Female Speaker: A home fire can happen much more easily than most people think. Fire fighters battle more than 50,000 residential fires in Canada every year and yet a recent survey conducted by the The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs and Duracell concluded that the majority of Canadian households or 77% have not practiced a home fire drill in the past year. One in four Canadians admitted to not changing their home smoke alarm batteries regularly, rendering the critical first line of defense in home fire safety, useless.
Dave Guilbault: More house fire start in the kitchen than any other room in the house and grease fires are often the culprit. Never leave a stove top unattended and always have a fire extinguisher near by. Candles are causing more and more fires. Keep your eye on candles and place them away from anything that can catch fire or knock them over. Snuff them up before you leave the room, never leave a candle unattended.
Most fatal home fires happen at night when we are asleep and the smoke will not wake you up. In fact, the smoke will put you into a deeper sleep and what is the point of having a smoke alarm if it doesn't work? A well maintained, properly installed smoke alarm on every level of your home and outside the sleeping areas is the most important safety measure to take. That means that each smoke alarm has to be checked and tested regularly to ensure that the batteries are operating properly and remember, an inoperative smoke alarm is worst than not having a smoke alarm at all, as it provides the false sense of security.
Let's talk about the most important fire prevention tips. Do not overload circuits and get rid of those old frayed extension cords. Practice unlocking doors and windows. Teach your children not to hide from fire and they must escape immediately, go to a neighbor's home and call 911. If your clothes gets fire, stop drop and roll. And teach your children that smoke rises, so they need to crawl under the smoke and remember smoke goes up, so we go down.
Make sure you have your working smoke alarm on every level of your home and outside the sleeping areas and replace the batteries on a regular basis. A good time to do this is spring and fall and make sure you replace the battery with a long lasting batteries such as Duracell.
Now, here is a way to plan your family fire escape, draw a floor plan of your home and indicate two ways out of each room. Establish a meeting place outside the home such as a lamp post or a tree, please ensure that every family member knows the planning and knows the escape routes and make sure you post a plan where everyone can see it.
It is very important to practice your family fire escape plan once a year. Vary the situation so you can practice different part of scenarios.
Female Speaker: Knowing what to do ahead of time for a fire emergency can save precious seconds and that will save lives. A dependable fire escape plan plus regularly tested smoke alarms could make all the difference between life and death when an emergency unfolds. Visit www.duracellfiresafety.com for more family fire safety tips.
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