Your home is your castle. It is the one place you can relax, unwind, and be yourself. Of course, to ensure your home is such a refuge you need to decorate it in a style that reflects your personality and needs. You also need to maintain your home and you should take steps to protect it from burglaries and fires. 

In order to protect your home, you need to understand basic home fire safety. 

Why Home Fire Safety

In short, a house fire can start for many reasons, although one of the most common issues is an electrical fault. What may surprise you is that once a fire has started you may have as little as two minutes to get out before you succumb to the fire. It is not generally the fire that will incapacitate and kill you, it is the smoke that will cause more issues.

To ensure basic home fire safety you need to adhere to a few simple measures and get the best quality accessories from reputable fire safety equipment suppliers.

The Escape Plan

Before you rush to get anything, it is essential to sit down and draw a plan for your home. You can then outline an escape route for every room of the house. If possible, you should create two exits from every room, giving everyone in the house the best possible opportunity to escape a fire. 

Once you have created the plan you need to ensure there is a copy in every room and that everyone living in the house knows about it. You can then practice it regularly as this will be beneficial if a fire ever occurs.

Smoke Alarms

You should install at least one smoke detector n every floor of your house. It is even acceptable to put them in every room. However, you should avoid putting one in the kitchen as this will trigger too many false alarms. 

Once installed they need to be tested every month, you can always do this at the same time as a fire drill!

Electrical Inspection

One of the main causes of fires is faulty electrics. This can cause overheating which starts fires or simply creates a spark to ignite combustible material. The easiest way to minimize any risk from faulty electrics is to have them inspected at least once every year. A qualified electrician will spot any issues and resolve them before they cause a fire. 

An annual service is surprisingly cost-effective and significantly cheaper than dealing with the damage caused by a fire. 

Hiring A Fire Safety Expert 

Whether you’re renovating your home or have a new home construction, consulting a fire safety expert during the planning stage is a good idea. Fire safety experts include electricians and forensic specialists. 

Forensic experts are most sought to conduct fire investigations. If your property has a history of a fire incident, it pays off to consult a forensic expert before initiating your renovation project to determine the origin of structural fires.

Learn how a fire forensic expert can help improve your home safety at https://usforensic.com/.

Don’t Leave Appliances Unattended

Portable fires, extension cables, and pots and pans on the stove are all high risks of starting a fire. You should never leave any of these items unattended as a fire can start in seconds and you may re-enter the room to find a devastating fire that can literally kill.

If you are cooking and have to leave the room, turn the stove off while you do so, it is definitely better to be safe rather than sorry.

Teach Family Members About Basic Home Fire Safety

House fires often result from neglected operating appliances such as a microwave oven or gas stove. So, it’s important to teach family members about proper handling or usage of home appliances, candles, devices, and electrical fixtures. For instance, teach children to turn off the devices after use. You can also consider informing your family about the sound of your smoke alarms and your escape plan.

Takeaway

Basic home fire safety entails having a good escape plan, the installation of smoke alarms, and consulting fire inspection services. It’s also crucial to train all family members about basic fire safety to mitigate and reduce the risk of any fire-related incident, especially electrical fires.