Thank you First Alert for sponsoring this post. October is Fire Prevention Month - practice safety in numbers to ensure your family’s super prepared too!
October is Fire Safety Month. as residents of Southern California, we are no strangers to fire danger. we experience wild fires on a yearly basis. it is important to be prepared not only for the wild fires we have here, but also in case there's a fire in our home. so i have partnered with First Alert to bring you this post.
one year ago this month, i found myself driving as fast as i could towards my children's school. as i drove, i could see the hill behind their school burn with sky high flames. at that time, i wasn't sure of their safety. when fires hit our area, it's often hard to tell how close the flames really are. on this day, the flames were so close that the school was under evacuation. i was unable to get to my kids school. luckily my friend was able to grab my kids and get them to a safe place where we could be reunited.
this is our local school during the 2017 Canyon fire.
this is a scene that us SoCal residents know so well. and this wasn't the first time we were evacuated. we've been evacuated three times. in 2008, we almost lost our house. and i am pretty sure that there will be times in the future that we'll be evacuated again. it's just how it is living in our area. so far, we've always been evacuated during the daytime, but if a fire happens to start during the night, it could be an even scarier thing. all three times the fires threatened our home, we had no warnings from fire officials to get out. the fires came to fast for them to get us out, and we had to leave on our own. if fire started at night, the only way we would know, would be our fire alarms.
October is Fire Prevention Month
what is Fire Prevention Month? Fire Prevention Month raises awareness about fire home safety to help make sure that we know how to keep our homes and family prepared in the case of a fire emergency. there’s safety in numbers, and when it comes to fire protection, numbers can make all the difference. in honor of Fire Prevention Month this October, First Alert and Super Prepared Family are encouraging everyone to practice “safety in numbers” to ensure we are “super prepared” when it comes to whole home safety.
it's very important that the entire family be involved in home and fire safety so they know what to do in the event of an emergency. even little kids can get in on the action!
there are two things we should be aware of – fire and carbon monoxide poisoning. smoke and carbon monoxide alarms should be installed on every level, including the basement and inside and outside every sleep area. did you know that 3 out of 5 fire deaths occurred in homes without smoke alarms. and carbon monoxide is the #1 cause of accidental deaths in America. CO is invisible tasteless and odorless that can be produced from any fuel burring device. CO alarms detect this poisonous gas and provide early warning. it's sad to think that some of these deaths could be prevented with the proper alarms.
it's important to practice an escape route with your family. show each member ways they can escape from a fire, including different exits from your home. make sure that everyone knows how to get out of the home and where to meet.
Alarms don’t last forever, remember to replace every 5 to 10 years (depending on the model). we decided to eliminate the need to replace batteries, and upgraded to First Alert’s 10-year sealed battery alarms. these First Alert Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are battery free, and last up to 10 years. they have a chip in them that lets you know when they need to be replaced. and just to be sure that are up to date on making sure our smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are replaced in proper time, we have put stickers on them so we know when we purchased them.
we own an RV, and it is also very important that we also have working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors inside of it.
Important Fire Statistics
please don't become one of the statistics.by prepping you home with smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, you will be notified with an early warning in the event of a fire. fires spread quickly, and there is not a lot of time to escape so every second counts. and you cannot see, hear or smell CO.
did you know...
• Over 100 million homes in the US are not protected with smoke alarms? fire department responds to fire every 24 seconds.
• 3 of every 5 home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with 0 working smoke alarms.
• 40% of homes do not have a single CO alarm
• Carbon Monoxide poisoning is the #1 cause of accidental deaths in the US. Every year there are 80,000 CO incidents.
these facts and statistics show the importance having the proper protection in your home. Fire Prevention Month is a great time to make safety a whole family affair. check out this fun little video about fire safety, and go check your fire detectors. we don't want our family to become one of the statistics.
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
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