I will ask again, Do you have a fire escape plan? I think about this everywhere I go. It is something that saves lives every day. Look up how many residential fires happen every day! Here are some stats for you. It happens a lot and you need to be ready before you have to be!
Making A Plan Is Easy
Creating and practicing a home fire escape plan is simple. Follow the steps below to make sure everyone in your home is prepared and knows what to do in case of a home fire.
- Make a written home fire escape plan and practice getting out in under 2 minutes.
- Make sure you have smoke alarms on every level of your home and in each bedroom. Test them twice a year.
- You can use your phone for a fire drill timer to practice your escape plan.
- Learn the best practices for home fire safety and fire safety with children.
If you look into how this typically goes down, you will find that on average you only have, on average, about two minutes to get out once you are alerted to a house fire. Having operating smoke alarms will let you know the fastest. You can pick some up cheap and ship to your door by clicking the link above for smoke alarms.
As an Amazon associate, I will make a small commission from any sales made through links on my site. This helps me keep other informed and ready before they have to be.
Knowing what you will do will improve your chance to get out. Knowing where to go and how to get there is another one to think about. If everyone has the same thing in mind it is more likely to get everyone out even if you are separated by fire and you cannot get to them.
Once you have a plan drawn up, identified the ways out, and communicated to all in your household, it is very important to practice this plan. Practice will prove that everyone knows what to do, it will reduce fear and panic when it happens, and it will reduce the time it takes to get to safety!
It Happens All They Time
No matter where you live, I am going to guarantee there is some form of team designated for fighting house fires. I know where I live, they are all volunteers and funded by the local municipal government just like a regular fire department just a bit cheaper because of the low population.
If you live in New York, it may be a much larger operation like the ones who responded to the fire in the Bronx that took the lives of 17 people including 8 children recently.
The best thing you can do is be ready before you have to be!
If you would like to learn more I have some quick cards that can help you plan for emergencies of all kinds. Just click the link or on the image and you can download them for free. This will also give me your information so I can reach out and offer you more information as I put it together so you can continuously learn about how to keep your family safe when an emergency happens.
‘Tis Is The Season
I know the holidays are over and I hope you had a safe and merry one! But this is the time of year house fires are very likely. It has a lot to do with the season. In the US, this is the time of year where things are cooling off. depending on where you are, it could mean 40’s, it could mean 60’s, Where I am it was 7 degrees last week for a couple of days. Either way, depending on the climate you are used to, it is cooler and people tend to be turning no heat this time of year.
There are a few things you can do to make sure it is safe before you do. Checking or replacing filters is super quick and simple. If you don’t have the knowledge or just don’t want to, there are companies that provide a service to tune up your furnace. It is a good idea to do this pre-season so you know it is clean and ready to run for the winter. If you have a gas furnace, make sure your tanks are full (that might be expensive but necessary).
Make sure the first time you fire your furnace up it is a time where you can be present. I don’t mean just at home either, don’t turn it on for the first time of the year and go to bed. Let it run through at least two cycles before you do. This ensures that all the limit switches are working properly to start and stop as it should. It allows it to get up to operating temperature twice and lets you know it is monitoring and controlling like expected before leaving it unmonitored.
This is a good idea because most furnace failures happen at the beginning of a season after getting put into use after sitting all summer long. This is also true with chimney fires and other heating sources that are being started up for the first time of the season.
Be aware, be proactive and clean, and service any heat source you have before you need to use it. Make sure you have an understanding of how it operates. If nothing else make sure you know how to kill the power to it and any other fuel source. It could be the difference between a small fire or losing your house and everything in it.
One Last Thing
On top of all you need to know and understand about preparing to keep your butt warm in the cooler seasons, Having a plan for any emergency will help you and yours survive. Even if you don’t have a plan or practice it, make sure you at least have a few things that could save your life. Get the fire safety equipment that should be required to own a home. They make business’ do it, why shouldn’t you?
Get Smoke detectors and place them accordingly, test them regularly!
Have a fire extinguisher! Make sure it is up to date and you know how to use it!
This is the bare minimum you can do to be ready before you have to be!
I hope you have taken this to heart and taking action on getting ready! Click the links! Please get these two items if you don’t have them already! They could be the difference between life or death, or even just losing everything you have in your home.
Now check out this video to get more info, get motivated, get what you need to be ready before you have to be!
I am just hoping everyone is safe! There are several lives lost every year due to house fires and if one person reacts to this post and is safer by doing so, I will be grateful!
If you have any questions or concerns, are not sure about something, or just looking for something, fill out the form below and I will reach out to help! If you like this post, click on the social icon of your choice on this page and you can share it straight from there.
Stay Warm, Stay Safe, and Be Ready Before You Have To Be!
Chad