A fire can happen in your home at any time and it’s important to always be prepared for what you would do in that situation. However, it’s more important to look at all the ways to prevent one from happening in the first place. Of course, you can buy various gadgets to protect your home against fire, such as smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, and even fireproof safe deposit boxes to protect your valuables.
However, there are some very simple steps that you could be doing to keep yourself safer and be able to prevent a problem before it even happens.
Unplug the unused Items to Prevent a Fire from occurring in your Home
Turned-off yet plugged-in items in your home can always be a potential fire hazard. Things like computers, TVs, etc use electricity even when they’re not on. They can always experience a surge or they can just overheat and cause a fire. Unplugging these items when you’re not using them cuts down on your chances of a fire.
Use Surge Protectors
You should always make sure that all of your electronics and appliances are plugged into surge protectors. In a situation of an electrical fire, a surge in power happens typically. By plugging items into a surge protector you don’t have to worry about that excess electricity getting in and causing a fire. Or at least reduce its strength of it if you do get one. This will definitely help Prevent a Fire from occurring in your Home.
Keep flammable items away from Heat
Flammable items like fabrics, paper, and electronic goods should always be kept away from excessive heat or flame. Keep your hair and your clothes out of the way when you’re starting a fire in your fireplace. When cooking, keep towels, pot holders, and curtains away from flames. Make sure that you’re watching closely for anything that could turn into a flaming hazard. Some things are very small to consider but are really important. Like Blowing out candles before leaving a room or going to bed. Or, Keep matches, lighters, and other ignitable substances in a secured location out of the reach of children, and only use lighters with child-resistant features. 10 of these important things to remember are listed very neatly HERE.
Never leave flames Unattended
If you’re cooking on a stove, lighting candles, using a fireplace anything with excessive heat, make sure that you’re watching it at all times. Never leave them flaming, and you go away for a long time. By keeping an eye on and being alert, you can recognize quickly if there’s a problem or if they behave differently. That means you’d be able to take care of the problem quickly and make sure you and your family are safe.
As a side note, but a important one, you should always put out the fire in a fireplace, when you are leaving the place. Make sure the fire doesn’t pop back up. Embers can continue to smolder and burn and logs can continue to have flames inside of them that show up much later. Use a glass or metal fire screen to keep fire and embers in the fireplace.
Never keep the rooms Cluttered
The more clutter in your home, the more chances of a spontaneous fire breaking out there. And easier for the fire to spread through the house. Do not ever leave your rooms cluttered. A neat and clean house, with minimal clutter, cuts down the risk of fire hugely. Being organized will serve many more purposes in your daily life anyway.
Change the Filters of the heater
The home heating system needs a filter to run, but how often do you change out that filter? You need to be doing it frequently because if lint fills up that filter the heat from the furnace can ignite it.
This is true for your dryer as well. Always make sure that you remove the lint from your dryer filter when you do the laundry. Even a small amount of lint could cause a big fire.
Similar to the footnote on the last point, here we would like to add this again, always remember to turn off the heated appliances when leaving the place. Your dryer uses a lot of heat and even your dishwasher uses a good amount of heat. Space heaters and heated blankets do as well. These could easily catch fire and cause a huge fire if you’re not home to detect that they are kept turned on.
Check the electrical wiring and connections frequently
Of course, you do not need to dig into the walls in your home to check electrical wires, but you should be checking anything that’s visible. Regularly monitor all the outlets and connection boxes on the walls, and check current values using a multimeter, if possible. And take needed steps whenever you notice anything out of normal. That is clear evidence of a problem behind the walls. Look for cords to your electric appliances, so see if any of those are damaged. Faulty wiring, or plugging in damaged electrical cords can cause fire ignitions.
Keep Oils and Gases away from the flames
If you keep cooking oil in your kitchen, keep it away from the stove or anything that could potentially spark and cause a fire. The same rule applies to the gas that you might keep in a garage for your car.
Keep it away from a potential spark or flame. The best practice is to always carefully keep them in the approved containers and keep them at a safe distance away from anything that could react with them.
Things to remember
Create and practice a fire escape plan. Include two ways out of every room. Pick a spot to meet outside. Practice the plan at least twice a year with everyone in your household.
Install and maintain smoke alarms. Place smoke alarms on every level of your home, including inside and outside bedrooms. Test smoke alarms once a month. Change the batteries at least once a year - if your model requires it.
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