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Fire Prevention Week: MORE Safety Tips to Make your Home a Haven

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Yesterday, I shared some tips on how to maintain the fire safety equipment in your home. While I wish every home came with a one size fits all manual, they don’t, but we all have our stories. Today, I am going to share some tips we have learned living in an older home, and things we have learned from friends along the way. These tips have kept our home and the people in it safe. Hopefully, this can help you too.

After all, knowledge is power, or in this case… safety.

In The Kitchen


Keep it Clean: While this seems like common sense, keeping your oven, stop top, and grill clean can help prevent kitchen cooking fires. Make sure that you also keep the surrounding areas (counters, backsplashes, inlets) around your cooking area free of decor, electrical appliances, or anything else that could catch fire. Heat radiates off the surfaces.

Scrub, Scrub, Scrub: Regulary clean your stove, oven, microwave, toaster, toaster oven, grill, deep fryer, or any appliance that uses heat for cooking. Any scraps, oil, leftover food, or crumbs, can easily catch fire.


Get Out: When we were kids, the advice regarding kitchen fires was to assess the kind of fire (grease or other) then put out the fire with the appropriate tool (lid, baking soda, water, fire extinguisher). According to the National Fire Protection Association, the solution is now if there is a fire in your kitchen, the solution is to immediately GET EVERYONE OUT! CALL 911! The fear is the fire can spread quickly and noxious fumes can hurt you.



Electrical


Basics: When we moved into this home, we had the home inspected by a licensed electrician. It is a good idea when moving (even if the home is newer) to have an electrician take a look at all the outlets, light fixtures, and existing appliances. It is also good to know information like where your electrical panel is, and how full it is. Before making any home improvements, this is excellent information to have. You don’t want to overload your electrical panel.

Outlets: Our home is almost 40 years old and many of the outlets were original to the home. Also, outlets in the kitchen, bathrooms, and outside where not GFI (ground fault circuit interrupters). In order to be safe, we had all the outlets replaced. This has helped give us piece of mind.

Appliances: The big ticket appliances like washer, dryer, and refrigerator are all plugged directly into the wall. NEVER use an extension cord to bring power to your large appliances. Also, this is another area where keeping clean is important. Make sure to vacuum out the vents of your refrigerator regularly  to prevent dust to prevent overhearing. With all appliances (lamps, hair dryers, fans etc) even small ones make sure that the cord is in tact, there is no burning smell when in use.

A Special Note About Your Dryer: We all know to clean our lint trap every use to prevent a fire, but did you know you should also clean your dryer vent regularly to prevent fires too. Check out this great tutorial from Pretty Handy Girl.

Prevention


Garbage: Proper disposal of certain items can help save your entire home from a potential disaster. Did you know that 9Volt Batteries tossed together in the trash can cause a fire? According the to NFPA, THIS is the proper way to dispose of them: In addition, make sure other flammable items like rags with stain or varnish used from DIY projects or perhaps leftover paint cans, are disposed of safely.

Chimney: Make sure your fireplace and chimney are inspected and cleaned regularly to help prevent chimney fires.

Does anyone else have any other safety tips they would like to share?

If you like this post and would like to read more about all things domestic with a touch of humor, become a Home Everyday follower! For blog updates or to see other places I write such as ChicagoNow or Chicago Parent follow Home Everyday on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

 

Fire Prevention Week: Tips for Making Your Home a Haven

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Here at Home Everyday, I love to talk crafts, cooking, baking, and decor, those are only a few things that make a house a home. When we bought this older home a few years ago, the first things we did, were to fix many of the safety concerns we had. First, we replaced the 35 year old furnace, outsourced a complete mold remediation, ripped up every ounce of old carpeting, had the chimney rebuilt, replaced and repaired the dryer vent, and took care of any part of the house that could be deemed unsafe.

We also replaced all the smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors.

While these things aren’t the most fun of things to do, when it comes to a home, it is SAFETY FIRST.  After all, you keep your most precious thing in your home: your family. 

Home is a haven, and every part of is should be safe.

So, since it is FIRE PREVENTION WEEK, I thought I would share some great tips for keeping your home safe all week long.

Today, we are going to be talking equipment. There are things in your home that you must have in order to keep your family safe from fire. Here are some tips for how to use and maintain these things in case of an emergency.

Brian’s little helper. This was over three years ago!



Smoke Detectors


Where: The best plan of action for smoke detectors is to have one on every level of your home, and one in every bedroom.


Batteries: we all know the old adage about changing the batteries when we change the clocks, which is twice a year. If they are hard wired, make sure you test them to make sure they are working.

Replace: Did you know smoke detectors are only guaranteed to work for ten years? That’s right! I couldn’t believe it either. If you know that your smoke detectors are at least that old it is time to replace them. (NOTE: If you’ve recently moved into a home that is at least ten year old, chances are they haven’t been replaced. It is time to get new ones too.)


Wireless: If you don’t have hardwired electric smoke detectors, meaning that they will all go off when one goes off, look into the new wireless battery models. These are battery operated smoke alarms that have a wireless mechanism that will sense when another smoke alarm in the house is going off and will in turn alert if there is a fire in the the house. Home Depot has them.

Practice: If you are living with little ones, let them hear the sound of the smoke alarm, and do a few fire drills to practice. Small children can be startled by the piercing sound of the smoke alarm and often hide in the event of a fire. Teach them that this loud noise is not to be afraid of, but it is a sign to get out of the house. The more they hear it and practice, the more prepared they will be if the unfortunate does occur.

Fire Extinguishers


Where: Knowing where to keep fire extinguishers is extremely important in helping to prevent a fire spreading in your home. In our home, we have one in the kitchen, one in the garage, and I am thinking of putting one in the basement where we have the laundry room.

Replace: Every fire extinguisher is different, but make sure you replace according to the manufacturer’s expiration dates. Why take the chance in a last minute situation, when you could prevent a fire from spreading further?

Used: Also, if you’ve used an extinguisher, it needs to be replaced. They cannot be re used as the pressure goes down in the extinguisher can.

Carbon Monoxide Detectors:


Where: The same rules  smoke detector apply for carbon monoxide detectors. There should be one on every level of the home as well as outside the sleeping area. Many people only have one carbon monoxide detector in their home. This is dangerous as by the time the sleeping area detector has detected the colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas, the lower levels could be filled with it. Your house needs more than one!

Batteries: Check the batteries at the same time you check the batteries in your smoke detectors.

Interconnected: Just like smoke detectors you can find carbon monoxide detectors that will are wireless or interconnected so that when one sounds, all of them will sound. This is especially helpful for multilevel houses.

What safety tips do you have for your home?

 

If you like this post and would like to read more about all things domestic with a touch of humor, become a Home Everyday follower! For blog updates or to see other places I write such as ChicagoNow or Chicago Parent follow Home Everyday on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.