Top 10 Tips to Reduce the Risk of Home Fires

10/26/2017 (Permalink)

Top 10 Tips to Reduce the Risk of Home Fires

While October is Fire Prevention Month, there are many things you can do every month to reduce the risk of a fire happening in your Indianapolis home. We’ve compiled these top 10 home fire safety tips that you can follow now and throughout the year. If you do, however, suffer a home fire, you can call the fire damage repair and restoration experts at SERVPRO of Indianapolis West.

Top 10 Home Fire Safety Tips for your Indianapolis Home

1. Test Your Smoke Alarms Monthly

Hold down the test button and wait a few seconds for the alarm to activate. If it doesn’t activate, replace the batteries. Some of the newer smoke alarms have 10-year lithium batteries. These smoke alarms should be replaced completely every 10-years.

2. Install Smoke Alarms In Every Bedroom

If a fire should start in a bedroom where you are sleeping, you want a smoke alarm to go off as quickly as possible to increase the chance of escaping without harm.

3. Install Smoke Alarms at Every Level

Smoke alarms should be installed on every level of a home, including the basement. Beyond installing one on every level and in every bedroom, you should also consider installing smoke alarms in areas that are at higher risk of fire. These higher fire risk areas include a laundry room, kitchen and furnace room.  

4. Keep Bedroom Doors Closed when Sleeping

If a fire should start outside your bedroom, you want to lower the risk of smoke inhalation by keeping your door closed while sleeping. By closing your bedroom door, the smoke alarm located nearest to the fire should wake you up before smoke has had a chance to infiltrate your bedroom.

5. Create and Practice Fire Escape Plan

If a fire should start at the bottom of the stairs, how will your family escape from a fire? If a fire is blocking the door, where do you go to escape? It’s important to not only create a fire escape plan but to practice it with your family.

6. Have a Fire Extinguisher in Your Kitchen

If a fire should start on your stove top, how will you put it out? It’s important to have a working fire extinguisher located in your kitchen. It’s best to place the fire extinguisher away from the higher risk fire areas like the oven and stove top.

7. Check and Clean Out Your Dryer Vent Annually

While it may be a pain to remove the dryer vent hose and clean it out, it can greatly reduce the risk of a fire from the accumulated dryer lint in the dryer vent.

8. Make Sure Your Chimney Damper is Open Before Starting Fire

With the cold weather upon us, many homes are lighting up their fireplaces for the first time this season. Before you strike the match or turn the gas on, make sure that your chimney damper is open. Too often, people light their first fire in their fireplace only to see smoke billowing out into their home causing extensive home damage.

9. Keep Candles One Foot Away from Flammable Materials

Candles are romantic. They’re also a common culprit of house fires. If you do light candles in your home, make sure that you keep them at least one foot away from anything that can burn. Also, never leave a room where a candle is burning without extinguishing it first.

10. Install Carbon Monoxide Alarms on Every Level of Home

Carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas that can quickly kill you. By simply installing a carbon monoxide alarm on every level of your home, you can greatly reduce the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

What to Do If a Fire Should Occur

Even the small of home fires can cause extensive damage to a home. While the flames of a small fire may not cause much damage, the resulting smoke can quickly spread throughout the house causing smoke damage to furniture, clothes, electronics, carpets, and more.

If you should suffer from a house fire, it’s important to call the fire and smoke damage restoration experts of SERVPRO of Indianapolis West immediately. We will work right away to identify the steps to clean and restore your home while taking steps to prevent any unnecessary further damage from occurring.

Call SERVPRO of Indianapolis West at 317-243-3149 to start taking the appropriate steps to clean and restore your home.