Fire Safety Tips

Fire in the home is unfortunately one of the most common household emergencies. An electrical short, a gas leak, an unattended stove or oven, or even holiday lighting can cause a house fire. Fire prevention is key, but if a fire does break out, it is extremely important to react quickly and efficiently.

There are various types of fire like small house fire, kitchen grease fire, chminey fire or electrical sparks. For some fires like kitchen grease fire never pour water. For electrical fires if the main fuse is accessible, take it out.

Steps if Fire Occurs

If fire breaks in your house, get everyone outside quickly and assembled at a safe place; also have some one call 101 or nearest fire brigade number ( if you do not know the number you can call local Ask me or Just dial kind of services) from a neighbor’s home or cell phone. Once outside, never go back into a burning building.

Evacuate the house quickly but calmly.
Feel interior doors before opening them if a door is hot, do not open it. Leave doors and windows closed unless you must open them to get out.
Stay low to the floor, on your hands and knees, where the cleanest, most breathable air is. (Smoke inhalation is the most common cause of fire fatalities.)

Fire Prevention Tips

1) Reduce nature’s fuel.
Without fuel, a fire won’t burn. So look around your house for potential sources of fuel and reduce them

2) Prepare your house.
When it’s time to make choices about new roofing and siding materials, choose fire-resistant building materials such as asphalt-fiberglass or masonry roofing, particularly if you live in a fire-prone area.

Unless properly treated with fire retardant, wood shingles and shakes are a clear invitation to disaster and are outlawed in many communities.

3) Have your family prepared by following these steps:

Develop an escape plan and practice it with a family drill. Everyone should know how to get out of the house and where to assemble safely outdoors. Establish who will be responsible for small children or the elderly or handicapped.
Be sure each room has at least two exits that can serve as safe escapes. If one of these is an upper-story window, provide a hook-on fire escape ladder (available at home improvement centers). Be sure that even children know how to attach and climb down these ladders, and keep the ladder in an easily accessible place. (Of course, be sure they are not used unless there is a fire.)
Check smoke detectors periodically to be sure they’re working properly. Fire departments recommend changing batteries twice a year—when you change your clocks to and from daylight savings time.
Be sure your house numbers can be easily seen at night from the street.

4)Safe Electrical and other Practices
Minimize outlet extenders or plug-in power bars; these can overload an electrical circuit.

Repair or replace worn, frayed, or broken electrical cords.
Use only extension cords that match (or have a larger capacity than) the wattage of the appliances that you plug into them.
Make sure receptacles and appliances are properly grounded.
Check the maximum size of bulb allowable for lighting fixtures, and don’t exceed the maximum wattage. Be especially careful not to use improperly sized bulbs in recessed light fixtures because of heat buildup.
Never replace a blown fuse with an improperly sized substitute.
Accidental fires can start if combustible materials are too close to a fireplace, stove, or heater. At the very minimum, these heat sources present a risk for burns.
Keep combustibles such as trash, newspapers, and rags to a minimum. Keep any combustible material, including upholstery, curtains, and rugs safely away from your water heater, fireplace, furnace, gas dryer, or any appliance that heats up.
Grease on the kitchen stove, in the oven, or on the barbecue presents a common fire hazard; keep these appliances clean.
At the kitchen range, loose sleeves or dish towels used as pot holders can easily catch fire. Wear fitted clothes and use pot holders designed for the purpose.
Hot appliances, such as an iron or hair dryer, can start fires if not unplugged immediately after use. Always wait for them to cool down before storing.
Smoking materials cause many fires. Be sure to completely extinguish cigarettes. After parties, check upholstered furniture and carpets for smoldering cigarette butts. Keep matches, lighters, lighter fluid, lit candles, and incense well out of the reach of small children.
Keep two fire extinguishers in your home, one in the kitchen area or service porch and one in the garage, located in clear view, near the exit. Fire extinguishers are coded according to the types of fires they can extinguish. Be sure your extinguishers are large enough to handle home fires.
Periodically check your extinguishers to be sure they are fully charged; this is usually just a matter of looking at a small gauge mounted on the top of the unit.