Life Safety Tips

1. Fire Prevention

Are you doing enough to prevent a home fire? Despite a recent study revealing that 97 percent of households have installed smoke alarms, home fires continue to be the third leading cause of unintentional home injury-related deaths.

To reduce fire-related injuries, the Home Safety Council suggests a two-pronged approach: First, install and test smoke detectors, and then create a fire escape plan for your household.

Recommended Guidelines:
Installing & Testing Smoke Detectors

· Install smoke detectors on every level of your home, including the basement, and in or near all sleeping areas.

· Test smoke detectors at least once a month, as well as upon return from an extended vacation or trip. Replace batteries at least once a year.

· Never disable smoke detectors, even temporarily.

Creating a Fire Escape Plan

· Gather the entire household and devise a plan.

· Practice your plan with the entire family at least twice a year so everyone can be prepared.

· Select a location a safe distance from your home as a spot for a post-escape meeting.

Once out, stay out. Under no circumstances should anyone re-enter a burning building.

2. Child Safety

According to The State of Home Safety in America™ (2004) conducted by the Home Safety Council, fires and burns, choking and suffocation, and drowning are the leading causes of unintentional home injury death among children. Take the following steps to promote child safety in the home:

Child Safety Tips:

· Provide constant supervision, especially around water.

· Install baby gates at the tops and bottoms of stairs.

· Install child safety locks on cabinets to safely store chemicals, cleaners, medicines, cosmetics, and other toxic and/or caustic products.

· Purchase cleaners, household chemicals, medications and other potentially hazardous products with child resistant packaging.

· Post the national Poison Control Hotline (1-800-222-1222) and other emergency numbers next to every phone.

· Install a smoke alarm on every level of your home and near sleeping areas.

· Install toilet seat locks.

· Turn over all buckets and store them up high where they cannot collect standing water or be reached by children.

· If your home has a pool, surround it on all sides with installed fencing and a self-latching gate.

· Never leave a child unattended near standing water, even for a moment.

· Install window locks or safety guards on above-ground windows. Be sure they have a quick-release mechanism in case of fire.

Store matches, lighters, candles and other fire tools out of children's sight and reach, preferably in a locked cabinet.

3. Safety Tips for Children

Parents always worry about the safety of their children, but you'll have greater peace of mind if you follow these suggestions.

· Make sure your children memorize their full names, address including city and state, and phone number with area code.

· Using a play phone, teach children when and how to dial 911 or 0 and also show them how to operate a pay phone.

· Explain to your children that they should never accept gifts or rides from people they don't know well.

· Teach your children to go to a store clerk, security officer or police officer if they ever get lost in a store or mall or on the street.

· Set a good example by locking doors and windows and checking to see who it is before opening a door.

· Listen to what your children say about their fears and help them understand them and trust their instincts.

4. Safety Tips for Seniors

According to the Home Safety Council's national report on home injuries, the State of Home Safety in America™ (2004), falls accounted for nearly one-third of all unintentional home injury deaths each year. Falls from stairs and steps were the second leading cause of death due to falls. Follow the Home Safety Council's steps to stairway safety to make your home safer from falls:

· Install bright lights and on/off switches at the top and bottom of each stairwell and over porches and entryways.

· Keep stairways and steps clear of all objects. Never use the stairs as temporary storage or for displaying decorative items.

· Use the handrail. (All stairways and steps, no matter how short, should have handrails on both sides.)

· Check stairs for worn or loose carpeting or protruding carpet tacks. If your steps have a smooth surface, consider installing anti-slip tread to provide safer traction.

· Avoid placing throw rugs at the top or bottom of a stairway as small rugs can slide or the edges can become curled. If it is necessary to put a rug at the bottom of a stairway, make sure it has a skid-resistant backing and use carpet tape to keep the corners from curling.

If you have steps outside your home, keep them free of ice and snow. To prevent a tripping hazard, periodically check steps and walkways for broken or lose bricks, cement or stone.

5. Pet Safety

If your family owns pets, be prepared to care for them if disaster strikes. Should the day come when a natural disaster or other threat forces you to evacuate your home, plan to evacuate your pets, too.

· Contact hotels and motels outside your immediate area to check policies on accepting pets and restrictions on number, size, and species. Ask if "no pet" policies could be waived in an emergency. Keep a list of "pet friendly" places, including phone numbers, with other disaster information and supplies. If you have notice of an impending disaster, call ahead for reservations.

· Ask friends, relatives, or others outside the affected area whether they could shelter your animals. If you have more than one pet, they may be more comfortable if kept together, but be prepared to house them separately.

· Prepare a list of boarding facilities and veterinarians who could shelter animals in an emergency; include 24-hour phone numbers.

· Ask local animal shelters if they provide emergency shelter or foster care for pets in a disaster. Animal shelters may be overburdened caring for the animals they already have as well as those displaced by a disaster, so this should be your last resort.

· Assemble medications and medical records (stored in a waterproof container) and a first aid kit in advance.

· Add sturdy leashes, harnesses, and/or carriers to transport pets safely and ensure that your animals can't escape.

· Keep current photos of your pets with you in case they get lost.

· Pack food, potable water, bowls, cat litter/pan, and can opener in the Pet Emergency Bag.

· Place information on feeding schedules, medical conditions, behavior problems, and the name and number of your veterinarian with the emergency bag in case you have to foster or board your pets.

Place pet beds and toys with the emergency bag, if easily transportable

6. Carbon Monoxide Safety

· Carbon monoxide (CO) is a deadly gas that is difficult to detect because it is odorless and invisible. As a result, it is known as “the silent killer.” According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), this poisonous gas kills nearly 300 people in their homes each year.

· CO is produced by fuel-burning appliances and equipment in our homes. If you have heating, cooking or power equipment that uses fuels such as oil, natural gas, coal, wood, propane, gasoline, etc., then your home is at risk for potential CO poisoning. Homes with attached garages are also at risk, because vehicles left running in the garage can cause CO to seep into the home.

· CO poisoning can be prevented by proper care and use of household equipment. CO alarms can provide early detection if CO leaks or accumulation occur. Both proper care and use of household equipment and CO alarms are important for your safety

7. Neighborhood Watch

We all value a sense of security as a vital feature of the neighborhood where we live. According to researchers at Harvard University, neighborhood cohesion, otherwise known as neighbors who know and look out for each other, is among the strongest features of safe neighborhoods.

How to Start your own Neighborhood Watch:

· Involve local law enforcement.

· Talk to other neighborhood watch groups working to prevent crime and drugs. Find out what has worked in their areas.

· Arrange a kickoff meeting.

· Advertise the meeting in advance. Post invitations throughout the neighborhood.

· Make it brief (less than two hours).

· Select leaders (chairperson/coordinator, block captains, committee chairs) with an eye toward interests, “people skills,” and commitment. Election works well for most groups.

· Train residents in neighborhood watch basics and in observation and reporting.

· Assess neighborhood needs.

· Members should learn how to make their homes more secure, watch out for each other and the neighborhood, and report activities that raise their suspicions to the police or sheriff’s office.

· Any geographic unit can be the base – a street, a block, an apartment building or complex, a business district, an office building, a park, a marina, a school campus, etc.

· Ask for volunteers and assign tasks.

· Agree on a meeting schedule.

· Include youth, adults, and seniors

8. Emergency Planning

Before an emergency occurs, consider what steps will be important to safeguard your family and loved ones. Meet with your family to discuss the plan and practice it. Keep the plan simple so all family members can remember the important points.

1. Anticipate Difficulties and Inconveniences
Create plans to anticipate situations in order to be able to make informed decisions during a crisis. Physical and emotional stresses may cloud decision-making skills.

2. Determine Your Evacuation Plan
Know the evacuation routes leading away from your community. Plan an alternative place where family members agree to meet in the event you cannot meet at home, and determine alternative modes of travel if transportation is disrupted. Remember; follow the advice of authorities about evacuation - they do not ask people to leave unless they believe lives are in danger.

3. Memorize Emergency Contacts
Be sure each family member knows whom to contact - perhaps a friend or relative out-of-state - in the event local communications are impaired. Discuss any of your family's medical needs with someone out-of-town and in the immediate neighborhood. Make a list of insurance, banking, medical and other essential telephone numbers and account information and give it to a trusted family member. Consider including a spare charge card or ATM card with the list, so that you can access money in an emergency or they can access it for you.

4. Plan how to Communicate in an Emergency
Keep everyone's work, home, school, and cellular numbers updated and share them with everyone in the family. Remember that often in an emergency, cellular phones may not work because the systems are over-loaded. Because communications are difficult in an emergency, it makes sense to plan a family/friend “tree,” so you only need to make one or two calls, then others make designated calls on your behalf.

5. Maintain a Disaster Supplies Kit
Both natural and human-made disasters can create a need to be self-sufficient for a short period until help arrives.

9. Home Burglary Protection

Alarm signs can help deter intruders from even thinking about breaking into your home. Keeping all entrances armed when no one is in the house or at night is an important factor in keeping burglars away.

If you are leaving for vacation, don't advertise your house as a welcome target for thieves; instead, take steps to enhance safety and security:

· Use lighting liberally on the interior and exterior of your home. Purchase several light timers and program lights for different rooms at varying times.

· Do yard work before leaving.

· Never hide house keys in a mailbox, planter or under a mat.

· Avoid leaving messages on your phone answering machine that alert callers to your absence.

· Consider asking a neighbor park their car in your driveway.

· Arrange to have newspaper and mail delivery suspended or collected.

ARM YOUR SECURITY SYSTEM!

Life Safety Tips

Home Wiring Solutions