It’s something we don’t want to think about but should: making a plan now to keep your family safe from fire.
Rising number of deadly fires
With smoke alarms becoming more prevalent and better building codes, the number of house fires reported in the U.S. has dropped by half since 1980. But, for the fires that do happen, they are much deadlier -- with the number of deaths rising since 2010.
Consumer Reports warns that house fires today burn faster and hotter compared to years ago. One main reason is time.
“40 years ago, you would have had 17 minutes to get out of a house on fire. Today? Just 3 minutes,” explained Consumer Reports’ John Galeotafiore.
So, what’s changed over the decades? In part, those popular open-plan houses. With fewer walls and doors, fires travel faster and more freely. Another culprit is today’s furniture.
“A lot of homes today have furnishings made with synthetic materials, like plastic or particleboard, which burn much quicker than say solid wood,” Galeotafiore said.
Safety audit at home
Consumer Reports says protecting your family begins with a safety audit at home.
Have at least one smoke detector and one class “ABC” fire extinguisher per floor of your home – and you want to check them monthly.
Consumer Reports recommends the dual-sensor alarms from First Alert and Kidde. Both got perfect scores for detecting both flaming and smoldering fires.
Also as part of your audit, check your kitchen.
“Cooking remains the leading cause of home fires and injuries. And it can be as easy as walking away from the stove and forgetting,” said Consumer Report’s Paul Hope.
To prevent a kitchen blaze, remember this simple rule: Stand by your pan. If your cookware does catch fire, move it off the stove if you can and cover it with a lid.
For oven fires, keep the oven door closed, turn it off, and be sure to have a fire extinguisher nearby in case the fire gets out of hand. And part of your fire-safety plan should include an extinguisher on every level of your home.
If you need to use an extinguisher, use the PASS method:
- Pull the pin
- Aim the nozzle toward the base of the fire
- Squeeze the trigger
- Sweep from side to side
Other fire hazards include candles, fireplaces with uncleaned chimneys, and space heaters.
“The vast majority of home heating deaths last year were the result of portable or stationary space heaters. We recommend looking for a model that turns off automatically if it gets too hot and which has a tip over switch,” Hope explained.
A few other things to prevent a fire from breaking out:
- If you have lithium-ion batteries -- like the ones for your power tools – don’t leave them charging overnight. And be sure to only use the charger that came with it.
- If you have an outlet that doesn’t grip the plug, it’s time to change it. Replace your worn-out outlets with an arc-fault circuit interrupter, also known as an AFCI outlet.
- Before building an outdoor fire, check to make sure there are no local burn bans. And always have an extinguisher and a garden hose at the ready.
Finally, as part of your home safety audit, make sure your family has an escape plan in place. It’s something that came in handy when Simon Glinsek had to evacuate his entire family after a dryer caught fire.
“Smoke, like white smoke billowing out of the dryer area. So, smoke had just fallen so fast. I noticed that it doesn’t really hover at the top, but kind of goes all over the place. But it just went so fast, it boggles my mind at how fast it goes,” Glinsek said.
When creating your family’s evacuation plan, walk through your rooms together and develop different plans if a certain route becomes blocked.
And if you choose to draw a map of your home indicating all possible exits, that’s great, but it’s still important to do dry runs – where everyone in the household rehearses escaping – and meeting up in a safe, predesignated spot.
“We always talked about -- go by the tree, anything like that, you always sit by the tree, we’ll meet up right here. That does work.”
Consumer Reports also recommends keeping your bedroom door closed at night. This can help slow the spread of the fire as well as the smoke – which experts say can cause more deaths than the flames themselves. Having that door shut could buy you precious time to react and escape safely.
Free smoke detectors
If you live in Jacksonville and you need a smoke detector, those who qualify can get one and have it installed for free. Call 630-City to make an appointment. You can also go online here.