Fire safety in the home

Fire and smoke alarms
If you haven't got round to buying a fire/smoke alarm before now, it is vital to get one for your family home. (If you live over more than two floors, have a fire alarm on each floor.)
RoSPA (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) would like to see more hard-wired alarms in homes, or sealed long-life battery alarms used, to limit the times when an alarm's battery has run out. Most alarms will bleep or go off to warn you the batteries are low. It is essential you change the batteries before they run out completely.
If your alarm goes off in the night, the fire brigade advise that:
1. You shout and wake everyone up.
2. You get together and make your way out.
3. You follow your household's 'in case of fire' plan.

Collecting children
When your child is small, they may well still be in your room and it is easy to pick them up and take them with you. If they are in their own room and no longer in a cot, make sure you find them before you leave the house. (In some tragic cases, children have hidden under beds on in the wardrobe, away from the fire and noise, and parents checking their rooms have assumed their children have already left the house.)

Once your child is old enough to understand, make sure you have a clear plan of what to do in the case of a fire: what the fire alarm going off sounds like, what it means, where to wait for you or where to go.
If someone is dangerously beyond your reach, leave the building and tell the emergency services as much as you can about the location of the trapped person.

Getting out safely
If you hear the alarm, don't waste time going to check it out yourself, get your family out and call emergency services.
Crawling along the floor can help to limit the fumes and smoke you and your family breathe in.
If you can do so safely, try to close the door on any room which has fire in it. This helps slow the progress of the flames.
If a door ahead of you is closed, feel it with the back of your hand to see if it is hot, in case there is fire in that room.
If you have to escape from an upstairs window, try to put something soft to land on and don't jump the full length of the drop. Try to lower yourself and then drop the last part of the way.

Fire prevention and keeping safe
Make sure you keep matches and lighters out of the reach of children and avoid using candles when children are around (except well-observed candles on birthday cakes!).
Fit smoke alarms and check them regularly to ensure the batteries have not run out.
If you have a domestic extinguisher, you might be tempted to stay and tackle the fire yourself. It is better to leave the building and call emergency services. Some very small fires might be tackled with a damp cloth but if in doubt, do not try this yourself.
Think about the furnishings in your house - are curtains etc out of the way of hot surfaces and flames, are sofas etc covered with fire-retardant materials?
At night, keep the phone near you in case you get into a situation where you need to call emergency services from inside the home. Where possible, use a mobile phone as the fire might disable a land-line.
At night, make sure plugs and appliances are properly switched off. Close doors in unused rooms as shutting a door can delay the progress of fire and fumes.
Make sure everyone understands in advance, your plan of action if they hear the alarm go off or if you alert them.
Make sure exits from your home are accessible at night. A buggy in front the door will not be easy to move if it's hot, on fire, or there is too much smoke to make moving around easy.
Think about the exits from your home. On upper floors, are windows easy to open? Many have locks for insurance purposes, so make sure the key is somewhere you know you can find it easily in a dark, smoky environment.
If you lock your front door, make sure you and other adults in the house know where the key is if they need to find it quickly in the dark or through smoke.

Your local fire station will have useful information and tips on how to keep a safe home and what to do in the case of a fire. If your child is already a toddler, find out if the station has open days when you can find out useful information and your child can enjoy the experience of visiting the station. Check out www.fireservice.co.uk.