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Fire Prevention Week is Coming

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Fire Prevention Week begins on October 9th and ends on October 15th. Knowing how to prevent fires is one of the best ways to avoid a severe and debilitating burn injury. However, it is equally important to understand how to become alerted to a fire before it causes harm.

Fire Prevention

You can help prevent fires at home by:

  • Watching stoves when they are in use
  • Keeping flammables away from portable heaters
  • Updating your wiring (particularly if you have aluminum wiring)
  • Using a fire screen or closing the glass on your fireplace
  • Smoking outside, on concrete or dirt

These steps can help prevent a fire from starting but won’t necessarily protect you when a fire starts in your home. Having an escape plan and practicing it with your family is an excellent way to know how to react in these unfortunate situations.

Smoke Alarms

One of the easiest ways to avoid injury in the case of a fire is being alerted to the fire before it has a chance to harm you. Hardwired smoke alarms are the best way to do this in your home. However, relying on hardwiring alone is not entirely safe. Fires often impact wiring and can disable smoke alarms that do not have a battery backup. Therefore, check the batteries in your smoke alarms every month.

Smoke alarms should be installed:

  • Inside Each Bedroom
  • Outside of All Sleeping Areas
  • On Every Level of the Home
  • In All Stairways
  • In the Basement
  • In the Garage
  • In the Attic

It is a good idea to install carbon monoxide detectors in sleeping areas and on every level of the home as well. These may need to be installed lower on the wall in areas with appliances that use gas, such as water heaters. Natural gas is lighter than air and will rise, but propane will settle near the ground. Choose the best option based on the type of appliances and gas in your home uses.

Combination smoke/carbon monoxide detectors can be hardwired for optimal effect. Do your research, and don’t cut costs. Not all of these devices are similarly effective. If you rent, insist that your landlord install the safest and most effective models available.

What to do When You’re Injured

If you or a loved one suffers an injury in a fire and suspect factors beyond your control caused it, you may be entitled to compensation. If you are a renter and your injury was related to faulty, inadequate, or missing equipment, you may also be entitled to seek compensation. The best way to learn is through a one-on-one consultation with a qualified personal injury attorney.

Have you been hurt? Use the lawyer locator on this page to find an established and experienced burn injury attorney in your area right away.

Preventing Fires in Your Home

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Home fires are a leading cause of catastrophic burn injuries. From the years 2013-2017, home fires caused about 2,600 civilian deaths annually. The most common causes of home fires are cooking, heating, electricity and lighting, intentional fire setting and smoking, according to the National Fire Protection Association. From 2013-2017, cooking was the leading cause of home fires and smoking was the leading cause of home fire deaths.

Some people falsely believe that they’d have enough time to safely escape a fire in the house. You may not realize that it takes just a few minutes for flames, smoke and temperatures as hot as 600 degrees to fill the home.

All families and individuals should be ready and have a plan in the event of a house fire:

  • Have a fire escape plan. Best practice is to identify two ways to escape a room in case one way is blocked.
  • Install and maintain smoke alarms. Install smoke alarms on all levels of the home, in and outside of bedrooms. Test batteries once each month.
  • Never leave cooking food unattended. Cooking food can cause a fire in mere moments.
  • Don’t store cookbooks, paper towels or any other flammable materials near the oven or stovetop.
  • Have heating systems inspected annually. Keeping them in good working order can prevent a house fire.
  • Space heaters are a common cause of fires. Plug them directly into the wall outlet, not a power strip. The heater must be on a level surface and well out of range of curtains, bedsheets, carpet and other flammable materials.

There are many other ways to prevent fires and you should take some time to research those measures. Prevention can go a long way in keeping you and your household safe.

While home fires are most often caused by a mistake on the part of the homeowners, sometimes the source of the fire can be traced back to someone else’s negligence. A wide variety of home appliances, wiring and other parts of your home could cause a fire if not manufactured or installed properly. In such scenarios, you’d have no way of knowing that someone else’s carelessness set the stage for a catastrophic home fire.

To talk to an experienced burn injury lawyer in your area, please search our directory.