3 Strategies to Keep Your Home Safe From Fire

10/25/2019 (Permalink)

FIRE IS ALWAYS IN THE news, but that seems to particularly be the case lately, from wildfires in the West to the recent church fires in the Southeast. In fact, according to the National Fire Protection Association, in 2013, the most recent year for such data, U.S. fire departments responded to approximately 1.2 million fires. Some 3,240 people, not including firefighters, lost their lives that year, and 2,755 of them died in home fires.

To keep your home safe from fire and protect yourself and your family, you need to put aside some time to think about a plan. Here are three things you should do:

Start with your insurance. If you want to skip this, you don't have to contact your insurance agent, but he or she may give you some good ideas and save you money. While most insurance agents and executives are probably swell people who don't want bad things to happen to good people, the entire business model is about avoiding risk so that insurers don't have to pay up when something catastrophic happens.

So if you can demonstrate that you're taking pains to make your house safe from a fire, your insurer will likely offer you a discount on your homeowners insurance. By protecting yourself, you help protect the insurer from having to fork over a fortune later. Assuming you impress your insurer, the company will likely thank you by giving you a 5 to 15 percent discount on your policy.

Make sure your smoke alarms are in working order. Not to get too dramatic, but doing this could make the difference between living and dying if a fire breaks out. Generally, smoke alarms run anywhere from $10 to a little over $100, depending on the type.

"There are two different types of smoke alarm detectors – ionization and photoelectric – and the ionization works better in detecting flames, and the other would work better in a smoldering fire," says Jake Lemonda, who has had 30 years of experience firefighting in New York City and is the chief representative and president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association.

Which one is the best? Many experts will tell you to get both, and some of the more expensive detectors have dual technology sensors – that is, one detector is equally good at picking up flames and a smoldering fire.

Lemonda says your main objective should simply be to have a smoke detector, and, if possible, "get the type of smoke detector that's interconnected with the other smoke detectors in your home. In other words, if a smoke detector would go off in your kitchen, all of the detectors would go off."

The National Fire Protection Association recommends replacing your smoke alarm every 10 years. In fact, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is reviewing a bill that, if passed, will require all stores in New York state to sell smoke alarms that have a 10-year, nonremovable battery, starting in 2017. One can imagine that someday, this may be an industry standard.

Check your home for fire-prone areas. You could drive yourself insane with worry, looking for all of the ways your house could catch on fire.

For instance, in February, a fire started in a bedroom at a house in London, and the culprit was an empty jar of the hazelnut spread, Nutella, sitting on a bedroom window sill. It's believed the refracted sunlight off the glass started a spark on the blinds. The family wasn't home, but the house burned down, and the family dog perished.

So in other words, think about it long enough, and you could quickly come to the conclusion that every home is a death trap, and that it's hopeless to attempt precautionary measures. But try not to go there. After all, there are a lot of routine maintenance tasks that aren't just smart to do for your home, but will also help reduce your risk of having a fire.

John Bodrozic, a co-founder of the home management website HomeZada.com, offers several examples of things you are probably already doing – so make sure that you continue doing them.

Clean out the dryer vent duct. You probably do this, anyway, right? Your clothes will dry faster if the vent duct that leads to the outside of your home is clear. But it's also a smart fire prevention tactic, Bodrozic says, suggesting you clean it out at least once a year. "Highly flammable lint builds up over time and causes house fires," he says.

Clean out the gutters and make sure the roof is free of debris. It's a smart idea anyway. Debris on the roof looks junky, and clogged gutters can lead to flooding inside the house. But also, Bodrozic says: "Dried out foliage … can easily catch fire."

Trim around the outside of the house. It'll help your landscaping look more attractive, but this, too, is part of basic fire prevention. "Cut down trees and limbs that overhang the house," Bodrozic suggests. "If they catch on fire, it's more likely to spread to the home."

On that note, he adds: "If you live in a forest fire area, try to clear a 50-foot perimeter around the house."

And if you are concerned about wildfires, ReadyforWildfire.org has some useful advice for homeowners. For instance, you might consider building or rebuilding your fence, using noncombustible materials, to protect your home.

Remove shrubs around the air-conditioning unit. This is assuming you've let that part of the yard get out of control. "[Air-conditioning units] need airflow to operate efficiently, and if there is dry brush around it, it starts to work harder, heat up more, and could spark a fire," Bodrozic says.

Keep fire extinguishers in the home. And just as important, take a look at them periodically. "Regularly check their pressure, especially in the kitchen, where cooking often starts a fire," Bodrozic says.

On that last point, it should be easy to check if your extinguisher is working. "They usually all come with a gauge, and usually the arrow indicates when it's charged properly," Lemonda says. "It'll be in the green section of the gauge."

Forgetting to replace an expired fire extinguisher appears to be a common problem. Businesses are frequently cited violations for having expired fire extinguishers, which typically cost about $20 to $30, although you can find them for as low as $10. Last year, the University of Georgia's independent student newspaper, "The Red and Black," did an investigation that found 35 extinguishers out of date in laboratories throughout campus – a dangerous situation, the paper pointed out, since labs "frequently experience chemical spills or other accidents."

In homes, cooking is the leading cause of fire and home injuries, according to the National Fire Protection Association. So make sure your fire extinguisher is in proper working order, and if not, buy a new one as soon as you can. If you think about it, if you don't have a working extinguisher, you really just own a big, red paperweight.

Source: https://loans.usnews.com/strategies-to-keep-your-home-safe-from-fire