Residential fires occur in the U.S. every 86 seconds. They’re especially common during the winter months when lights, candles, and space heaters are used more often. But fires can happen easily at any time of the year.
To avoid house fires, it’s important to take the necessary precautions. Here are four ways you and your family can prepare for the chance of a house fire and what you can do to prevent one from happening in the first place.
- Install fire alarms. Many fire-related tragedies are caused by non-working fire alarms in an around a home. Contact your local fire department to help you install fire alarms in the right areas around your house and to make sure they work properly. Test your smoke alarms at least once a month and replace the batteries once a year. Make sure you know the difference between smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms. Both are important, but it’s essential to know what each alarm sounds like.
- Make sure everyone knows two ways of escape. When there’s a house fire, you only have three minutes to escape. Create a fire escape plan and make sure that every household member knows two ways to escape from every room in the house. Make sure your family also has a meeting spot located safely outside the home.
- Practice escaping from your home. Hypotheticals won’t do you any favors if you don’t know how to actually escape from a certain room in your house. Practice escaping with your family at least twice a year to ensure everyone knows how to escape quickly wherever they are.
- Get out and stay out when there’s a fire. Fire is dangerous, but the chemicals from the smoke will hurt you much faster. That being said, once you’ve gotten out of a house fire, make sure you stay out and call 9-1-1. Firefighters have the proper equipment to enter the building and make any necessary rescues.
After a fire, it’s important to use the proper equipment and cleaning products to clean, recover, and restore your property and belongings to prevent further damage. Professional fire damage services have the appropriate protective gear and equipment to remove fire and smoke damage. For more information on how fire damage restoration services can help your home, contact the fire damage services of Restoration 1 of Middle TN today.
