Fire Prevention Week is October 9-16, 2016 \u2013 being prepared means doing everything you can to prevent a fire in the first place, and then ensuring that your family will be safe if a fire does happen in your home. This year\u2019s theme is Don\u2019t Wait, Check the Date (of your smoke alarms) but there\u2019s more that you can do to help ensure your family will be safe if a fire breaks out.<\/p>\n
Smoke alarms save lives. <\/strong>You\u2019ve heard it before – that\u2019s because it\u2019s true. From 2009-2013 in fires where there was a fatality and where the smoke alarm did not operate, 45 per cent were not connected to power (30 per cent had no battery; 14 per cent had a dead battery). Had alarms been in place, those people may have had a much greater chance of survival.<\/p>\n Did you know that, thanks to the prevalence of synthetic materials in our world today, you may have less than four minutes to get out of your home once a fire starts? To help ensure that your family can hear beeping alarms, they are required on every level of your home and outside every bedroom.<\/p>\n If you have small children or deep sleepers in your family, take them into account in your escape plan. This writer had a scary experience with her young daughter many years ago \u2013 with a living room full of smoke due to a closed flue (thankfully not an actual fire) and an alarm screaming outside her bedroom door, she slept on and on. It\u2019s not unusual for young children to sleep through loud noises. Alarms that have a voice alert feature may help to wake them, but plan for how you\u2019ll get them out safely if they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n Practice makes perfect. In the stress and confusion of a fire, knowing exactly what to do can help you and your family escape as quickly as possible. Do you have a fire escape plan? When was the last time you practiced it?<\/p>\n Smoke alarms and fire escape plans go hand in hand. Once a fire starts, you have less than two minutes to get out. Having working smoke alarms gives you early detection and then a well-executed and practiced escape plan will ensure everyone gets out safely. “Fires now burn so much quicker than they did due to synthetic materials,” adds Mike. “Fifty years ago it might have taken 20 minutes for a room to flashover, now it takes less than four-and-a-half minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch this video to see how quickly flashover – the point when everything in a room reaches its ignition temperature and combusts – can happen:<\/p>\nHow will you get out?<\/strong><\/h6>\n
\nMike Vadlja, Huntsville Lake of Bays Fire Department\u2019s Fire Prevention Officer<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n