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Making Your Home Safe from Fire and
Carbon Monoxide |
Fire Safety & You
The safety issue is extremely important today,
as thousands of injuries and untimely deaths are occurring needlessly. Many of
these injuries and deaths can be prevented.
Everyone wants to live in a safe and worry-free
environment with their families, spouse, and children. However, most people are
closer to a disaster waiting to happen than they think. You, the consumer, may
feel safe. Safety may not be an issue that comes to mind as you go about your
daily routine. Yet, lurking in your home are dangers that can take lives and
destroy property.
This article will help you focus attention on
the dangers of fire, smoke and carbon monoxide.
Fire Facts
Thousands of people die from fire every year in
this country. Most residential fire deaths occur because of inhalation of toxic
gas, rather than contact with the flames. The tragedy is that many of these
deaths could be prevented by taking a few precautions.
General Fire Prevention
Tips
- Do not plug too many appliances into an
electrical outlet.
- Make sure that combustibles are not too
close to heaters, stoves and fireplaces.
- Never smoke in bed or overstuffed furniture,
or leaving a burning cigarette in an ashtray.
- Do not use damaged or frayed electrical
cords or extension cords.
- Keep matches and lighters out of the reach
of children.
- Teach your children about the dangers of
playing with fire.
- Never use extension cords with heating or
air conditioning equipment.
- Purchase smoke alarms and fire extinguishers
for each floor of your home.
Have an Emergency Escape Plan! Practice
it frequently!
- Develop an emergency exit plan and an
alternate exit plan. The most obvious way out may be blocked by fire. A window
will usually be the second way out of a bedroom. Make sure that screens or
storm windows can be easily removed. If you lice in a two-story home, you
should have an escape ladder for each occupied bedroom. Escape ladders are
available for purchase, and they can easily be stored under a bed or in a
closet.
- Establish a meeting place outside your home
to be sure everyone has escaped. Every family member should participate in
practice escape drills at least two time per year.
- In the event of fire, do not stop to get
dressed or gather valuables. Seconds count - do not search for the family
pet.
- Teach your family that in a fire they must
stay low to the floor to avoid smoke and intense hear. Passageways may be
completely filled with dense smoke, so everyone should practice exiting on
their hands and knees while blindfolded.
- Train family members to feel closed door
before exiting. If the door is warm, open it slowly, and close it quickly if
heat or smoke rushes in.
- Establish a rule that once you're out, you
never re-enter under any circumstances. As soon as two people have reached the
meeting place, one should call 911 from a neighbor's house.
 Smoke
Alarms
Partly because of efforts by the U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission and local fire departments, many jurisdictions
require smoke alarms for homes and businesses. Through education and media
campaigns, most people now realize the importance of smoke alarms, and most
homes in America have them.
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Recommendations:
- Purchase a smoke alarm for every floor of
your home, and read the instructions on how to use it and where to position
it.
- Smoke alarms should be placed near bedrooms,
either on the ceiling or six to twelve inches below the ceiling on the
wall.
- Local codes may require additional alarms.
Check with your fire department or building code official.
- Locate smoke alarms away from air
vents.
- Test your alarms regularly to ensure that
they still work.
- If you have a battery-powered alarm, change
the battery every six months when you change your clocks.
- For maximum protection, install BOTH
ionization and photoelectric smoke alarms in the home for the optimum detection
of fast flaming fires and slow smoldering fires.,
Fire Extinguishers
 To guard
against small fires or to keep a small fire from developing into a big one,
every home should be equipped with fire extinguisher. Because almost all fires
are small at first, they might be contained if a fire extinguisher is handy and
used properly. You should take care, however, to select the right kind of fire
extinguisher, because there are different ones for different kinds of fires.
Install fire extinguishers on every level of the home and include the kitchen,
basement and garage.
Selecting a Fire
Extinguisher
Extinguishers are classified according to the
class of fire for which they are suitable. The four classes of fires are A, B,
C, D:
A
- Class A fires involve common combustibles
such as wood, paper, cloth, rubber, trash an plastics. They are common in
typical commercial and home settings.
B
- Class B fires involve flammable liquids,
solvents, oil, gasoline, paints, lacquers and other oil-based products. Class B
fires often spread rapidly. Unless they are properly suppressed, they can
re-flash after the flames have been extinguished.
C
- Class C fires involve energized equipment
such as wiring, controls, motors, machinery or appliances. They can be caused
by a spark, a power surge, or a short circuit and typically occur in locations
that may be difficult to see or reach.
D
- Class D fires involve combustible
metals.
A typical home of office fire extinguisher
should have an ABC rating.
Carbon Monoxide
One of the greatest threats to your safety is
the quality of air within your home. Carbon monoxide (CO) is a subtle yet
dangerous threat because the gas is colorless, odorless and
tasteless.
Each year, more than two hundred people in the
United States die from carbon monoxide poisoning. Thousands of other people
suffer the effects of the gas without realizing it. Because CO symptoms mimic
the flu and other common illnesses, CO poisoning can be easily missed during a
routine medical examination.
CO is produced when any fuel does not burn
completely because of insufficient oxygen. Mild exposure to CO gives most
people a slight headache, nausea, vomiting, fatigue ("flu-like" symptoms)
followed by a throbbing headache, drowsiness, confusion, and fast heart rate.
If the entire family becomes ill after a few hours in the home, and feels
better when they leave the home, carbon monoxide poisoning should be
suspected. |
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Possible sources of CO include:
- Furnace or boiler
- Gas or fuel-oil water heater
- Gas or wood fireplace
- Gas kitchen range
- Plugged, rusted, disconnected, or defective
chimneys or vents
- Backdrafting of combustion gases into the
home
- Automobiles in attached garages
Certain clues can indicate a carbon monoxide
problem. Check to see if you have any of the following:
- Rusting or streaking on chimney or
vent
- Loose or missing furnace panel
- Soot on venting or appliances
- Loose or disconnected venting
- Debris or soot falling from
chimney
- Moisture on interior side of
windows
CO can be produced and spill into your home
without any of the preceding clues present. Heating appliances that appear to
be operating correctly can still be sources of CO. Burning charcoal or wood
produces CO that can spill into the home. Gasoline engines, when first started,
produce large amounts of CO. Autos in attached garages are often sources of
CO.
How To Protect
Yourself
To avoid CO exposure in the home, it is
important to:
- Make sure heating appliances are installed
and used in accordance with manufacturer's instructions.
- Make sure chimneys and vents draw all gases
out of the home.
- Have the heating system, chimney and vents
inspected and services annually by qualified heating contractor.
- Never use charcoal grills
indoors.
- Never heat your home with a gas kitchen
range.
- Always use a kitchen range hood, vented to
the outdoors, when cooking on a gas range.
- Never warn-up or run vehicles or other
gasoline engines in garages or indoors.
Carbon Monoxide
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
recommends that every residence with fuel-burning appliances be equipped with
at least one UL-listed CO alarm. For added protection, place one on every level
of the home. Read and follow manufacturers' instructions. If your alarm
indicates high levels of carbon monoxide in your home:
- Immediately move outdoors to fresh air and
do a head count,
- Call your emergency services,
- Do not re-enter the home until emergency
service responders have arrived, aired out the house, and determined it is safe
to re-enter
- Correct the problem before starting the
heating appliances, and
- If a carbon monoxide alarm sound again,
repeat the above steps. Do not ignore alarms.
Fires are traumatizing and frightening, as is a
carbon monoxide incident. It is essential to fully recognize the hazards of
fire and carbon monoxide poisoning and to take preventative action. A regular
home inspection, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, fire extinguishers and an
emergency exit plan will help you and your family live more
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Home
Escape
Plan |
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Using
the grid provided, draw your own personal escape plan. First sketch your home's
floorplan... and then map out the fastest route from inside your home to a safe
meeting place that your entire family knows about. |
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This article is based on content from
SAFETY AND YOU by the Honorable Nancy Harvey Steorts, former Chairman of
the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. The illustration on the
front cover is the front cover of SAFETY AND YOU. For copies of
SAFETY AND YOU, please contact Syracuse University Press at
1-800-365-8929.
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