5 Fire Safety Home Tips to Protect your Family

 Guest Blogger #626, Entry #1497, August 20, 2012

At one time or another, most of us find ourselves looking around our house and deciding that it’s time to do a bit of renovating; to come up with some new ways to decorate. Yet, as it relates to thinking of novel and creative home design ideas, rarely does fire safety ever come into our minds. For most of us, we figure that so long as there are smoke detectors in the house, that’s all that we need to care about.

Protect your home and family from accidental fire damage

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Well yes. And no. The truth is that as you’re preparing to give the interior of your home an “upgrade”, there are some ways to incorporate some fire safety tips in some pretty cool (and long-term beneficial) ways:

Acquire “designer” fire extinguishers.

Did you know that there is actually more than one kind of fire extinguisher? There is one made with water, another with powder, another with foam and still another with carbon dioxide in it. It’s a good idea to have one of each kind in your house for different kinds of fires that may occur (for instance, an electrical fire is not going to respond well to a fire extinguisher made of water; it would need powder or foam instead). There are the standard red ones that you can buy, but there are also ones that have modern prints and patterns. Instructables.com even has a feature that shows you how to paint them yourself (just put “paint fire extinguisher” in the search engine).

Do you have smoke detectors that are working?

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Modern smoke detectors.

If most of us look up at the ceiling, we’ll probably see a bland white disk located somewhere within the room. This represents our smoke detector. Pretty boring, right? You can settle for them or get some designs that are “out of the box”. Chick-a-dee is one company based in Europe that makes smoke detectors in the shape of a little chickadee bird sitting on a tree limb. They come in a variety of colors and they ship internationally. You can check them out at Chick-a-dee.com.au.

Add stickers to the windows.

In unfortunate instance that a fire does happen in your home, it’s helpful for firefighters to know the layout of your house. As it relates to your children’s bedrooms, why not put some stickers in the windows that indicate which windows lead to your son or daughter’s designated space in the house? It can be stickers of items that they collect or simply ones that give the impression that it’s a little person’s room. Either way, they’re fun to look at and can serve as a lifesaving aid as well.

Consider adding stickers to kids’ room windows

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Keep doors and windows free.

No matter how much you may like the way it looks, it’s never a good idea to put furniture in front of a door or entryway. It’s also a good idea to avoid your windows as much as you can as well. This is not just for safe fire direct reasons ( to keep from blocking another potential exit), but bookshelves, tall couches and beds in front of windows also gives the room the illusion that it’s a lot smaller than it usually is (it also blocks natural lighting as well).

Watch where (and how) you store household items.

This is especially important when it comes to the kitchen. Some of the household cleaning supplies that we have tend to be flammable and that can pose a great risk when they are close to the stove or even the microwave. Therefore, make sure to always keep their lids closed tightly, keep them out of reach for children and pets and put them in a pantry or even a cabinet with a lock. A rollaway storage cabinet just for those items can be an aesthetic addition to the kitchen, and with a plant on top of it, that provides a perfect touch.

For more home safety tips on Stagetecture, click here.