.

Cooking Safety Tips

• Always use cooking equipment tested and approved by a recognized testing facility.
• Never leave cooking food on the stovetop unattended, and keep a close eye on food cooking inside the oven.
• Keep cooking areas clean and clear of combustibles (e.g. potholders, towels, rags, drapes and food packaging).
• Keep children away from cooking areas by enforcing a “kid-free zone” of three feet (1 meter) around the stove. Keep pets from underfoot so you do not trip while cooking. Also, keep pets off cooking surfaces and nearby countertops to prevent them from knocking things onto burner.
• Wear short, close fitting or tightly rolled sleeves when cooking. Loose clothing can dangle onto stove burners and catch fire.
• Never use a wet oven mitt, as it presents a scald danger if the moisture in the mitt is heated.
• Always keep a potholder, oven mitt and lid handy. If a small fire starts in a pan on the stove, put on an oven mitt and smother the flames by carefully sliding the lid over the pan. Turn off the burner. Don’t remove the lid until it is completely cool. Never pour water on a grease fire and never discharge a fire extinguisher onto a pan fire, as it can spray or shoot burning grease around the kitchen, actually spreading the fire.
• If there is an oven fire, turn off the heat and keep the door closed to prevent flames from burning you and your clothing.
• If there is a microwave fire, keep the door closed and unplug the microwave. Call the fire department and make sure to have the oven serviced before you use it again. Food cooked in a microwave can be dangerously hot. Remove the lids or other coverings from microwave food carefully to prevent steam burns.NFPA does not test, label or approve any products.

Candle Safety Tips

• Extinguish all candles when leaving the room or going to sleep.
• Keep candles away from items that can catch fire, like clothing, books and curtains.
• Use candle holders that are study, won’t tip over easily, are made from a material that cannot burn, and are large enough to collect dripping wax.
• Keep candles and all open flames away from flammable liquids.
• Keep candle wicks trimmed to one-quarter inch and extinguish taper and pillar candles when they get to within two inches of the holder. Votives and containers should be extinguished before the last half-inch of wax starts to melt.
• During power outages, avoid carrying a lit candle. Use flashlights.

Heating Safety Tips

• When buying a new space heater, make sure it carries the mark of an independent testing laboratory, and be sure to have fixed space heaters installed by a qualified technician, according to manufacturer’s instructions or applicable codes. Or make sure a qualified technician checks to see that the unit has been properly installed.
• Keep or maintain a 36-inch (1-meter) clearance between space heaters and anything that can burn.
• Portable space heaters should be turned off every time you leave the room or go to bed.
• Have any gas-fueled heating device installed with proper attention to ventilation. If unvented gas space heaters are used in bedrooms or bathrooms, make sure they are small and well-mounted. NFPA codes prohibit use of liquefied petroleum gas heaters with self-contained fuel supplies.
• Have wood and coal stoves, fireplaces, chimneys, chimney connectors and all other solid-fueled heating equipment inspected annually by a professional, and cleaned as often as inspections suggest. Use only wood that is properly seasoned to reduce creosote build-up.
• When burning wood in fireplaces or wood stoves, it is important to use properly seasoned wood. The U.S. Department of Energy cautions that green wood has more moisture and is likely to smolder, leading to more creosote build-up. They recommend a moisture content of 20-25%, noting that wood that is too well-seasoned may also result in creosote build-up.
• Make sure your fireplace has a sturdy screen to prevent sparks from flying into the room. Allow fireplace and woodstove ashes to cool before disposing in a metal container.
• Test smoke alarms monthly; install a carbon monoxide alarm in a central location outside each sleeping area.

Carbon Monoxide Safety Tips

Safety tips in the home

• Install CO alarms (listed by an independent testing laboratory) inside your home to provide early warning of accumulating CO.CO alarms should be installed in a central location outside each separate sleeping area. If bedrooms are spaced apart, each area will need a CO alarm.
• Call your local fire department’s non-emergency number to find out what number to call if the CO alarm sounds. Post that number by your telephone(s). Make sure everyone in the household knows the difference between the fire emergency and CO emergency numbers (if there is a difference).
• Test CO alarms at least once a month and replace CO alarms according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
• CO alarms are not substitutes for smoke alarms. Know the difference between the sound of smoke alarms and CO alarms.
• Have fuel-burning heating equipment (fireplaces, furnaces, water heaters, wood and coal stoves, space or portable heaters) and chimneys inspected by a professional every year before cold weather sets in.
• When purchasing new heating and cooking equipment, select products tested and labeled by an independent testing laboratory.
• When using a fireplace, open the flue for adequate ventilation.
• Never use your oven to heat your home.
• When buying an existing home, have a qualified technician evaluate the integrity of the heating and cooking systems, as well as the sealed spaces between the garage and house.

Safety tips outside the home

• If you need to warm a vehicle, remove it from the garage immediately after starting it. Do not run a vehicle, generator, or other fueled engine or motor indoors, even if garage doors are open. Make sure the exhaust pipe of a running vehicle is not covered with snow.
• During and after a snowstorm, make sure vents for the dryer, furnace, stove, and fireplace are clear of snow build-up.
• Only use barbecue grills – which can produce CO – outside. Never use them in the home, garage or near building openings.
• When camping, remember to use battery-powered lights in tents trailers, and motor homes.

If your CO alarm sounds

• Immediately move to a fresh air location and call for help. Remain at the fresh air location until emergency personnel say it is ok.
• If the audible trouble signal sounds, check for low batteries or other trouble indicators.

All tips were found at www.NFPA.org