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Fire Safety Topics

Home Fire Safety: EDITH

Everyone should know what to do and where to go if there is a fire in the home. EDITH prepares you for just that. Edith stands for Exit Drills In The Home. These are the steps for formulating a successful home fire exit strategy:

  • Make a plan – Draw a map or floor plan of your home showing all rooms and all doors and windows. Show two ways out of each room using a colored arrow for the normal escape route and a different colored arrow for the emergency exit if the normal route is blocked by fire. Make sure all doors and windows open easily and are not blocked by furniture or clutter. Also make sure any escape ladders are accessible and working properly.
  • Designate a meeting place outside the home – This is where everyone will come together after exiting the home. This can be a nearby tree, light pole, mailbox or driveway.
  • Discuss your plan – Get the family together and talk about your escape plan. Make sure you discuss the things you would do if there were an actual fire. When you hear the alarm make sure to roll out of bed instead of sitting up. Stay low and crawl to the exit, feeling the door with the back of your hand before slowly opening it and heading for the exit outside. Do not stop to look for valuables or pets. Once you’re out, STAY OUT. DO NOT go back inside the house for any reason! Once you are safely outside, call 911 from a neighbor’s house.
  • Practice your escape plan – Do this at least twice a year. Run through the drill two times; use your normal routes out the first time, then do it again using the emergency exits. Get together after the drill to critique it. Make changes as necessary then rehearse those changes.

Practicing your EDITH drill often will better enable you to act quickly and automatically in a fire emergency. Being prepared can prevent you and your family from being among the unfortunate thousands who die in home fires each year.

Home Fire Safety: Smoke Detectors

Smoke detectors are a very important aspect of home fire safety. They are an early warning mechanism to help you get out of your home quickly and safely. Most home fire deaths are the result of inhalation of smoke or toxic gases, not from the fire itself. Approximately two thirds of home fire deaths occur in homes with no smoke detectors or no working smoke detectors. Having working smoke detectors cuts the risk of dying in a house fire in half.

N.Y.S. law requires all homes, old and new, have smoke detectors. Smoke detectors should be installed inside every bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home, including the basement and occupied attic spaces. Larger homes may need additional smoke detectors to provide more coverage. Smoke detectors should be installed high on the wall (6 to 12 inches below the ceiling) or on the ceiling (6 to 12 inches from the nearest wall). Do not place them near windows, doors that lead outside or ventilation ducts, as this can interfere with their operation. Never remove the batteries from a smoke detector or disconnect the power source. If a smoke detector alarms while cooking, fan the smoke away from the unit until the alarm stops. If this happens often, consider moving the detector.

Smoke detectors require a small amount of maintenance to keep them working properly. They should be checked each month by pressing the test button. Any dust in the air vents should be vacuumed out as well. The batteries should be changed twice a year. A good rule of thumb is to change them at the same time you turn your clocks ahead and back for daylight savings time. When a smoke detector emits an intermittent “chirping” sound, it means the battery needs changing. Replace the battery immediately when this happens.

Smoke detectors should be replaced every 10 years. Sooner if they do not respond properly when tested. Smoke detectors that are properly installed and maintained play a crucial role in reducing fire deaths and injuries. Make sure you have a fire escape plan so that you know what to do when your smoke detector alarms.

Home Fire Safety: Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Carbon monoxide, or CO, is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, toxic gas produced from the incomplete burning of fuels such as wood, coal, gasoline, natural gas, propane, methane and oil. Inside the home, carbon monoxide can come from improperly installed, improperly vented or malfunctioning fuel-burning appliances such as stoves, furnaces, hot water heaters, clothes dryers, wood-burning stoves, or fireplaces. A car left running in a garage also produces carbon monoxide.

Exposure to carbon monoxide causes flu-like symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, nausea and dizziness. Continued exposure can cause vomiting, loss of consciousness, brain damage and eventually death. A person can be poisoned by a small amount of CO over a long period of time, or by a large amount of CO over a small period of time. Having a carbon monoxide detector in the home can alert you to its presence before it’s too late.

Carbon monoxide detectors should be installed in a central location outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home. CO detectors should be tested each month and the batteries (if the detector runs on batteries) should be changed twice a year, at the same time you turn your clocks ahead and back for daylight savings time. If the trouble signal sounds, check for low batteries and replace them as necessary. If the trouble signal sounds again, call the fire department. Replace your CO detector according to the manufacturers instructions.

If your carbon monoxide detector alarms, move everyone outside immediately and call 911! Make sure everyone is accounted for and stay where you are until the fire department arrives.

Some ways to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning are to make sure all fuel-burning appliances are operating properly and are properly vented. During and after snowstorms, you should check all vents (for the dryer, furnace, stove, fireplace, etc) for snow build-up and remove it if necessary. You should also check to make sure your car’s exhaust pipe is not covered with snow. Never let your car run in the garage, even if the doors are left open, and never use your oven to heat your home.

It’s impossible to completely prevent the production of carbon monoxide, but having a carbon monoxide detector can alert you to its presence and prevent serious injury and possibly death.

Home Fire Safety: Home Fire Sprinklers

Every year more than 2,500 people die in house fires. The risk of dying in a home fire decreases by about 80% when the home is equipped with a fire sprinkler system.

Home fire sprinklers can save lives and property from fire. Home fire sprinklers often extinguish the fire before the fire department arrives. Only the sprinklers closest to the fire activate so there is minimal water damage to property. Fire departments use about 10 times as much water as a fire sprinkler would use to contain a fire.

Many people worry that a sprinkler system will go off accidentally or before they are necessary. Fire sprinklers require temperatures of about 165°F to be triggered. They are not set off by cigarette smoke or burnt toast. And home sprinkler systems rarely go off accidentally. The odds of a home fire sprinkler system accidentally activating is about one in 16 million.

More and more homes are opting to install residential fire sprinkler systems. People are finding that installing these systems are very cost effective. Having a home fire sprinkler system will reduce home insurance rates by 5 to 15 percent. You will also save money in potential damages - $2,100 in homes with sprinkler systems as compared to $45,000 in homes without. If you are building a new home or remodeling an existing home, installing a home fire sprinkler system might be a worthwhile consideration.