Thank you First Alert for sponsoring this post. October is National Fire Prevention Month and is the perfect time to gather your family and discuss fire safety.
Did you know that October is National Fire Prevention Month? Living in Southern California, we have witnessed first hand so many devastating wild fires. From potential evacuations, to family seeking shelter in our home, to viewing the damage wildfires leave behind, it all hits so close to home for us. Also, our backyard is an open land preserve which increases the fire danger potential even more. Fire prevention is something we take very seriously and I want my family and home to be the utmost prepared! Today I want to share with you our fire safety checklist and the reliable protection we use from First Alert to help ensure your home and family are prepared in the case of an emergency.
Getting your home prepared to prevent fires should be a whole family affair! Get your kids involved and talk to them about fire extinguisher locations (in our case they could tell a sitter if needed), pick a meeting place outside the home, plan and practice your emergency escape plan. Make sure everyone is on the same page and knows what to do in the event of an emergency.
Alarms are one of the most important things you can have in your home for fire safety. Three out of five home fire deaths occur in homes that do not have smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms (Source: National Fire Protection Association). We have both First Alert smoke and carbon monoxide alarms on both levels of our home and in every bedroom. Since our master bedroom is on a different level then the girls’ rooms, I rely on these to provide an early warning in an emergency. It’s also important that you test your alarms regularly and change the batteries at least every six months. Or if you tend to forget those things like me, you can upgrade to 10 year sealed battery alarms to eliminate battery replacements. Whichever alarms you decide on, remember that they don’t last forever and should be replaced every 10 years.
In addition to the alarms, we keep a few fire extinguishers around the house too. The number one cause of fires in the home is caused by unattended cooking. I’d like to think that would never happen, but as a busy mom of two I can never be too sure so I keep one fire extinguisher in the kitchen. I also have one by our dryer in the garage and one in the backyard under our grill area.
Lastly, we have a checklist provided by First Alert to make sure we aren’t forgetting anything. I will include the checklist for your family to use at the end of this post. There is also a fire safety expert badge for your kids to earn once the checklist is complete!
Fire is a deadly threat to any home that can strike anywhere and at any time. It’s best to be super prepared for the safety of your family! I encourage you to create a fire safety checklist (or use the one below) and add First Alert‘s reliable protection to your home like we did!
Checklist & Badge
Greetings! Very useful advice within this post! It’s the little changes that produce the largest changes. Thanks for sharing!