Home Safety Checklist

Bedroom: Plan two escapes from your bedroom. Practice getting out both ways. Smoke kills. Shut doors to stop it from advancing. Install smoke detectors in each sleeping area and on every level of your home. Change the batteries in your smoke detectors twice each year. (Remembering it is easy if you change them when you adjust your clocks for daylight savings.) If you smoke, do so in a chair, not in bed.

Kitchen: Turn pot handles so they can't get bumped and children cannot pull them down. Never leave cooking food unattended. Smother a pan fire with a lid. NEVER use water and leave the lid on until it's cool. Don't store things over the stove; people get burned reaching for them. Wear tight, short, rolled up or tight-fitting sleeves when you cook. Loose-fitting garments can catch fire.

Living or Family Room: Move portable heaters away from people, furniture and curtains. Use a metal fireplace screen. Have the chimney checked and cleaned at least once a year. Before you go to bed, check cushions and wastebaskets for burning cigarettes. Use large ashtrays.

Basement, Garage and Storage: Move the lawn mower away from gasoline vapors before starting. Cool the motor before refueling. Sort and remove rubbish. Don't store things near the furnace or heater. Clean up your workbench. Keep flammables away from sparks. Store gasoline and other flammables in tight metal containers. Don't use flammable liquids near heat, a pilot light or while smoking.

Outdoors: Don't ever use gasoline or kerosene on a grill fire. Once the fire has been started, never use lighter fluid either. Use dry kindling to revive the fire.

Home Exit Drills

EDITH (Exit Drills In The Home) is a plan to save your life in case of fire.

· Don't wait for smoke and fire to surprise you. Plan your home fire escape now. If you live in an apartment, ask the management to schedule drills. Practice during Fire Prevention Week and once or twice more during the year. If you move, make a new plan right away!

· Sit down with your family today, and plan step by step your plans for an escape in the event of fire.

· Diagram two routes to the outside from all rooms, but especially the bedrooms. Locate the enclosed exit stairs in an apartment building.

· Put the fire department number on your phone - 911.

· Choose a place outdoors for everyone to meet for roll call; find a neighbor’s house to telephone the fire department.

Discuss why you should not go back inside once you are out. (People have died returning into a burning building.) Purchase and install a smoke detector in each bedroom and for each level of your home. Each person should have a whistle (for warning others) to keep by their bed. Some family members may need a special escape ladder for rooms located above the first floor. (Remember, you need to plan two methods of escape from every room.)