How to Teach Your Family About Fire Prevention

Fires can happen quickly and destroy homes and lives in minutes. That’s why it’s so important for families to learn about fire prevention and make a fire escape plan. Teaching children about fire safety from a young age can help them react calmly in case of an emergency. Follow these tips to help your family understand how to prevent fires and stay safe if one occurs.

Install Smoke Alarms

The most basic step is ensuring your home has working smoke alarms. The UK government recommends having at least one alarm on every level of the home and inside each bedroom.

For the best protection, have the alarms professionally installed by a company like Lucid. This way, they will be hard-wired into the electrical system with battery backups in case of power outages. The installer can also ensure the smoke alarms meet current safety standards. Test the alarms monthly and replace them every 10 years or according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Make an Escape Plan

Sit down as a family and discuss how each person would safely exit your home from various areas, like the upstairs bedrooms. Choose an outdoor meeting place a safe distance from the home that everyone can easily locate, like your letterbox or a neighbour’s front door. Practice the escape plan twice a year, using different exit routes. This allows children to learn the plan well enough to recall it automatically in case of an actual emergency.

Teach Children What to Do

Instruct children never to hide under beds or in wardrobes if a fire occurs. Explain that fires make lots of harmful smoke, so they need to escape quickly rather than try to gather belongings. Show them how to check doors for heat before opening them by touching near the top. Heat means fire on the other side − they’ll need to use their alternate exit route. Children should be told to ‘get low and go’ if they have to go through smoke, crawling on hands and knees below the worst of the smoke.

Demonstrate Stop, Drop and Roll

The classic ‘stop, drop and roll’ advice is still highly relevant. If children’s clothes catch fire, teach them to stop moving immediately, cover their face with their hands, drop gently to the ground, and roll back and forth with their hands still over their face to smother flames.

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Discuss the Causes of Fires

A big part of prevention is making sure fires don’t start in the first place. Talk to children about common ignition sources like candles and cigarettes, etc. Teach them not to touch matches or lighters and to alert adults immediately if they see them lying around. Show them how you ensure candles are always placed carefully away from anything flammable before you light them. Let them also see you checking appliances for frayed cords and damage − explaining that many house fires start from a small electrical problem.

Restrict young children’s access to the kitchen when cooking. Provide close supervision for older children learning to cook and remind them to turn off appliances when finished. Keep portable heaters away from furniture and out of high-traffic areas. Explain that putting things too close can cause fires.

Fire prevention requires ongoing effort, but teaching good habits now helps protect your family for years to come. Don’t delay in taking these simple steps today.