Adding Thanksgiving Fire Security to Your Home

Very few times of the year bring with it the anticipation of the Thanksgiving season. Of course, we all look forward to the big meal, time with family, and often, sports on television as the meal wraps up with desserts and festive drinks. A holiday spent with family members and loved ones is truly something to treasure. However, just as with many other special days and times of the year, Thanksgiving brings with it some specific security threats. In this case, the threat of a fire looms larger around this holiday than around any other time of the year. Today, we share some tips to help you with adding Thanksgiving fire security to your own home this year and in years to come.

First, we’ll discuss the issues that lead to fires around this time of year. From there, we’ll review some solutions to these issues using a variety of security approaches and equipment. Specifically, we’ll begin this discussion with a look at the importance of performing a security walkthrough to find potential problems before they turn into emergencies. From there, we’ll shift our focus to installing monitored life safety equipment that alerts the authorities to fire and carbon monoxide-related emergencies in your home. Finally, we’ll also detail the importance of installing fire extinguishers in your home that can stop different types of fires in their tracks. Now, let’s dive in with a look at what makes Thanksgiving fire security difficult in the first place!

What Makes Thanksgiving Fire Security Difficult?

On their website, the NFPA calls Thanksgiving “the peak day for home cooking fires.” This should come as no surprise, given that fact that Thanksgiving is also the peak day for home cooking. The sheer amount of oven use adds a tremendous security risk during this time of the year. Add in the chaos created by extra family and friends in the home, including the potential for more tots and even pets in the house than usual, and this risk grows significantly. All of these factors combine to form a “perfect storm” of kitchen-related danger. We’ll share a couple ways to combat these types of threats throughout this post.

Of course, large gatherings of people eating meals together also create potential fire hazards unrelated to cooking. Perhaps you like to use fall-scented candles as part of a festive centerpiece on your table. If left unattended, this can create an issue. Or maybe you have a number of guests whose coats, hats, and gloves end up on a radiator or near a heater in a bedroom while everyone sits around a table in the dining room. Watching out for these types of circumstances can significantly improve your Thanksgiving security when it comes to fire hazards. Now that you know what hazards you are up against, let’s look at how you can prepare for a potential emergency to limit the damage should anything occur.

Complete a Pre-Holiday Walkthrough to Address Fire-Related Issues

When we discuss staying proactive about the threat of a fire, we have a couple different things in mind. For starters, you always want to lower the chances of a fire starting in the first place. From there, the goal lies in making sure you will know about a fire as quickly as possible. Of course, cooking causes many Thanksgiving fires. Therefore, we recommend testing your oven and stove for proper functionality. Additionally, cleaning your cooking equipment can also help prevent fires.

Moreover, Thanksgiving season coincides with increased use of your heating equipment. In turn, this greatly increases the chances of a fire at your home. Therefore, we recommend giving your home an annual cold weather “check-up” to address potential heating-related fire dangers. For starters, make sure your heaters are clean and free of hanging drapes and any other flammable items. Clear your HVAC equipment of debris, and make sure your thermostats work properly as a way of ensuring proper equipment performance. Taking these simple steps can go a long way if you end up finding and addressing a serious fire threat.

Finally, test your smoke and heat alarms for proper functionality and change the batteries installed in these devices. Taking this step can help a small fire from getting out of control. After all, the sooner you know about a fire, the sooner you can either quell it or call for help. Additionally, these devices save lives by waking residents up during nighttime fires. This makes it all the more important to test these devices as the weather gets colder. Let’s move on with some tips to help you install and maintain monitored fire-related security equipment.

Install and Maintain Monitored Life Safety Equipment

We’ve long touted monitored fire-related security devices as one of the most valuable types of fire security products on the market. We can connect all types of fire-related products to your existing home security system. These detectors include smoke, heat, and carbon monoxide detectors. Of course, different devices work best in different circumstances. For example, we install smoke detectors in and around bedrooms and near stairways. However, we do NOT install them in areas where smoke or steam commonly appear. Instead, we put heat detectors near bathrooms and garages to cut down on false alarms. Finally, we install carbon monoxide detection near sleeping areas, as well as in basements near devices that may naturally produce carbon monoxide.

Consider walking through your home with a security company — such as ourselves — who install this equipment professionally. Doing so can ensure you install the proper equipment in the right areas of your home. Furthermore, working with a security company to regularly test and maintain this equipment ensures that it works when you need it most. The monitored response from these devices can save your home if a fire starts in your absence. More importantly, installing these devices can save the life of you or a loved one in the event of a fire or carbon monoxide-related emergency that occurs with someone in the house. Let’s wrap up our discussion on adding Thanksgiving fire security with a look at adding extinguishers to help you put out fires before they get out of control.

Create the Ability to Stop a Fire in its Tracks

Fire extinguishers provide our customers with a quick, effective way to control the spread of fires. Unfortunately, we run into a couple issues when it comes to extinguishers in homes. For starters, many homeowners fail to purchase any fire extinguishers at all. We consider these devices a basic and essential piece of any security plan. However, many people see them as a “commercial” security measure and fail to provide their family with any fire extinguishers at their home. Obviously, purchasing extinguishers and placing them strategically can help address this issue.

Additionally, we often find that customers buy the wrong types of extinguishers for the job. For example, did you know you should fight any grease or cooking oil-related fire with a very specific type of extinguisher? These extinguishers, called class “K” extinguishers, can douse kitchen fires that no other extinguisher could properly fight. Moreover, using the wrong type of extinguisher can actually make fires spread more quickly! Feel free to check out our post on Fire Extinguisher Classes and Best Practices for more information on this subject. As always, feel free to call us so that we can help you purchase the right extinguishers for your home.

Putting it All Together and Adding Thanksgiving Fire Security to Your Home