Fire Safety Tips

The following tips are split into the following sections

What is the general rule of thumb for smoking?

What fire safety tips do you have on candles?

What should you look out for where plugs and wires are concerned?

How do I stop my chip pan from catching fire?

What should I do if my chip pan catches fire?

How do I extinguish a chip pan fire myself?

What is the general rule of thumb for open, gas and electric fires?

How do I plan an escape route

What is the general rule of thumb for smoking?

Smoking is common place in many homes around the world. If you are going to smoke make sure you do so safely. The following fire safety tips will help you achieve this goal.

Whatever you do, if you have to leave a room for whatever reason don’t leave your cigarette, pipe or cigar unattended. They can fall on the floor or and the table and can cause a lot of damage.

This is a rule that many people forget to adhere to, never smoke whilst in bed or lounging about on the sofa. You could easily fall asleep, which I don’t need to explain is very dangerous indeed.

Use a decent ashtray, if you don’t your cigarette or cigar could fall onto the floor.

Don’t leave matches or lighters lying about when children are in the house, they have a morbid fascination of things like that. This means they won’t have any hesitation of testing them out.

What fire safety tips do you have on candles?

Candles have become more and more popular in recent times, they are supposed to calm us and help us relax. However, they can be a fire hazard too, especially if they are of poor quality. Candles which a poorly made tend to be unpredictable.

When you choose a candle stick holder make sure it is sturdy and unlikely to fall over. Make sure the surface you put it on is flat and of a non-flammable nature.

If you are going to use candles at a party make sure you don’t place them under overhead decoration or helium balloons. Additionally keep them away from curtains or anywhere they can be knocked over by children, pets or even adults.

This household fire safety tip is a very important consideration to take into account, and is a general rule which is usually flouted. This tip is in regards to leaving a candle in a room which you plan to leave for long periods. If you leave a candle unattended for long periods of time you are asking for trouble. If you are going to leave the room, blow the candles out first and light them on your return.

Don’t light a candle if you’re feeling sleepy or had a little bit too much to drink as you may fall a sleep, which will be just the same as leaving the candle in an unoccupied room.

When you are going to bed make sure you blow all the candles out first, we don’t want any mishaps during the night, do we?

What should you look out for where plugs and wires are concerned?

Plugs sockets and wires are a cause for concern and are seen as a serious potential fire hazard. The following fire safety tips will put you on the right road.

One of the first things to remember is not to put too many plugs into one socket or have too many adapters coming out of one socket. This is down to the fact that the sheer amount of electricity running through that point, may cause the whole thing to overheat, resulting in a fire.

Keep your eye out for damaged wires due to wear and tear. Electricity is a major threat and any damage should be closely examined.

You also need to be careful of old or overused electrical appliances as any malfunctions may result in a fire.

When you go to bed or leave the house remove the plugs from their respective sockets, you never can be too careful.

The key things you need to look out for, when determining whether or not something is a fire hazard is plugs which are too hot, appliances that keeping blowing fuses, brown marks around plugs caused by sparks, appliances that trip the fuse box switches and lights that shimmer and flicker.

If you apply the above tips then you should keep pretty safe, away from danger.

How should I deal with a chip pan fire?

One of the main dangers in the kitchen is the threat posed by a chip pan fire. Use the following fire safety tips to help limit the chances of you succumbing to this danger, and if you do how best to deal with the situation at hand.

One of the main considerations to take on board is overfilling the pan with oil. Make sure you don’t fill it more than one third as it could overflow which will cause your hob to flare.

Don’t let the oil get too hot, make sure you don’t put the hob setting too high, make sure it’s just high enough to sufficiently heat the oil. One of the key signs of the oil being too hot is that it’ll start to smoke. If this happens just remove the pan from the hob and let it cool down.

To limit the chance of the pan from bubbling over when you put the chips in, wrap the potatoes in kitchen towel, this help absorb some of the water from them , which is the main cause of the bubbling.

Don’t leave the pan unattended on the hob, if you do have to leave the kitchen for whatever reason, remove the pan from the hob first.

Make sure there are no kids or pets running about the kitchen when you are cooking the chips, as they may knock the pan of the stove, causing serious damage.

What should I do if my chip pan catches fire?

The first thing to do is not to panic, panicking will only lead to you making mistakes. They are two rules which you can follow here.

Phone the fire brigadeOrExtinguish the fire yourself.

However, the general advice given by the fire brigade is to contact them in order to deal with it, as they have all the safety equipment to cope with any eventuality.

Once you have calmed yourself down, turn the hob off and contact the fire brigade or attempt to extinguish it yourself. NB whatever you do, don’t try and move the pan as this could lead to disastrous consequences.

How do I extinguish a chip pan fire myself?

For this fire safety tip, firstly, stay calm and turn off the hob. Secondly, get a towel soak it in water and give it a quick squeeze in the sink to get rid of some of the water. Next, you need throw it over the chip pan; this should now extinguish the flames. Don’t try and move it straight away, let it cool first, don’t leave the room, stay in there for about half an hour, then move the pan.

NB. IN ORDER TO PUT THE CHIP PAN FIRE OUT, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU THROW WATER ON IT. THIS WILL SERIOUSLY AGGREVATE THE SITUATION LEADING TO SEVERE REPERCUSSIONS

What is the general rule of thumb for open, gas and electric fires?

If you have an open coal fire or even gas fire, make sure you apply this fire safety tip; use a fire guard when young children are about; and make sure you stress the importance of not playing in front of the fire to them.

Don’t sit or stand too close to the fire as your clothes may set alight. Some clothes such as shell suits are more prone to this happening so take care.

Don’t put objects on electric fires; this may cause the object or the appliance to over heat, and potentially set ablaze. The other rule of thumb regarding electric fires is not to put them too close to furniture or curtains, as this too may result in disaster.

If your electric fire has scorch marks on it, get it checked out. This may be a sure fire sign that it is in danger of catching or causing a fire.

How do I plan an escape route

An escape route needs to be planned incase a fire breaks out in your home. A pre-planned escape route is an excellent fire safety tip as it’ll make you less likely to panic.

It could also be the difference between life and death. This premise comes from the theory that, when something is fresh in our minds and is laid out concisely we are able to perform that task faster.

When planning an escape rout get all the family members involved in the process. This way they’ll be in a better position to react in the emergency. In addition it’s very important that everybody know what to do if the un-thinkable happens. An idea is to put the escape rout on the fridge or notice board, so everybody can see it.

Once the plan is set out, why not run through it a couple of times. This will highlight any potential flaws in the plan. Doing this could be the difference between life an death.

A good fire safety tip is to have a central room in the house with good escape routes such as a large window. If a fire breaks out than all family members can converge here and plot an escape. It’s perhaps best that the room you choose is at the front of the house so you can be rescued by the fire brigade if needs be.

It is imperative that any door and window keys are easy to find. I would recommend that if you use one window key for all windows, then you should have a set for down stairs and a set for upstairs. There will be nothing worse than not being able to open a window, because the spare set is down stairs, where the fire is. So follow this fire safety tip to be on the safe side.

When you are escaping the fire make sure you get the more vulnerable members of the family out first, these will include the elderly, children, pregnant women, and household members with physical difficulties.

If you have to exit via an up stairs window, why not throw a mattress out first, so you can have a softer landing?

Once you have an escape route planned out, make sure that none of your exits are blocked. These include windows as well as doors.

When escaping a fire the closer you are to the ground the less smoke you’ll inhale. This is because the smoke rises. Additionally if you have a towel and water supply nearby, soak the towel in the water and use it to cover your mouth; this will limit the amount of toxic fumes you’ll inhale.

What type of equipment can I use?

There are a number of different fire safety equipment you can buy. Arguably the most important of these is the smoke detector or smoke alarm. If you don’t get any of the other equipment, make sure you get one of these, they are vital to your survival. If you don’t have one, buy one, they are a potential life saver. When you do get one make sure you change the batteries regularly and that it is in full working order: so test it at least once a week.

These can usually be expensive but why not invest in a fire extinguisher? They are suitable for small fires, rather than larger ones. If the fire is big, just get yourself and your family out of there, don’t bother fighting the fire as vital time maybe lost.

Fire blankets are very useful in the event of a fire. They are very effective in putting out chip pan fires, and can be used to wrap around somebody if their clothing is on fire.

If you have the money to spare a good fire safety tip is to get your home fitted with a sprinkler system. Buying one of these could save you vital minutes when the fire breaks out.

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