Home Fire Danger Zones
While there are general tips and safeguards against home fires, every room in the home, as well as every season, presents its own unique dangers. The following pages will contain a lot of repetition — never run extension cords under rugs no matter which room of the house they’re in — but will also identify those specific areas that need your attention.
As you do your home sweep to check for potential danger, take the information with you as a reference check list.
The goal is not to engender fear in our readers, simply to make you aware of ways to make your family and your home as fire safe as possible.
Fire Safe Bedrooms
Our bedrooms should be our sanctuaries, not home fire traps. Just tune into those home design shows on Cable TV and you’ll see how you can transform them into mini-spas with lush bedding, flowing drapes (oops, window treatments) and foot caressing rugs. For kids, the fantasies really run rampant. Their bedrooms are club houses, space capsules or pirate ships.
You don’t have to discard your sanctuary or your pirate ship, just take a short reality check and make sure the bedrooms are also sanctuaries from fire. Unfortunately, statistics indicate that bedrooms are often the origin of fatal home fires.
The majority of bedroom fires result from the misuse of electrical components.
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Do not run electrical cords under rugs or trap them against a wall where heat can build up. If extension cords are run under a bed, vacuum or sweep under the bed regularly to keep dust build up to a minimum.
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If you use portable heaters, keep them at least three feet away from all bedding, curtains, clothes and any other combustible material.
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If you use electric blankets, make sure they are UL-approved and the cords are in good condition.
Not all child’s play in the bedroom is of the healthy, imaginative variety. The bedroom is also where they tend to play with matches and lighters.
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Teach your child respect for fire and reinforce it by keeping matches and lighters out of reach. Check normal hiding places — under the bed, in closets — for any evidence they may be experimenting with fire.
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Once your children are mobile, avoid using portable heaters in their rooms. It’s too easy for them to knock the heater over on the way to the bathroom at night.
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If your child sleeps with his door closed, install a smoke alarm in the room.
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Check the labeling on your children’s pajamas; they should be made of flame retardant material. Flame retardant does not necessarily mean the material has been treated with chemicals. While cotton is a common pajama fabric, unless it has been treated, it is not flame retardant. Fabrics that are include 100 percent polyester, nylon, wool and silk. Tightly woven fabrics without a napped surface are less likely to ignite than more open weaves like knits.
Adults are not immune from starting bedroom fires.
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Do not smoke in bed. No matter how wide awake you think you are, do not smoke in bed.
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If you’re considering buying a new mattress, this is a good time to do so. New, more stringent open-flame standards for mattresses went into effect in July 2007. The standards require new construction and testing methods ensuring a product that is more resistant to open flame from matches, lighters or candles.
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Candles are romantic, but keep them away from drapes or other combustible materials. Anchor them in sturdy candle holders with bases wide enough to contain melted wax. Snuff them out once the romance is over.
Of course it goes without saying, have a smoke alarm installed in the bedroom hallway as well as in rooms where the door is closed at night or to conserve energy during the day.
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