FIRE PREVENTION TIPS

The Home Safety Council reports that:

1. Fire and burns are the 3rd leading cause of unintentional home injury and related deaths.

2. Everyone in your household needs to be prepared.

TIPS

1. Always stay in the kitchen while you are cooking.

2. Keep things that can burn (dishtowels, paper or plastic bags, curtains, etc) away from the fire of your range or stove.

3. Roll up your slleves, use oven mitts and DO NOT wear loose-fitting clothes while you cook.

4. Stay with your barbeque grill while you are cooking. Keep it at least 10 feet away from your home, shrubs and bushes.

5. Keep your kids and pets away from the grill also.

6. Keep matches and lighters in locked up containers so that children cannot get to them.

7. Space heaters need space. Keep them at least 3 feet from anything that can burn--paper, curtains, etc. Turn them OFF when you leave the room.

8. Your chimneys, fireplaces, wood and coal stoves, central furnaces need to be cleaned every summer or fall.

9. No burnable items around fireplaces.

10. Keep glass or metal doors on fronts of fireplaces.

11. Only use fire-safe cigarettes and smoke them OUTDOORS.

12. Use deep, large ashtrays that are on stable tables for your cigarette ashes.

13. Douse any cigarettes and butts with water BEFORE dumping them.

14. NEVER use gasoline in your house or garage.

15. Only light candles and inscense in rooms where adults are.

16. Use gasoline as motor fuel ONLY.

17. Close lids on ALL dangerous products and put them somewhere safe after you have used them.

18. Keep all gasoline stored in outdoor sheds away from houses and garages.

19. Make fire escape plan. Have 2 exits from each room. Pick a meeting place outside. Practice at least twice a year.

20. Install smoke alarms on every floor in your house.

21. Test them monthly.

22. Replace batteries every year when it is time to change the time.

23. Teach family members how to Stop, Drop, Roll and Cool.

24. Consider adding a home sprinkler system whenever you remodel or build your home.

25. Learn how and when to use a fire extinguisher.

Adequate safety saves lives and property.

VLE-B