subject: Smart and Safe Guide to Home Fire evasion [print this page] Smart and Safe Guide to Home Fire evasion
Fire Safety: It is important to keep in mind that time is your greatest enemy. It takes only seconds for a small flame to become a full-fledged fire and only minutes for a house to fill with smoke. The most important way to plan for a fire escape is to practice, practice, practice. By practicing your escape routes you can learned to shave off vital seconds that you would need to get out of the house. Practicing also shapes your body's response to the situation so that when you are in the emergency situation, you are less likely to panic. In this article, we have given some smart and safe way to get out of a house fire quickly and with every one together.
Take time to sit down as a family and conceive the following steps together, this will ensure that everyone knows the plan well.
Map it out:
Draw a floor plan of your house marking all doors, windows and any other form of exit available. On the floor plan draw the routes, from each room of the house, that you would take to get out of the house quickly.
Check your exits:
Now, go around you house and make sure that all the exits that you marked are working properly and that the area surrounding them are cleared to be able to exit safely.
Can the windows unlatch and open easily?
Whether the areas around and outside of the windows are clear for safe exiting?
Security bars require special precautions. Make sure that every one in the house knows how to use the quick release level properly.
Do you doors stick at all?
Are your doors hard to move or heavy for some of the members of your household?
Meeting place:
Make sure that you have an agreed upon meeting place that is out and away from the house. Also, be sure that you have a neighbor's house that you can all go to while you wait for the fire department to arrive. Have a back-up neighbor too, in case your first choice is gone or out of town.
Build a better fire safety kit:
Putting together a fire safety kit is a great idea. When the fire strikes you will not be thinking clearly about what you need. The kit can be as small or large as you can get out of the house with you during a fire, some of the fire safety kits are, First Aid Kit, UV approved collapsible ladder, A Change of Clothes for Everyone in the House, Back Up Medications etc....
Having fire safety features:
Smoke alarms are always your first line of defense in a fire. Maintain them well by testing them once a month and changing the batteries as needed.
Fire detectors are also becoming the new standard when building a new home. Since 2005, many home building have started installing a combination smoke alarm/fire detector unit in each floor of each home they build.
Fire Sprinklers are the best protection against a fire in your home, most home buyers don't realize this as an option. But, more and more families are having them installed.
Portable Extinguishers are available just about every where now. They are very inexpensive and easy to hang.
Fire safety gadgets:
There are a numbers of personal safety gadgets are popping up, some of them are Smoke escape hood, Portable fire Escape Ladder etc....
So better take a moment to sit down with your loved ones and make a plan for a safe escape in the event of a fire at your home.
