Fire Prevention & Safety Guide

Fire Prevention & Safety Guide

The most effective way to protect yourself and your home from fire is to identify and remove fire hazards. Sixty-five percent of home fire deaths occur in homes with no working smoke alarms. During a home fire, working smoke alarms and a fire escape plan that has been practiced regularly can save lives.

• If a fire occurs in your home, GET OUT, STAY OUT and CALL for help.
• Install smoke alarms on every level of your home, inside bedrooms and outside sleeping areas. Test them every month and replace the batteries at least once a year.
• Talk with all household members about a fire escape plan and practice the plan twice a year.
Prevent home fires
Steps You Can Take Now
• Keep items that can catch fire at least three feet away from anything that gets hot, such as space heaters.
• Never smoke in bed.
• Talk to children regularly about the dangers of fire, matches and lighters and keep them out of reach.
• Turn portable heaters off when you leave the room or go to sleep.
Cooking Safely
• Stay in the kitchen when frying, grilling or broiling food. If you leave the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the stove.
• Stay in the home while simmering, baking, roasting or boiling food. Check it regularly and use a timer to remind you that food is cooking.
• Keep anything that can catch fire—like pot holders, towels, plastic and clothing— away from the stove.
• Keep pets off cooking surfaces and countertops to prevent them from knocking things onto the burner.
Caution: Carbon Monoxide Kills
• Install carbon monoxide alarms in central locations on every level of your home and outside sleeping areas.
• If the carbon monoxide alarm sounds, move quickly to a fresh air location outdoors or by an open window or door.
• Never use a generator, grill, camp stove or other gasoline, propane, natural gas or charcoal-burning devices inside a home, garage, basement, crawl space or any partially enclosed area.

Practice fire safety at home

Smoke Alarms

• Install smoke alarms on every level of your home, inside bedrooms and outside sleeping areas.
• Teach children what smoke alarms sound like and what to do when they hear one.
• Once a month check whether each alarm in the home is working properly by pushing the test button.
• Replace batteries in smoke alarms at least once a year. Immediately install a new battery if an alarm chirps, warning that the battery is low.
• Smoke alarms should be replaced every 10 years. Never disable smoke or carbon monoxide alarms.
• Carbon monoxide alarms are not substitutes for smoke alarms. Know the difference between the sound of smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms.
Fire Escape Planning
• Ensure that all household members know two ways to escape from every room of your home.
• Make sure everyone knows where to meet outside in case of fire.
• Practice escaping from your home at least twice a year and at different times of the day. Practice waking up to smoke alarms, low crawling and meeting outside.
• Teach household members to STOP, DROP and ROLL if their clothes should catch fire.

In case of fire...

Follow Your Escape Plan!

Remember to GET OUT, STAY OUT and CALL your local emergency phone number.
• If closed doors or handles are warm, use your second way out. Never open doors that are warm to the touch.
• Crawl low under smoke.
• Go to your outside meeting place and then call for help.
• If smoke, heat or flames block your exit routes, stay in the room with doors closed. Place a wet towel under the door and call the fire department or 9-1-1. Open a window and wave a brightly colored cloth or flashlight to signal for help.
Use Caution with Fire Extinguishers
• Use a portable fire extinguisher ONLY if you have been trained by the fire department and in the following conditions:
o The fire is confined to a small area, and is not growing.
o The room is not filled with smoke.
o Everyone has exited the building.
o The fire department has been called.
• Remember the word PASS when using a fire extinguisher.
o Pull the pin and hold the extinguisher with the nozzle pointing away from you.
o Aim low. Point the extinguisher at the base of the fire.
o Squeeze the lever slowly and evenly.
o Sweep the nozzle from side to side.

Let Your Family Know You're Safe

Preparedness Tips

��Remember that lit candles are fire. Keep them at least 12 inches from anything that can burn, such as curtains, bedding, mattresses, paper, books, flammable decorations, clothing, and upholstered furniture.

��Always extinguish candles before leaving the room or going to bed. Do not leave a room before blowing out all candles.

��Use candle holders that are sturdy, won’t tip over easily, are made from a material that cannot burn, and are large enough to collect dripping wax.

��Place candles where they cannot be reached or knocked over by pets and children.

��During an emergency, always use flashlights and not candles as light sources.

��Never leave a child unattended in a room with a candle. And keep all matches and lighters out of reach and out of site of children.

��Keep all lit candles and other open flames away from any flammable liquids.

��Smoke alarms save lives. Install a smoke alarm on every level of your home and use the test button to check each alarm each month. Replace all batteries at least once a year.

FIRE PREVENTION TIPS

AT HOME

- Put phone numbers of fire department near phone.

- Eliminate fire hazards through goods housekeeping. Dispose waste paper, rubbish, and other flammable materials regularly.

- Keep matches out of the children’s reach.

- Oil or gas lamps and candles should be placed away from curtains. Do not put them where the wind, children or pets may topple them. Put out the flame before going to bed.

- Do not keep flammable materials like gasoline, alcohol, and paint inside the house.

- Regularly check your electrical installations, and have all frayed wirings and electrical fixtures changed or repaired by a licensed electrician.

- Do not overload electrical circuits by putting additional lights and appliances.

- Blown fuses should not be replaced with coins, wires, or any metal.

- Never leave a lit cigarette/cigar/pipe unattended-it may fall on flammable materials which could start a fire.

SIMPLE HOME PREVENTION MEASURES

- Crush your cigarettes and cigar stubs thoroughly before discarding them. Provide yourselves with ashtray. Do not smoke in bed.

- Oil or gas and other native lamps should be place away from curtains and other objects that easily catch fire. Do not put them where the wind, children, cats or other moving beings may topple them. Put out the flame before going to bed.

- Do not store any flammable substance or any volatile liquid in the kitchen. Cover the flammable container tightly.

- Extinguish all live charcoals and embers or concentrate them in the middle of the stove after being through with kitchen chores. Make it a habit to inspect the kitchen before retiring. Most fires in the home occur at night.

Keep matches and lighters away from reach of children.

- Clear the corners and nook of the house from rubbish, rags and other waste materials.

- Remove the accumulation of leaves in gutters and other parts of the roof and wood shaving and litters in the attic.

- Quantities of flammables, such as gasoline, oil benzene, naptha, alcohol, and other highly flammable materials should be kept in dwelling houses.

- Rubbish burning should be done on the stove or in the yard away from the house wall. Every smoldering coal left from the bonfire should be extinguished. Be careful that no flying embers from bonfire would alight on the roof of the houses.

- Do not use open flames for decorations.

Combustible objects, such as firewoods, waste paper and rugs should not be indiscriminately dumped or strewn in the house. Boxes should be regularly cleaned.

- Kerosene and oil stoves should be checked to leakage and they should be regularly cleaned.

- Do not use leaking liquefied petroleum gas equipment.

EMERGENCY ACTION: BURNS

SMALL HEAT BURNS

Remove clothing if not stuck.

Immerse burned area in lukewarm water or applied cold pack (never use ice) unless skin is open or blistered.

Cover burn with sterile or clean dressing.

MAJOR HEAT BURNS

Call for emergency help (usually 117) or rush conscious victim to hospital.

DO NOT remove clothing, DO NOT immerse in cold water.

Cover burn with clean material; keep victim warm, elevated burned feet or legs.

If not breathing, give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation: tilt-lift chin, pinch nose shut, seals mouth with yours gives 2 full breaths. Repeat: 1 breath each 5 seconds.

CHEMICAL BURNS

PROMPTLY call for emergency aid, or rush to hospital immediately.

If chemical container is nearby, obey first aid steps on it. Keep it to show to the hospital personnel.

Until helps arrived, remove clothing from burn and flood burn with water, if face is burned the eyes. DOCTORS SHOULD SEE ALL BURNS, EXCEPT IF SKIN IS REDDENED IN ONLY SMALL AREA.