This week is Fire Prevention Week — an important reminder to test your smoke alarms and practice your escape plan. In fact, home fires claim seven lives a day in our country, but most of us aren’t taking the steps to protect ourselves.
- Testing your smoke alarms each month helps ensure that they’re working — which can cut the risk of dying in a home fire by half. Still, a 2020 American Red Cross survey shows that 65% of us don’t.
- Practicing your escape plan twice a year also increases the odds of survival. But 70% of us don’t.
- And escaping in less than two minutes can be the difference between survival and tragedy. Yet more than half of us think we have more time.
Home fires haven’t stopped during COVID-19. They’re most often caused by cooking, and this risk continues as we spend more time at home. This week, discuss fire safety with your family and practice your escape plan until everyone can get out in less than two minutes.
- That’s the amount of time you may have to escape a burning home before it’s too late.
- Include at least two ways to exit every room in your home. Select a meeting spot at a safe distance away from your home, such as your neighbor’s home or landmark like a specific tree in your front yard, where everyone knows to meet.
- While practicing your escape plan, teach children what a smoke alarm sounds like.
- Place smoke alarms on each level of your home, including inside and outside bedrooms and sleeping areas.
- Also check the manufacturer’s date of your smoke alarms. If they’re 10 years or older, you need to replace them because the sensor becomes less sensitive over time. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
Visit redcross.org/fire for more information, including an escape plan to practice with your family. You can also download our free Emergency app (search “American Red Cross” in app stores).