The 10 Most Important Fire Safety Tips To Tell Your Kids

Small kids are one of the groups most at risk from fire in the home because, unless they are told about the dangers of fire and how to best avoid those dangers, they may never know.

It’s up to parents to take their children through some basic fire safety tips as soon as they are old enough to be in a room in the house alone and can comprehend the dangers.

Obviously, the first place to start would to be to purchase a First Alert SC9120B fire alarm, as these are probably about the most reliable fire alarms you can purchase. A fire alarm with exponentially decrease the risk of house fires in your home, especially at night.

Here are ten good places to start with the tips:

1. Don’t play with matches or lighters – this is a basic one that seems obvious to adults, but it’s not to kids. Teach them to not even touch matches or lighters.
2. Know where the Fire Exits are – whether it’s at school or at home your children should know where the nearest fire exits are and how best to reach them in the event of a fire or smoke being detected. They should know two ways of escaping from every room – make sure they know how to open the windows.
3. In the event of a fire tell them to get outside, not hide. Although they may be scared teach them that outside is the best place to hide to get away from a fire.
4. Teach them about your fire alarms – where they are in the house, the sounds they make and what they are for.
5. Teach them that it’s important to check the fire alarms regularly and to test batteries – this will teach them good practices for fire safety and it will get them involved; it will show them that it’s an important subject for everybody’s safety – including adults.
6. Show them how best to escape from a fire using the Fall & Crawl method. Show them how staying low helps you to breathe better as the heat and smoke rises.
7. Teach them to test the temperature of a door with the back of the hand and that if a door is hot to not open it – find another way out.
8. Show them what to do if their clothes are on fire – don’t run as that makes it worse. Show them how to stop, drop and roll until the fire is fully out.
9. Show them where to meet up outside in the event of a fire - a place in the garden that they can try to get to, perhaps. Tell them never to return to a burning building, even if they know someone else is in there.
10. Make sure they know the local emergency number and that they can call it if they smell smoke, even if they don’t see a fire, when you are not around. They should be taught first and foremost to tell their parents, but it may be necessary for them to call emergency services themselves, so make sure this number is well displayed in the home so they memorise it.

You may feel that some of these tips above are unnecessary for small children but we should always be prepared for fire and know what to do. We don’t want to scare the little ones, but we want them to be confident enough to escape and understand fire if they encounter it.