Oct 9 – 15, 2011: Fire Prevention Week

October is Fire Prevention Month: Protect Your Family From Fire! Being ahead of the game is the best way to protect your family from fire.

That’s why the Park City Fire District is joining with the National Fire Protection Association during the month of October to let citizens know: “It’s Fire Prevention Month. Protect Your Family From Fire!”

This year’s campaign focuses on preventing the leading causes of home fires – cooking, heating and electrical equipment, candles and smoking materials. Additionally, citizens are encouraged to protect their homes and families with life-saving technology and planning.

Nearly all fire deaths can be prevented by taking a few simple precautions, like having working smoke alarms and a home fire escape plan, keeping things that can burn away from the stove, and always turning off space heaters before going to bed.

Fire is a dangerous opponent, but by anticipating the hazards, you are much less likely to be one of the nearly 13,000 people injured in home fires each year.

The Park City Fire District offers the following tips for protecting your home and family from fire:

  • Stay in the kitchen while frying, grilling or broiling food. If you leave the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the stove.
  • Keep anything that can burn at least three feet away from heating equipment, like the furnace, fireplace, wood stove or portable space heater.
  • Have a three-foot “kid-free zone” around open fires and space heaters.
  • Replace or repair damaged or loose electrical cords.
  • Blow out all candles when you leave the room or go to bed. Avoid the use of candles in the bedroom and other areas where people may fall asleep.

While preventing home fires is always our number one priority, it is not always possible.  So it is imperative that you provide the best protection to keep your home and family safe in the event of a fire. This can be achieved by developing an escape plan, which you practice regularly, and equipping homes with life-saving technologies, like smoke alarms and automatic fire sprinkler systems.

The following pre-planning measures will help keep your family safe if there is a fire in your home:

  • Install smoke alarms inside each bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home (including the basement).
  • Interconnect all smoke alarms in the home so when one sounds, they all sound.
  • Test smoke alarms at least monthly. Replace all smoke alarms when they are 10 years old or sooner, if they do not respond when tested.
  • Make sure everyone in your home knows how to respond if the smoke alarm sounds.
  • Have a family meeting and make a plan. Walk through your home and inspect all possible ways out.  Households with children should consider drawing a floor plan of your home, marking two ways out of each room, including windows and doors.

If you are building or remodeling your home, consider installing a home fire sprinkler system.