The idea of a fire ripping through your home is enough to keep you up at night. While it’s impossible to prevent a fire with 100-percent certainty, you can certainly take steps to prepare your family and ensure they’re 100-percent prepared if a fire occurs. By following some common-sense steps from Restorerz – Emergency Services and going over the steps with your family on a regular basis, you can rest easy knowing that everyone will know what to do if there’s a fire at your Los Angeles home.
ASSUME THAT NO ONE KNOWS
When someone in your family discovers a fire in your home, it’s important that they assume that no one else in the home knows about the fire. Therefore, the first thing they should do is yell the word “fire” as loud as they can until they’re sure that everyone has heard. While smoke detectors are meant to alert individuals to a fire, they don’t always work. However, someone screaming the word “fire” is almost always effective.
ALWAYS CRAWL
Most people understand that they should crawl when they see smoke. However, for adults and children alike, this isn’t the natural reaction when faced with an emergency situation. That’s why the pros at Restorerz – Emergency Services encourage you to practice crawling around your house with your family at least once a year. Since the natural inclination will be to run, it’s important to get your family familiar with your home from a toddler’s-eye view. Otherwise, your family members could find themselves getting lost during a fire simply because they haven’t practiced crawling.
FEEL BEFORE MOVING AHEAD
On the way from where you are to your ideal exit, there may be some doors in the way. It’s important that you and your family members know to feel the doorknob and the door itself before moving ahead. If the door is warm or hot to the touch, there’s a good chance that there’s a fire nearby. The problem with opening a door on an active fire is that it can cause a sudden influx of oxygen into the fire, leading to a sudden increase in the size and intensity of the fire. If you find a warm door, it’s best to go back the way you came and find another exit.
TRY TO STAY CALM
Many injuries and deaths during fires are caused by people not making good decisions. Even people with a good escape plan may forget this plan when flames are consuming their home. That’s why it’s important to urge your family members to remain calm if a fire occurs. Restorerz – Emergency Services recommends practicing your escape plan over and over until it becomes second nature so that your family simply acts instead of taking the time to panic. It’s also good to instruct your family members how to help other family members escape in the event that certain family members begin to panic before they can escape.
IT’S OKAY TO BREAK THINGS
It’s important to teach your children that it’s okay to break things if a fire occurs. In general, parents work hard to prevent their children from breaking items around the home. However, if a fire breaks out, everything in your home exists only to help you escape. Tell your children that furniture, valuables, windows, and anything else is fair game if it will help them escape a burning building. Otherwise, they may miss an easy escape opportunity simply because they’re worried about breaking something that’s important to you.
STAY IN PLACE IF NECESSARY
Although the pros at Restorerz – Emergency Services realize it’s difficult to think about, there are some cases when staying put is better than trying to escape. If all of your exits are blocked, you need to wait in a room with the least amount of damage until help arrives. To help protect yourself, try to put wet towels or blankets at the bottom of any doors so that smoke can’t get into the room as easily. Try to have a personal emergency alert siren in every room of your home that your family members can use to summon the attention of firefighters if they are forced to shelter in place.
MEET AT A DESIGNATED SPOT
The importance of having a designated meeting spot cannot be overstated. For the sake of getting an accurate headcount that you can provide to firefighters when they arrive, a designated meeting spot is incredibly useful. To help young children, it’s helpful to have a map of your home so that they can easily see all of the ways that they can escape to the designated meeting spot. If you have a home security system, you can often list this designated spot on your online account so that firefighters know where to look when they arrive.
WAIT TO CALL 911
If a fire happens in your home, your first priority is getting you and your family to safety. Taking the time to call 911 while you’re still in a burning building can cost you valuable seconds that could lead to serious injury or death. That’s why Restorerz – Emergency Services highly recommends waiting until you’ve reached your designated safe spot to call 911. An even better approach is to invest in an alarm system with smoke detectors that are tied into the alarm. That way, when the smoke detectors go off, your system will immediately alert the fire department.
NOTHING IS AS IMPORTANT AS LIFE
Another important concept to communicate to everyone in your family is that nothing is as important as life. Although a home contains many objects that are important for sentimental reasons, it’s simply not worth the time to try and save these objects from the fire. While it can be devastating to lose these important objects, it’s far more devastating to lose a family member to a house fire. If you have items that you can’t imagine living without, Restorerz – Emergency Services encourages you to invest in a fireproof safe and place your most important items inside the safe.
FIREFIGHTERS ARE HELPERS
If your house catches fire, you will encounter firefighters at some point or another. Your children need to understand that firefighters are helpers, even when they’re wearing masks and other turnout gear that can make them look intimidating. To help your children get over their potential fear of firefighters, it’s a good idea to take a trip to your local fire station to meet with some firefighters. Most fire stations gladly welcome visitors and are happy to give your children a tour of the fire station and explain to your children all that firefighters do. This will help your children make new friends and give them a better chance of staying safe in a fire.
HERE TO HELP
At Restorerz – Emergency Services, we know how stressful it can be to try and recover from a fire. That’s why we offer a variety of restoration and recovery services to help you get back on your feet. We can restore your home and remove the effects of fire damage, water damage, and mold damage. We can also take care of crawl space cleanup, sewage cleanup, and flood cleanup. Reconstruction services, duct cleaning, and odor removal are some of the other services we offer. As a trusted company with countless five-star reviews to our name, you can be confident that we’re able to help you with your home restoration needs. To learn more about staying safe in a fire, contact us at Restorerz – Emergency Services today.