The Value of Planning for Home Fires - What to Plan & Prepare
The fire damage restoration experts at Paul Davis understand how serious home fires are. Not only can home fires demolish your residence and personal belongings, but they are emotionally unsettling and make you feel unsafe. Fires can occur in a matter of minutes and can be produced by lots of variables, and they can be out of your control such as natural disasters or your neighbor's house being on fire. But there are a few steps you can implement to minimize the dangers of a home fire in your residence.The Priority of Emergency Strategies
Safety should be the first concern when prepping for a home fire, and smoke alarms and fire extinguishers need to be placed throughout the house. Smoke alarms are essential because a fire can come out of the blue and you need to do something as quickly as possible. Another thing to consider with smoke alarms is getting ones that can identify smoke caused by electrical fires. Finally, any kids living in the home need to be educated on how a smoke alarm sounds when it goes off and what to do when it occurs. Other precautions include outlining emergency routes in your residence. Create a strategy and make sure everyone in the home understands the fire escape routes – there should be two exits for each room in the home. It's also important to have a planned meeting spot outside so you know who gets out of the home and who is absent. Another thing you need to do is secure your important items such as passports, photographs and birth certificates. You can create digital copies and place them into cloud storage as a backup, and you can get a fire safe box to keep the hard copies secure as well. Finally, make a record of all your personal belongings for insurance reasons in the event they're engulfed by the flames.Things to Be Cognizant of to Lessen Home Fire Hazards
Despite the fact that some fires are out of your control, there are some safety measures you need to take to prevent a home fire:- Portable Heaters: It is essential to relocate any combustible items at least three feet away from a portable heater. You'll also need your portable heater to have a control mechanism too and other features for safety such as shutting off if the heater falls over.
- Appliances and Electrical: Perform a routine check on your appliances and make sure the plugs and cords are in working condition. Also, when your light switches are hot to the touch, then you need to switch them out.
- Children: Store any lighters or matches in a location that is out of sight and out of reach from kids to stop their curiosity from starting a fire. Explain to your kids that fire is not a toy as well.
- Cooking: It's critical to be conscientious in the kitchen and to not ignore food being cooked alone. Without exception have someone there to keep an eye on what's going on.
- Smoking: Cigars and cigarettes are severe hazards for fire, and taking your smoking outside is the best way to prevent a home fire. When you smoke inside, check that you have ashtrays with deep walls and that under any circumstance you don't smoke in bed or while you're lethargic. Also, never smoke inside if someone in the home is on oxygen since this is extremely combustible.
- Fireplaces: It's imperative to clean routinely and examine your fireplace and chimney for creosote and other damage. Use a fireplace screen that is sturdy and large enough to halt logs from rolling and catch sparks.
