How Should You Prepare & Plan for a House Fire? – Fire Damage Repair

The fire damage repair professionals at Paul Davis understand how severe home fires are. Not only can house fires eradicate your residence and personal belongings, but they are emotionally jarring and make you feel unsafe. Fires can occur without a moment’s notice and can be provoked by lots of things, so a lot of the time they’re out of your control such as natural disasters or your neighbor’s house being on fire. But there are still a few precautions you can implement to minimize the dangers of a house fire in your home.

At All Times – Have an Emergency Plan in Position

One of the most fundamental things you can do to plan for a house fire is to have safety rules ready. Because not all fires are preventable, being safe is necessary. All properties need the right amount of smoke alarms and fire extinguishers placed around the property. Additionally, you should think about getting smoke alarms that detect smoke that is generated by electrical fires since damaged wiring is one of the primary causes of home fires. Children in the house should be taught how a smoke alarm sounds when it goes off and what to do when this happens.

Some other safety measures include outlining fire escape routes in your house. Design a strategy and make sure everybody in the house knows the fire escape routes – there needs to be two exits for every room in the home. Also, it’s necessary to have a designated meeting place outside so you know who gets out of the home and who is absent.

Another thing you should do is protect your valuable items like birth certificates, passports and photographs. You can make digital copies and place them into a cloud drive as a backup, and you can buy a strong box to keep the hard copies secure too. Finally, make a record of all your personal possessions for insurance reasons in the event they’re engulfed by the flames.

Things to Be Mindful of to Lessen House Fire Dangers

Here are a few things to keep in mind so you can lessen the dangers and perils that are typically correlated with house fires:

• Portable Heaters: It’s fundamental to keep any combustible or flammable objects at least three feet from a space heater. Also, you’ll want your heater to have a control mechanism as well as other features for safety such as turning off when it falls over.
• Appliances and Electrical: Monitor your light switches to see if they need to be replaced. When you touch them and they’re hot, that’s a clue that they’re faulty. Another thing you should do is examine your appliances for torn cords and defective plugs.
• Children: Store any lighters or matches in a place that is out of reach and out of sight from children to prevent their curiosity from starting a fire. Teach your kids that fire is not a toy as well.
• Cooking: The kitchen is one of the most typical spots for a fire to occur. It’s critical to be attentive to what’s in the oven or on the stove, and if you have to leave, have someone watch over it until you come back.
• Smoking: Inside smoking makes your residence exposed to house fires, so the finest method to avoid a disaster is to smoke outside. If you do smoke indoors, make sure you have suitable ashtrays to stop a cigar or cigarette from rolling onto the ground. But if someone in the residence is using oxygen, do not smoke indoors since oxygen is extremely combustible.
• Fireplaces: Having a suitable fireplace screen is integral for the safety of your residence and everybody in it. Ensure that it is stable enough to stop logs that roll and sparks. You also should clean your fireplace and chimney consistently to remove the intensely flammable creosote that forms.