Hot Takes on Fire Safety, Part 1: Every Household Should Know the Top Causes of Home Fires
Picture the entire layout of your home, all the doors and windows and hallways. Add in the personal details: Where do the kids sleep, where is your TV, router, cable box, etc. plugged in. Where are your major appliances? Where is the furnace?
Now imagine that detailed layout is now a huge blueprint. We’re handing you a marker. Circle the fire hazards. Have a pen and paper nearby? Go ahead and jot down everything you circled. We’ll get back to that later.
Could you do it? If you dove in without hesitation, good for you! If you weren’t really sure where to start, what follows is going to be required reading, because your home fire safety IQ is a huge deal. How huge?
That’s about 360,000 home fires a year.
And in those
home fires, people get hurt.
In fact, each year about 11,000 people are injured in home fire , and 2,700 people die.
And the property damage is staggering, too:
According to the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) research on home structure fires , the majority of home fires are caused by very common household items and activities — some that may be obvious hazards, and some not so much.
Let’s walk through these common causes of house fires now. We’ll give you some tips to help you stay safe.
Cooking
If you’ve got a packed schedule, multi-tasking in the kitchen is probably on your resume. This goes double for parents who recently took on the role of schoolteacher. But according to the NFPA, cooking fires are the number one cause of home fires and home injuries.
Cooking is an amazing way to bring families together and explore creativity, so don’t give up on your Master Chef dream just yet. Here’s some best practices:
Stay in the kitchen while frying, boiling, grilling, or broiling food. Turn off the stove if something pulls you away.
Create a 3-foot, kid-free zone around the stove or other appliances. If your kids want to help, give them a task you can supervise at a safe distance.
Keep anything flammable (oven mitts, towels, curtains)
away from the stovetop.
Avoid cooking when you’re tired or drinking
alcohol.
Remember: If you have any doubts about your ability to put
out a cooking fire, just get out! Gather your family, close the door behind
you, and call 9-1-1 or the local emergency number once everyone is out safely.
Heating
When we say “heating fire risks,” we’re covering a broad range of appliances and household devices including furnaces, fireplaces, wood stoves, or space heaters. We want you keeping those toes warm all year, but doing it safely:
Keep anything that burns at least three feet away from heating equipment.
If you smell gas, get out of the house and call your local fire department or gas company.
Clean out your clothes dryer’s lint...
