Have you had your fire drill yet? As fire prevention week wraps up, it is important to remember to continue to have drills in your house on a regular basis. Your goal should be for your family to automatically know how to respond when a fire happens. You may want to set a goal to have a fire drill each month for the rest of the year.
You should sit down sometime this week and quickly review the fire drill procedures as well as fire prevention tips with your children. It is important to teach your children how to respond to a fire at a young age. This includes the basics of stop, drop and roll as well as how to tell if there is a fire on the other side of the door. You should set up fire safety rules with your children. This may include a no cooking rule when parents are not home, if you have older children who tend to be careless in the kitchen.
If you use candles you need to make sure that all candles are put out before you leave or go to sleep. It is also important to consider where you place your candles when you burn them. Do not leave them where something may easily catch fire.
If you are a smoker or live with a smoker, it is important to avoid smoking in bed. Many house fires start because a cigarette butt was not put out properly. You should consider quitting all together, because of the many health risks involved.
It is important to make sure that you check your smoke detectors and fire extinguishers on a regular basis. Your fire extinguishers should have an expiration date on them. You should also make sure to change the batteries in your smoke detectors as soon as you hear the warning beeps that the batteries are low.
Hopefully you will never have a fire in your home, but it is important to be prepared for one. Fires are very scary and can spread quickly. If your family knows how to respond, and to prevent fires, you will be able to keep them safe.