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If you are a fire safety professional of any kind, educating the public on fire safety may be an important part of your job. The holiday season is an excellent time of year to engage in fire safety education; the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) reports that the peak day for home cooking fires is Thanksgiving day, followed by Christmas day and Christmas Eve. In fact, there is a nearly 300% increase of cooking fires on Thanksgiving day alone. To support your fire safety educational efforts, here are some tips you can share with people in time for Thanksgiving and the coming holiday season.
Be a Cautious Cook
Cooking is a major activity during the holidays; it’s festive, fun, and a great way to bring people together. However, the NFPA reports that cooking causes half (53%) of all reported home fires. Cooking is also the cause of 38% of home fire injuries, and 18% of home fire deaths. While many people would like to believe they are the exception to the rule when it comes to cooking fire risks, the data reveal otherwise. The facts show that unattended cooking is the leading contributor to cooking fires and fire deaths. To prevent this from happening at their homes, people should be educated to remain in the kitchen while cooking or baking during the holidays.
Be Smoke Alarm Smart
Every fire safety professional should be ready to explain the importance of properly maintaining smoke alarms, during the holidays and all year long. The NFPA advises that consumers should test their smoke alarms once per month. Smoke alarms with replaceable batteries should receive fresh batteries once per year. If a smoke alarm makes a chirping sound, this is a warning that the battery is low and the entire smoke alarm should be replaced immediately. All smoke alarms with 10-year batteries are designed to be effective for up to 10 years, and should be replaced every 10 years. When people are cooking holiday meals, they may be tempted to disable or remove their smoke alarms; they should be educated on the dangers of doing this, and instructed to always leave their properly working alarms in place.
Be Educated on Electricity
Electrical fires are another leading cause of home fires during the holidays. Homeowners, business owners and others need to know that their holiday decorations should always be used with caution. To be safer with electricity during the holidays, people should make sure that extension cords are only plugged directly into an approved receptacle, power tap, or multiplug adapter. In addition, all cords should be maintained in good condition without splices, deterioration, or damage. The NFPA advises that it is unsafe to affix cords to structures, extend them through walls, ceilings, floors, or under doors or floor coverings.
And of course, children should stay away from sources of electricity, from electric decorations to lightbulbs.
Fire safety professionals are tasked with informing the public on fire prevention at home, and there’s no better time to educate them than the holidays. Stay tuned for more fire safety tips you can share this holiday season — and to learn more about software that is exclusively for fire alarm design, call the Cadgen sales department now.
Call Cadgen to Learn More
To learn more about FireCAD™, a fire alarm design software that can simplify the process of creating a complex fire alarm system, contact Cadgen to inquire about our lifetime license and flexible subscription options. Please contact our sales department at (855) 206-1480 Ext. 1.
