ARTICLE #2:
As published in the NFPA Journal/Volume 91, Number 1 Jan/Feb 1997

New Year's Resolutions to keep Your Family Safe From Fires

Make your New Year's resolutions count with this fire safety checklist. As another year begins, we're all making promises to clean out our garages, organize our closets, and lose a few extra pounds. These New Year's resolutions are admirable, but here's another list of things we should vow to do this year in different areas of our lives.

In your home, resolve to:

• Install smoke detectors on every floor and outside every bedroom.
• Pick a day every month to check our detectors' batteries. Mark the day on the calendar.
• Replace our detector's battery if the detector "chirps." Don't just remove the batteries.
• Never borrow batteries from our smoke detectors.
• Replace any detector that's more than 10 years old.
• Keep a fire extinguisher in our homes and learn how to use it.
• Keep all ignition devices up high, out of children's reach.
• Seek professional help if our children play with matches or lighters and don't respond to our efforts to redirect their interests.
• Plan an escape route that includes a family meeting place. Practice the route.
• Get rid of old paint, stains, and varnishes. Make sure that the flammable and combustible liquids you do keep are stored properly, preferably outside the house.
• Heat safely. Keep at least 3 feet between a space heater and any combustible material.
• Get the chimney checked once a year by a professional.
• Replace all cracked or frayed electrical cords.
• Check extension cords, making sure that they aren't over loaded.
• Cook safely - Stay in the kitchen when cooking - Learn the proper way to extinguish a grease fire.

In the workplace, resolve to:

• Be familiar with your company's fire and emergency plan. Does it have one? Does every one know it? Is it practiced?
• Know where fire extinguishers are. Learn how to use one.
• Keep clutter out of halls, lobbies, alleys, and other public areas.
• Keep waste paper, empty boxes, dirty rags, cleaning supplies, and other combustibles out of exits, storage areas, and stairways.
• Get all cracked, frayed, or damaged electrical cords replaced.
• Leave space for air to circulate around heaters and other heat- producing equipment, such as copiers, coffeemakers, and computers.
• Designate an employee to turn off or unplug all appliances - including coffeemakers and hotplates - at the end of each workday.
• Smoke only in designated areas.
• Count the doors or desks between our work areas and the nearest exit.
• Learn alternative exits from all work areas.
• Know the location of the nearest fire alarm and how to use it.
• Make sure that someone in authority knows about any disability that could delay an escape and make plans for a safe evacuation.
• Make sure our companies discuss building evacuation plans during new employee orientations.
• Make sure our companies practices regular fire drills.
• Have fuel-burning household heating equipment, such as fireplaces, furnaces, water heaters, wood stoves, and space heaters, checked every year before cold weather sets in.
• Have your chimney checked annually.
• Before enclosing central heating equipment in a small room, check with your fuel supplier to ensure that enough air for proper combustion is provided.
• When using a fireplace, open the flue.
• Always use barbeque grills outside, never in the house or garage.
• When buying a home, have a qualified technician evaluate the integrity of the heating and cooking systems, as well as the sealed spaces between the garage and house.
• When camping, use battery-powered heaters and flashlights in tents, trailers, and motor homes.
• If you install CO detectors in your house and recreational vehicles, use detectors listed by a qualified, independent testing laboratory.
• When buying new heating and cooking equipment, choose factory-built products approved by an independent testing laboratory. Have a qualified technician install the equipment.

Keeping Our Children Safe

Every year thousands of children are injured or killed in fires. The best defense against fires is to understand how to protect ourselves and our children and to effectively teach our children the fundamentals of fire safety.

The following information was obtained through the National Fire Protection Association's Web site and was published in the March/April 1997 issue of the NFPA Journal.