If you’ve followed our blog posts through the years, you know that we recommend praticing situational security. We realize that no two applications have exactly the same security needs. Moreover, we also know that different situations and different seasons create unique security concerns. Today, we address one of the biggest seasonal security concerns on the calendar. The National Fire Protection Association (or “NFPA”) points out that Thanksgiving ranks as “the peak day for home cooking fires.” Therefore, addressing Thanksgiving fire security should represent a top security priority for you during this time of year. In this post, we share a multi-pronged approach for your to create and mainatin this security.
First, we’ll share ways for your to remain ahead of the curve when it comes to the threat of fire. Of course, staying proactive in this area involves proper preparation and planning. Additionally, walking through your home to assess and address any fire-related issues also goes a long way. From there, we’ll look at some valuable security equipment that can combat the threat of a holiday-related fire. Choosing and installing the proper equipment can ensure you receive the level of security that you need this season. Finally, we’ll focus on the importance of making sure you can stop small fires in their tracks. Purchasing the proper extinguishers for different fires can help you stop a nuisance from turning into a disaster. Now, let’s get started with a look at proper fire preparation.
Practice Proper Preparation and Planning
We’ve always recommended that families create and practice a plan for escaping a fire. After all, none of us do our clearest thinking during situations that make us panic. Therefore, practicing a plan until it turns into a routine greatly increases your chances of surviving a fire. Of course, this rings especially true for families with small children. Even moreso than with adults, children require a fully developed and well-practiced fire escape plan. In addition to creating a meeting place, practice escaping to the nearest exits from each area of your home. Finally, practice other important aspects of fire security such as rolling off beds rather than sitting or standing up abruptly, and staying low while escaping. Doing so reduces the chances that family members breath in toxic fumes that fill rooms from the top down.
Additionally, consider purchasing equipment that makes it more likely that you will escape a fire. Unfortunately, homeowners often get caught in their bedrooms during fires. It’s often too late to try putting a fire out at this point, making escape the best option. Rather than trying to run through a burning home, we recommend having escape devices on hand for this scenario. Rope emergency fire ladders, such as this model by QWORK, quickly connect to window frames to allow escape from upper-story bedrooms. Collapsible escape ladders such as this Kidde model offer this security in an easy-to-store form, deploying quickly after opening. Having an escape device in each upper-story bedroom can provide the safest means of exit possible to all of a home’s residents during a fire. Next, let’s review some pre-holiday steps you can take to create superior Thanksgiving fire security.
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 the Right Security 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 stairwars. 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 absense. 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 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 spcific 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 to Achieve Thanksgiving Fire Security
We hope that this post helps you create added Thanksgiving fire security this year. Furthermore, we encourage you to contact us with any questions you may have. Addressing fire security during this time of year is very important, and we help dozens of customers every year in this area. Furthermore, we also offer free site surveys to both new and existing customers alike. During our visit, we can address any security concerns you may have. Additionally, we can make suggestions based on our own observtaions while onsite. Together, we can create a complete security plan to keep you, your most treasured possessions, and your loved ones as safe and secure as possible!