Teaching your Children about Fire Safety

Visiting our local fire department for Fire Safety Week

Last week was Fire Prevention Week, where most schools address fire safety with children. My son's school was no exception. They had several fire drills and one day they had a fire truck and some firefighters come to the school to talk to the kids about fire prevention and fire safety. If your child's school did not partake in such fire safety education, or if your children are home schooled or not yet school-age, please take some time to review the information in this blog with them at home.

On Saturday, our local fire department also held a special event for families to tour the facility, ride in a fire truck, and watch some demonstrations. The ride in the fire truck was really cool because they even used the sirens! As you can imagine, for a young boy, that is just the coolest thing ever lol. My son was thrilled! They also had the kids use an actual fire hose, with some cones set up...the cones were supposed to represent fire, and the kids were to try and knock them over with the water pressure from the hose. They also had a fireman setting a small contained fire and the kids were helped to put it out using a fire extinguisher. Overall, it was really a neat experience!

 

 

So, since all this fire safety and prevention information is fresh in my mind, I will share some tips with you, that you can share with your families! Half of home fire deaths result from fires reported between 11pm and 7am, when most people are asleep. Keeping that in mind, you can see the importance of having working fire alarms in your home. Make sure you have enough of them and that they are all in working order with fresh batteries. This is one of the easiest, yet most important element in keeping your family safe! Officials suggest changing batteries in all your fire alarms twice a year, when we change the clocks for daylight savings. It's an easy way to remember this lifesaving task!

I'm sure we all remember the "stop, drop and roll" from our childhood, and that is still taught today. Also, because smoke rises, you should crawl along the floor if the room fills with smoke, while you make your way to an exit. They stress that we should talk with our children about knowing two ways out of every room. So for some rooms that might mean a door, and a window. If you have a two story home, you may want to invest in a rope ladder. You secure it and use it to escape out of a window. Below you will see the one we keep in our second floor hall closet. You may also want to keep a fire extinguisher in your home. The most common place to have one is in the kitchen. Remember, water will not put out a grease fire. Also, make sure to tell your children to never play with matches or lighters.

ladder rope; great to keep on your second floor

ladder rope, to help you escape from a fire if you're on the second floor

Also, discuss with your children a place to meet once they are out of the house. For us for example, we chose an apple tree that is between our house and our neighbors house. That way, once everyone is out of the house, you all meet at that one location so you know who is accounted for. Make sure to tell your children that once they are outside of the house, to never return back to the house.

We have all heard it on the news... a family caught in a house fire and they didn't all make it out alive. It is tragic and horribly sad. Please, take these steps in fire prevention and fire safety to prevent this from happening to your loved ones. Please visit http://www.nfpa.org if you would like more information or safety tips.

Stay safe my lovelies!

Alexander and I at the Fire Department for Fire Safety Week