FIRE SAFETY

Fire Safety Tips For Families

1) Kids – Never play with matches or lighters! Teach your children to stay away from matches, lighters, lit fireplaces and firepits until they are old enough and responsible enough to learn about the dangers of fire.

2) Close bedroom doors at night. A closed door will slow the infiltration of smoke into your bedroom and likely give you more time to awaken and get out when the smoke alarm sounds.

3) If there is a fire in your house GET OUT and STAY OUT. Never go back into a burning building for any reason.

3) Practice a FIRE DRILL every year with the whole family. Every family should practice their escape route by pretending there is a fire in their home. And everyone should have 2 ways out, not just one. Keep in mind you might have to crawl to avoid heavy smoke too!

4) Choose a meeting place outside. Decide on a meeting place that is a safe distance from the house in the event there is a real emergency or fire in your home. Perhaps choose the end of your driveway, or a neighbor's porch to meet once you are outside.

5) Once at your meeting place, take a head count to make sure everyone is there.

More Fire Safety Tips to Learn and Practice

Learn these 8 fire safety tips and practice them – they just might save your life or your family's life.

1) Replace old smoke detectors! If your smoke detectors are more than 10 years old, replace them. Not sure how old they are? Replace them. Your family's safety is worth the price.

As seen on our home page... As of April 2019, a NY law requires all battery-operated smoke detectors sold in New York State to be the sealed, NON-REMOVABLE 10-Year-battery-type of smoke alarm. We strongly encourage you to replace your old smoke detectors with these new, low-maintenance 10-year, sealed detectors. Since you won't have to remember to replace the battery each year, these new 10-year sealed alarms will likely save thousands of lives!

2) Test your smoke detectors monthly. Just because they are installed, doesn't mean they are operational. Testing them regularly is ideal.

3) Change the batteries in older smoke detectors every 6 months. But we recommend you replace those older models with the newer 10-year, non-removable battery type of detector so you don't have to remember to change the batteries.

4) Install a smoke detector on EVERY LEVEL of your home. The NFPA recommends a smoke detector on every level of your home, especially in hallways, and outside bedroom doors or just inside bedrooms doors.

5) Always look for the fire exits when first entering a building. Develop this good habit so that you know the way out of a restaurant, nightclub, office or any other building if there is a fire or other emergency.

6) Study the fire escape map on the back of your hotel room door. Make a note of which direction you would turn, how many doorways you would pass to reach the fire exit, etc. Also, look for a smoke detector in the hotel room and if there is a sprinkler system.

7) Make sure your HOUSE NUMBER is visible from the road. In the event of an emergency at your home, the fire department and ambulance crew need to see the numbers of your address clearly. It could save precious seconds if emergency personnel can find you quickly.

8) Know where the closest fire hydrant is to your house. It could help save your house if you can direct firefighters to the closest hydrant when they arrive on the scene. Be sure to maintain the area around the hydrant, keeping weeds and brush clear, including shoveling snow from around it in the winter.