Firefighters Offer Fire Safety Tips

The is teaming up with the National Fire Protection Association for Fire Prevention Week. This year’s campaign focuses on preventing the leading causes of home fires—cooking, heating and electrical equipment, as well as candles and smoking materials. Additionally, it urges people to protect their homes and families with life-saving technology and planning.

NFPA reports more than 360,000 home fires were reported in the United States in 2009. And in that same year, 2,565 people died in home fires.

“Nearly all of these deaths could have been 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,” said Sgt. Babette Davis of Cherokee County Fire and EMS. “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.”

Cherokee County Fire and EMS offers the following tips for protecting your home and family from fire:

• Stay in the kitchen while you are 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 3-foot “kid-free zone” around open fires and space heaters.
• Replace or repair damaged or loose electrical cords.
• If you smoke, smoke outside.
• Use deep, wide ashtrays on a sturdy table.
• 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 in Cherokee County is always our No. 1 priority, it is not always possible,” Davis said. “Cherokee County’s residents need to provide the best protection to keep their homes and families 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 home fire sprinklers.”

Cherokee County Fire and EMS also offers the following tips 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 and 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.
• Pull together everyone in your household 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 home fire sprinklers.

Cherokee County Fire and EMS will be visiting all kindergarten students during October with the fire safety house and fire truck. Children will learn how to create an escape plan and practice crawling low under smoke. The prevention division will also be visiting various pre-schools in the county with Freddie the fire truck to teach kids about fire safety.