This morning, our President and Founder Michael McLeieer of E.S.C.A.P.E. Inc. spoke with Morning Show Host Ken Lanphear on WKZO AM 590 and FM 106.9 and shared various fire safety tips:
- Have working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms
- Contact your local fire department or call 1-844-978-4400 if you need alarms
- Create and practice a home escape plan
- Keep space heaters at least 3-feet away from combustibles
- Activate evacuation of all occupants from the fire or smoke-filled building and make sure 911 is notified before using a fire extinguisher
All of these tips will help to prevent home fires, injuries and deaths.
Sunday, November 3rd is the time to move your clocks back one hour to standard time to fall back for Daylight Saving! It’s also a great opportunity to check your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and make sure they are working properly.
The National Fire Protection Association reports that 71% of smoke alarms which failed to operate had missing, disconnected or dead batteries, making it important to take this time each year to check your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
Working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms double the chance of a family surviving a home fire and/or an unsafe carbon monoxide level incident.
Use this checklist to find out if you are taking the right steps to protect your family:
1. Count Your Smoke Alarms – Be sure there is at least one smoke alarm less than 10 years old installed on every level of your home, including one in every bedroom and outside each sleeping area.
2. Change Your Smoke Alarm and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Batteries – Fire experts nationwide encourage people to change their smoke and carbon monoxide alarm batteries at least once a year. An easy way to remember to do so is to change the battery when you move the clock back to standard time November 3rd. Alarms which have a sealed, long-life battery should be good for the life of the alarm (10 years), however they should be tested at least monthly to make sure they are functioning properly.
3. Check Your Smoke Alarms and Carbon Monoxide Alarms – After inserting a fresh battery in each smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, push the safety test button to make sure the alarms are in proper-working condition. Conduct this test monthly. Never disconnect your smoke alarm battery! Remember that a “chirping” alarm is a signal it needs a fresh battery or has reached the end of its 10-year life and needs to be replaced.
4. Clear Your Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms – Ensure your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms’ sensitivity by cleaning them each month of dust and cobwebs.
5. Replace Your Smoke Alarms – The United States Fire Administration recommends replacing smoke alarms every 10 years and having a combination of both ionization and photo electric smoke alarms to alert you to all types of home fires.
6. Change Your Flashlight Batteries – Keep flashlights with fresh batteries at your bedside for help in finding the way out and signaling for help in the event of a fire.
7. Get the Entire Family Involved – Once smoke and carbon monoxide alarms have fresh batteries installed, you should make sure family members, children in particular, know what the alarms sound like and what to do should they go off…Get Out and Stay Out and then call 911 from a safe meeting place once outside!
8. If you need a free smoke or carbon monoxide alarm, contact your local fire department, email [email protected] or call toll free 1-844-978-4400.
Sometimes saving a life can be that simple – Change Your Clocks and Check Your Alarms, Where You Live!
Make trick-or-treating safe for your little monsters with a few easy tips! Children dressed in costumes excitedly running door to door to trick-or-treat, festive decorations like glowing jack-o-lanterns, paper ghosts and dried cornstalks adorning front porches – these are some of the classic hallmarks of Halloween that make this time of year special for kids and adults alike.
Unfortunately, these Halloween symbols and activities can also present lurking fire risks that have the potential to become truly scary. But by planning ahead, you can help make this Halloween a fire-safe one.
Halloween by the numbers from the United States Fire Administration:
For each year from 2015 – 2017, an estimated 10,300 fires were reported to fire departments in the United States over a three-day period around Halloween and caused an estimated 25 deaths, 125 injuries and $83 million in property loss.
According to the National Fire Incident Reporting System, Halloween fires occurred most frequently in the late afternoon and early evening hours, peaking during the dinner hours from 5 – 7 p.m. Fires then declined, reaching the lowest point during the early morning hours of 4 – 7 a.m.
The leading causes of Halloween residential fires were cooking (44 percent), heating (15 percent), other unintentional careless actions (7 percent), open flame (6 percent), electrical malfunction (6 percent), and intentional actions (5 percent).
- The National Fire Protection Association reports decorations were the item first ignited in an estimated average of 900 home structure fires per year.
- Nearly half of decoration fires in homes occurred because the decorations were too close to a heat source.
- These fires caused an estimated average of one civilian death, 41 civilian injuries and $13 million in direct property damage throughout the United States per year.
- Forty-one percent of these incidents were started by candles; one-fifth begin in the living room, family room or den.
Let’s help our communities be safer during Halloween by sharing a few fire safety tips with everyone:
- When choosing a costume, stay away from long, trailing fabric. If your child is wearing a mask, make sure the eye holes are large enough so they can see out.
- Provide children with flashlights to carry for lighting or glow sticks as part of their costume.
- Dried flowers, cornstalks and crepe paper catch fire easily. Keep all decorations away from open flames such as candles and other heat sources like light bulbs and heaters.
- Use a battery-operated flameless candle or glow-stick in jack-o-lanterns. If you use a real candle, use extreme caution. Make sure children are supervised at all times when candles are lit. When lighting candles inside jack-o-lanterns, use long, fireplace-style matches or a utility lighter. Be sure to place lit pumpkins well away from anything that can burn and far enough out of way of trick-or-treaters, doorsteps, walkways and yards.
- Remember to keep exits clear of decorations, so nothing blocks escape routes.
- Make sure all smoke alarms in the home are working.
- Tell children to stay away from open flames including jack-o-lanterns with candles in them. Be sure they know how to stop, drop and roll if their clothing catches fire. (Have them practice, stopping immediately, dropping to the ground, covering their face with hands, and rolling over and over to put the flames out.)
E.S.C.A.P.E. Fire Safety reminds you by taking simple fire safety precautions like keeping decorations far away from open flames and using battery-operated candles or glow-sticks in jack-o-lanterns, you can help ensure Halloween remains festive and fun Where You Live!
Making sure your family has a safe escape plan in case of a fire in your home is important to ensure everyone’s safety. Since October is National Fire Prevention Month, Maranda from WOOD TV 8 and WOTV 4 Women visited the Newaygo Fire Department along with her friends from E.S.C.A.P.E Fire Safety to talk about how they are promoting and encouraging fire safety in the community.
These fire safety experts encourage families to make an escape plan and talk about it with your family so everyone is on the same page incase a fire breaks out in your home. They also suggest not only planning the escape plan, but also practicing it so kids will have the muscle memory to react fast in the case of an emergency. They also strongly suggest all families to check smoke and carbon dioxide detectors at least every 6 months to ensure they’re working and up to date.
Maranda thanked her friends from the U.S. Fire Administration and FEMA for awarding her the Certificate of Appreciation for “exemplary service and commitment to our community”. What an honor! Thank you, Maranda for all you do serving our community!
For more information on fire safety, visit escapeinc.org or visit your local fire department.
Plan, practice and pick a place, 3 very important things that can save lives in the event of a fire. This is fire prevention month and today eightWest has Michael McLeieer with E.S.C.A.P.E. Fire Safety and the President of the Michigan Association of Fire Chiefs, Dave Glotzbach in studio with us.
- Plan and Practice your escape
- Pick a meeting place once outside
- Call 911 from a neighbor’s house or your cell phone
- Close the bedroom door when you sleep
Call 844-978-4400 or email [email protected] for free alarms