Have your home heating appliances inspected prior to use.
Keep combustible materials at least 3 feet from heating units.
Do not use heat tape on plastic pipe.
Do not use propane or kerosene heaters inside your home.
Have chimneys cleaned and inspected prior to use.
Use metal bucket to remove ashes from fireplace.
Keep fire in fireplaces and wood burning stoves small and controllable.
Install a Carbon Monoxide detector.
Check the batteries in your Smoke Detector.
Use caution when walking on snow and ice.
Allow extra drive time during time of winter driving.
Fireplace Safety Tips
Inspect the fireplace.
Keep combustible materials at least 3 feet from heating units.
Keep trees and debris cleared from top of chimney.
Install a chimney cap to help keep debris out of chimney.
Open damper before starting the fire.
Allow ashes to cool prior to closing damper.
Only use dried wood.
Never use gasoline to light a fire.
Keep fire in fireplaces small and controllable.
Always use a screen around the fireplace.
Teach children about fire safety.
Make sure the fire is completely out before leaving the house or going to bed.
CARBON MONOXIDE SAFETY TIPS:Carbon monoxide is commonly known as “the SILENT KILLER”. Because is colorless, odorless, and tasteless, none of your senses can detect it. CO claims the lives of nearly 300 people in their homes each year. CO is a potentially deadly gas that is produced by fuel-burning heating equipment, such as furnaces, wood stoves, fireplaces, and kerosene heaters. Follow these guidelines to help keep your family safer:
Install at least one CO alarm near sleeping areas.
Have a trained professional inspect, clean and tune-up your home’s central heating system and repair leaks or other problems. Fireplaces and woodstoves should also be inspected each year and cleaned or repaired as needed.
Yearly professional inspection of chimneys, flues and vents for leakage. Cracks or holes could cause black stains on the chimney or flue; these stains can mean that pollutants are escaping into the house. In addition, have all furnaces, water heaters, boilers and other fuel burning appliances checked to make sure nothing is loose or disconnected.
Winter snows can create drifts that block vents, forcing CO gas to back-up into your home, keep vents clear of obstructions, drifting snow and bushes to provide proper ventilation.
Keep gas appliances properly adjusted and serviced.
Never keep an oven or range to heat your home.
Never use a gas or charcoal grill inside your home or in a closed garage.
Portable electric generators must be used OUTSIDE only. Never use them indoors, in a garage or in any confined area that can allow CO to collect. Follow usage directions closely.
Systems of CO poisoning are:
The initial symptoms are similar to the flu a headache, fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea and dizziness. Exposure t high levels of CO can cause death.
In less than 30 seconds a small flame can get completely out of control and turn into a major fire. It only takes minutes for thick black smoke to fill a house. In minutes, a house can be engulfed in flames. Most fire occurs in the home when people are asleep. If you wake up to a fire, you won’t have time to grab valuables because fire spreads too quickly and the smoke is too thick. There is only time to escape.
FIRE IS HOT:
Heat is more threatening than flames.
A fire’s heat alone can kill. Room temperatures in a fire can be 100 degrees at floor level and rise to 600 degrees at eye level. Inhaling this super hot air will scorch your lungs. This heat can melt clothes to your skin. In FIVE minutes a room can get so HOT that everything in it ignites at once: this is call flashover.
FIRE IS DARK!
Fire isn’t bright, it’s pitch black.ed a
Fire starts bright, but quickly produces black smoke and complete darkness. If you wake up to a fire you may be blinded, disoriented and unable to find your way around the home you have lived in for years.
FIRE IS DEADLY!
Smoke and toxic gases KILL more people than flames do.
Fire uses up the oxygen you need and produces poisonous gases that kill. Breathing even small amounts of smoke and toxic gases can make you drowsy, disoriented and short of breath. The odorless, colorless flumes can lull you into a deep sleep before the flames reach your door. You may not wake up in time to escape.
FIRE SAFETY TIPS:
In the event of a fire, remember TIME is the biggest enemy EVERY SECOND counts!
Escape first, and then call for help. Develop a home fire escape plan and designate a meeting place outside. Make sure everyone in the family knows TWO ways to escape from every room. Practice feeling your way out with your eyes closed. Never stand up in a fire, always crawl low and under the smoke and try and keep your mouth covered. NEVER RETURN TO A BURNING BUILDING FOR ANY REASON.
Having as working smoke alarm dramatically increases your chances of surviving a fire. And remember to practice a home escape.
Fires in motor vehicles can produce toxic gases. Motor vehicles are made of many synthetic materials that emit harmful, if not deadly gases when they burn. A main byproduct of fires is a lethal concentration of carbon monoxide, which is odorless, colorless and tasteless gas.
Fire can cause fatal or depilating burn injuries. A vehicle fire can generate heat upwards of 1,500 F. Flames in vehicles can often shoot out distances of 10 feet or more.
Parts of the vehicle can burst because of heat, shooting debris great distances. Bumper and hatchback door unit, two-piece tire rims, magnesium wheels, drive shafts, grease seals, axle, and engine parts, all can become lethal shrapnel. Fires may also cause air bags to deploy.
Very rarely vehicles can rupture and spray flammable fuel, posing a clear potential for serious injury.
Hazardous materials such as battery acid can cause injury even without burning.
Approximately 500 are killed and 1,800 civilians and 1,200 firefighters are injured each year from motor vehicle fires.
Nearly 1 out of 5 fires involves motor vehicles.
If there is a Vehicle fire:
Get yourself and others out and away from vehicle.
After you are safe distance call 911
Remain away from vehicle; DO NOT GO BACK INTO A BURNING VEHICLE.
Do NOT open the hood or trunk if you suspect a fire under it. Air could rush in, enlarging the fire leading to injury.
