This year’s Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 4-10, focuses on
keeping families safe with working smoke alarms. With the theme of “Hear the
Beep Where You Sleep,” NFPA wants to spread the message to install smoke alarms
in every bedroom, outside each separate sleeping area and one very level of
your home, including the basement.
In addition, Federal Emergency Management Agency posted its list of Dos and Don’ts
for house fire safety.
- Do keep a smoke alarm on every level of the house, with smoke alarms outside of every bedroom and each separate sleeping area, as half of home fire deaths occur between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
- Don’t forget to test smoke alarms every month.
- Do address your needs. Ensure that necessary items (e.g., eyeglasses, hearing aid, cane, wheelchair) are near your bed to quickly grab in the event of a fire. If there is a fire, you may have less than 3 minutes to get out of the house.
- Don’t assume you will always hear the fire alarm if it goes off. If you test the alarm and can’t hear it, consider getting a strobe light that will flash or a bed shaker that will shake when the alarm sounds.
- Do make a fire escape plan that offers at least two ways out of every room. Identify a meeting place outside of your home so that you can be sure everyone is safe.
- Don’t stop to call 911 until you are away from danger. Stay outside until the fire department says it is okay to go back inside.
For additional resources to help spread this week’s theme,
visit NFPA’s Smoke Alarm Central, its Fire Prevention Week website or take a quiz to see how much you know about fire prevention.