Be Proactive with Fire Safety in Your Home

By Teresa Smith

Deputy Director, Columbus County Emergency Management

As we move into fall and winter the Columbus County Fire Marshal’s Office reminds everyone to take this time to check the overall safety around their homes. This includes testing and replacing batteries in smoke alarms and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors. Making sure they are properly installed and in good working order saves lives during a fire emergency, when every second counts.

Often taken for granted, smoke alarms and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors are safety devices that play a vital role in significantly increasing the chances of survival by alerting us, allowing for a timely evacuation during a house fire or CO exposure. In a fire, smoke spreads farther and faster than fire, resulting in more people dying from smoke inhalation than from burns.

More than half of all fire-related fatalities occur in homes without a working smoke alarm. The main cause of smoke alarm failure during a fire is due to a missing, depleted, disconnected, or improperly installed battery. In today’s fires, families have an average of two minutes to get out of their homes once the smoke alarm sounds.

Let’s team up and be proactive with fire safety in your home with these safety tips:

Smoke alarms alert you in the event of fire with as little as 2 minutes to escape safely:Be sure to place smoke alarms in every bedroom/sleeping area, in a hallway outside of sleeping areas, and on each level of the home. Keep smoke alarms away from the kitchen and bathrooms to reduce nuisance or false alarms. Be sure to follow the instructions provided by the manufacturer
Make sure your smoke alarms and (CO) detectors are in working order: Test all smoke alarms and CO detectors at least once a month. Listen for beeps or chirps. Check and replace their batteries twice a year when you change your clocks (fall backward, spring forward)
Do your smoke alarms and (CO) detectors need to be replaced?For the best protection, be sure to replace any smoke alarms in your home that are older than 10 years and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors older than 5 years.
Change all the batteries in the home:Change all the batteries in all electronics around the home such as clocks, thermostats, irrigation, outdoor lighting, phone accessories and flashlights
Check inside the home and exterior storage areas for hazardous materials:Store flammable products properly and away from children. Designate a cool, dark indoor or outside storage area and properly discard any products or materials that are outdated, no longer in use, or in poor condition
Practicing your fire escape plan is vital when every second counts:Review your family fire escape plan with everyone in your household. It’s important to know at least two ways out of every room, making sure all the doors and windows are clear and open easily. Practice your escape plan twice a year to make sure that everyone will know what to do in case of an emergency
Get or replace your fire extinguisher:Always keep an ABC-rated home fire extinguisher nearby in case of an emergency, and make sure every member of your household knows how to use it properly
Review your family’s emergency preparedness kit:Check to see what needs to be replaced or included in your home disaster supply kit