Did your kids come home from school last week talking about Stop, Drop and Roll or Stay low and go? The schools do a great job of teaching our kids what to do during fire safety week, but have you as a family talked about home fire safety?
Last week, I visited a few agent offices to spread the word on a few things we can all do around the house to prevent some fires in the home. Some agents and I had some good conversations and ideas but I was surprised by one response. One person I spoke with said that they had smoke detectors in the home and felt like that was all that was needed. I agree that smoke detectors are important and life saving, but my goal was to spread awareness on how to prevent fires from occurring. The majority of house fires start in the kitchen as a result of being distracted. How many times have you started dinner on the stove and left the kitchen to do one quick thing in another room with the intent of being gone a minute or two? Those couple of minutes can turn into 15-20 minutes in no time, and you return to see a pot boiling over or all the liquid has boiled out and what was your supper is now burnt in the bottom of the pot. You are lucky if you come back to find only your dinner charred because it could have easily been your kitchen cabinets too.
We can’t prevent every fire that occurs in the home, but we all need to be aware of the little things that we can control to prevent or at least minimize those that we can.