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Fire Safety

Youth Firesetting

What Parents Can Do To Reduce Firesetting

  • Supervision by adults decreases the opportunity to set fires
  • Teach children of all ages that fires, even small ones, can spread quickly
  • Teach young children that fire is a tool, not a toy, and only used by adults
  • Keep matches and lighters out of sight and out of reach
  • Always use fire with care and set a good example by using matches, lighters, and candles carefully
  • Teach children to show you when they find matches and lighters
  • Teach older children proper techniques for using fire
  • Point out to your children the fire safety rules you and others follow throughout the day
  • Talk to your children about the legal consequences of firesetting.

Grilling Fire Safety

Cooking is the main cause of home fires and fire injuries. You can prevent cooking fires. Take these steps to keep your family safe!

  • Stand by your pan: If you leave the kitchen, turn the burner off.
  • What what you’re cooking: Fires start when the heat is too high. If you see any smoke or the grease starts to boil, turn the burner off.
  • Turn pot handles toward the back of the stove: Then no one can bump them or pull them over.
  • Keep a pan lid or baking sheet nearby: Use it to cover the pan if it catches on fire. This will put out the fire.

Kitchen Fire Safety

Stay fire safe this summer! Follow these grilling safety tips.

  • Only use your grill outside. Keep it at least 3 feet from siding, deck rails and eaves
  • Clean your grill after each use. This will remove grease that can start a fire.
  • Open your gas grill before lighting.
  • Keep a 3-foot safe zone around your grill. This will keep kids and pets safe.
  • Place the coals from your grill in a metal can with a lid once they have cooled.
  • Keep an eye on your grill, fire pit or patio torches. Don’t walk away from them when they are lit.

Fire Safety for Smokers

Is your home fire safe?

  • Only smoke outside and never in bed.
  • Put cigarettes out safely in an ashtray with a wide base that will not tip over.
  • Never smoke around medical oxygen.
  • Never smoke after drinking alcohol or taking medicine.
  • Keep smoke alarms on every level of the home and inside and outside of sleeping areas.
  • Test smoke alarms each month.
  • Ensure your smoke alarms are less than 10 years old.
  • Identify a fire escape plan that shows two ways out of every room.
  • Practice your escape plan at least two times every year.

Fire Safety for People with Disabilities

Millions of Americans live with physical and mental disabilities. It is important to know your risk and build your fire prevention plans around your abilities.

  • Have smoke alarms on every level of your home, inside bedrooms and outside sleeping areas. Interconnect your alarms, so when one sounds, they all sound.
  • If you are deaf or hard of hearing, use smoke alarms with a vibrating pad, flashing light or strobe light. These accessories start when your alarm sounds.
  • Test your alarms every month.

Plan your escape around your abilities.

  • Know two ways out of every room.
  • If possible, live near an exit.
  • You’ll be safest on the ground floor if you live in an apartment building.
  • If you live in a multistory home, sleep on the first floor.
  • Being on the ground floor and near an exit will make your escape easier.

Heating Fire Safety

Space Heater

  • Keep anything that can burn, such as bedding, clothing and curtains, at least 3 feet away
    from the heater.
  • Make sure the heater has an automatic shutoff, so if it tips over, it shuts off.
  • Turn heaters off when you go to bed or leave the room.
  • Plug portable heaters directly into outlets and never into an extension cord or power strip.
  • Only use portable heaters from a recognized testing laboratory.

Fireplace

  • Keep a glass or metal screen in front of the fireplace to prevent embers or sparks jumping out.
  • Do not burn paper in your fireplace.
  • Put the fire out before you go to sleep or leave your home.
  • Put ashes in a metal container with a lid, outside, at least 3 feet from your home.

Woodstove

  • Make sure your wood stove is 3 feet from anything that can burn.
  • Do not burn paper in your wood stove.
  • Put the fire out before you go to sleep or leave your home.
  • Have your chimney inspected and cleaned each year by a professional.

Furnace

  • Have your furnace inspected each year.
  • Keep anything that can burn away from the furnace.

Kerosene Heater

  • Only use kerosene heaters from a recognized testing laboratory.
  • Make sure the heater has an automatic shutoff, so if it tips over, it shuts off.
  • Refuel your cooledheater outside..