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Home Safety Tips

• Smoke Alarm Detector.  Buy and install smoke alarm, carbon monoxide, and natural-gas detectors.  Install them in all of your hallways and near the bedrooms and on all floors of your home.

• Sprinkler System.  Consider installing a heat-triggered sprinkler system.

• Fire Extinguisher.  Buy and keep fire extinguishers handy.  Choose multipurpose ones.  These are labeled as type “ABC”, meaning they are equipped to fight fires caused by ordinary combustibles, flammable liquids, and electrical equipment.  Make sure you keep one for the kitchen, the garage, the basement, and wherever your furnace and hot water heater are located.  Learn how to use fire extinguisher correctly. Stand with your back toward the exit doorway.  Once you have squeezed the lever, sweep the nozzle from side to side at the base of the flames until the fire appears to be out.

• Flashlights.  Keep a rechargeable flashlight plugged in by your bedside to light your way or to signal to emergency vehicle.  Store flashlight one in each bedroom.

• Escape Ladder.  Buy and keep flame-resistant safety escape ladders.  Place them, preassembled, near a window on each floor of your home.  A 13-foot ladder should be long enough for a two story home.  If bedrooms are on the opposite end of each floor, store a ladder in each room.

• House Number.  Make sure your house number is visible from the street.  It should be easily spotted in case emergency vehicle needs to look for your house.

• Deadbolt Lock.  Install a steady deadbolt lock on every door to the outside.  This should include the door into the house from the garage.  Get the type that you don’t have to have a key to open from the inside.

• Motion Sensing Lights.  Install motion sensing floodlights in the back yard, the front entrance, and any doorway leading to the house.  Many models of powerful, sensitive motion lights are available that will light the path and grounds when anyone approaches your home.  Choose halogen floodlights that can tolerate cold temperatures.

• Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters (AFCI).  AFCI prevent electrical fires that occur when there is a loose connection at an outlet or when wire or cords have been damaged.  AFCI installation in bedrooms is now required for new homes.  Contact your local qualified electrician if you need these devices installed.

• Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCI).  Install GFCI in bathroom, the laundry room, and the kitchen.  These devices instantly shut off the electrical current if anything, like a hair dryer dropped in the sink, causes an electrical imbalance, protecting you against electric shock and electrocution.

• Home Security System.  Install a home security system and display security warning signs or stickers around your house prominently.

• Electrical Cords and Outlets.  Check for frayed wire.  Repair or replace any loose or frayed wires on small electrical appliances.  Don’t over load any one outlet.  Check for faulty electrical system.  Feel all outlets and plugs to see if any are warm to touch.  If so, have an electrician check them.  No cords should run under rugs or across the room.

• Alarms.  Test alarms monthly and replace any that don’t work.  Alarm detectors should be replaced every 10 years.  Replace batteries annually or sooner if the alarm chirps.  Demonstrate the sound of each detector.  Family member needs to know the difference.  Dust and debris can cause malfunctions so vacuum or dust alarms regularly.  Never disable an alarm.

• Entries.  Keep doors to the outside locked even when you are home.

• Natural Gas.  If you are excavating outdoors, don’t dig until you have your utility company flag where the lines are.  Don’t hang items on gas pipes.  Inspect the gas connections to your stovetop range and other gas applications aren’t cracked.  Educate the family that anytime they smell an unmistakable rotten-egg odor or hear a hissing sound and can’t immediately identify the source; they should get out of the house.

• For kitchen safety:  Don’t leave pots unattended on the stove.  Turn the handles of pots and pans away from you while cooking, so you‘ll be less likely to knock the hot food off the stove.  Keep a lid close to the stove to snuff out cooking flames.  Don’t use water, which can spread the burning grease around the kitchen.  Keep pot holders, towels, and other flammable items away from the burners.  Use only dry oven mitts; wet ones will heat up when contact with hot object.  In case of an oven fire, turn off the heat and keep the oven door closed.  If there is a microwave fire, keep the door closed and unplug the microwave.

• For laundry safety:  clean the dryer’s lint filter before each use; accumulated dust and lint are a fire hazard.  Don’t operate a dryer without a filter.  Clean your dryer hose once or twice a year to prevent dangerous build up.  Use a long-handled brush.  Make sure the dryer is plugged into an outlet suitable for its electrical needs.  Don’t leave your dryer running when you are not home.

• For outside:  Keep trees trimmed to prevent damage to yourself and your house.  Dead and loose tree limbs can pose damage during windstorms.   Gasoline should be stored outside the house in locked cabinets.  When grilling, use only charcoal starter fluids designed for barbeque grills.  Never add fluid once the charcoal has been lit.  When using extension cord outside, use only those specifically marked for outdoor use.  Keep ladders at least 10 feet from power line.  Don’t let water accumulate on top of a pool cover-it creates a drowning hazard.