Fire Safety
Canyon Hills 92532
Fire Safety For Children
Every winter, Americans see an increase in residential fires, as families heat their homes and struggle to stay warm during the winter months. These fires pose serious threats to the health and safety of all members of a family - but put children age 4 and younger at an elevated risk of death or injury in a fire when compared to older children. And in many cases, these deaths and injuries are largely preventable.
Heating Safety Tips
The high cost of home heating fuels and utilities has caused many Americans to search for alternate sources of home heating. The use of wood burning stoves is growing and space heaters are selling rapidly. These heating sources are a major contributing factor in residential fires and may put children at risk, and many of these fires can be prevented.
What you can do:
1. Never use your oven to heat your home
2. Never allow children to play near a fireplace, wood burning stove, space heater, or other heating sources. Establish a 3 foot safety zone around all heat sources.
3. Have your chimney or wood stove inspected and cleaned annually by a certified chimney specialist, and use a metal mesh screen when burning a fire in your fireplace.
4. Follow manufacturer instructions when alternative heat sources such as wood stoves and kerosene heaters are used. Kerosene heaters may be prohibited by local fire marshals.
5. Use fire-resistant materials on walls around wood stoves. Store fuels in proper containers, and keep them out of the reach of children and away from combustible materials.
Cooking Safety Tips
Many families gather in the kitchen to spend time together, but it can be one of the most hazardous rooms in the house if you don't practice safe cooking behaviors. Cooking is the leading cause of reported residential fires and fire injuries in the United States.
What you can do:
1. Young children are at high risk of being burned by hot food and liquids. Keep children away from cooking areas by enforcing a "child-free zone" of 3 feet (1 meter) around the stove and microwave.
2. When young children are poresent, use the stove's back burners whenever possible.
3. Never hold a child while cooking, drinking, or carrying hot foods or liquids.
4. Keep young children at least 3 feet (1 meter) away from any place where hot food or drink is being prepared or carried, such as around the microwave. Keep hot foods and liquids away fromt able and counter edges.
5. Teach children that hot things can burn them.
6. When children are old enough, teach them to cook safely. Supervise them closely.
Be Prepared
1. Keep your family safe, by installing a smoke and carbon monoxide alarm on every level of your home and inside and outside sleeping areas. In at least 23% of all fatal residential fires, no smoke alarms weere present.
2. Test smoke alarm batteries every month and change them at least once a year.
3. Make an escape plan with your family and agree on a common meeting place outside; practice a home fire drill on a regular basis.
4. If there is a fire, call 911 once you are safely outside.
5. Families can further rreduce their risk of injury or death by also installing residential sprinkler systems.
6. Practice safe fire behaviors and know what to do in an emergency to give your family extra seconds to escape.
Fire Risk to Children in 2007
A new study by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) finds that children ages 14 and under accounted for 13 percent of fire deaths in 2007 - and 52 percent of all children who die in fires are under the age of five.
Reference: http://www.ready.gov/kidsfiresafety