Fire Safety for Kids

8/7/2017 (Permalink)

You can never be to careful when it comes to fire safety.

When it comes to potential emergencies, the first thought many people have is “It will never happen to me”. But the reality is that we never really know if an incident will happen to us, or how severe it will be. Whether it’s a medical emergency, a water damage, or even a fire, you should always be prepared for anything, and practice active prevention. You don’t want to wait until after something happens, wishing that you could have done things differently. Every year, fires are caused by children playing with matches or lighters. Some of these fires happen in grassy fields, while others happen inside homes. All of these fires are preventable. We will share some information on escape plans, and some fire safety tips.

When creating an escape plan in your home, you should go over it with your children so they know how to get out the house. Kids typically don’t think about how they would escape from their home in a fire, so this is an important discussion to have with them.

• Have a plan in place for children that cannot get out on their own, such as infants and toddlers. Talk about which family member is going to wake up the children and help them get out.
• Always identify two different ways out of every room. You should know multiple ways to exit in every room in case one exit is blocked, or it is too dangerous to use.
• Choose a destination outside the house to meet, a safe distance away. This could be across the street, or at a neighbors’ home.

In addition to fire prevention with children, there is the concern of burn prevention. In many instances of fires started by children, serious burn injuries can occur. Here are some tips to help keep your kids safe from fire and burns.

• Children should be at least 3 feet away from anything hot. Stoves, space heaters, and curling irons are all good examples where additional caution is necessary.
• Keep any kind of smoking materials away and placed up high, such as lighters and matches.
• Never play with matches or lighters when your children are around. If they see adults doing this, they will think that it is okay, and possibly even fun.

 Accidents can happen at any time. But with some mindful planning, many of these can be completely avoided. If something should still happen, just know that SERVPRO of Casper is here to help anytime. Call us, day or night, at 307-235-6558.