How to Make a Home Disaster Escape Plan

September 20, 2021 by

If a disaster such as a fire breaks out in your home, you may have only a few minutes to get out safely. This is why having and practicing an escape plan is so important. According to an NFPA survey, while 71% of Americans have an escape plan in case of a fire, only 45% of those have practiced it. Both planning and practicing are important, especially if there are young children or anyone with mobility issues in the home. So, follow the steps below to create an effective disaster escape plan.

  • Draw a map of your home, indicating all windows and doors. As a family, visit each room of your home and find two ways out, labeling them on your map. Make sure windows and doors required for an escape are all accessible.
  • Discuss a plan to have one adult assigned to help get babies, young children, or family members who need extra help out safely. Teach able-bodied children techniques to escape on their own in case they can’t be reached.
  • Decide upon and draw up a meeting place outside of your home for everyone to gather after an evacuation. This can be a tree, light pole, or mailbox that is a safe distance away from the front of your home. Teach everyone to NEVER go back inside a burning building. Once they are out, stay out.
  • Practice your home fire drill at least twice a year. Practice once at night and once during the day with everyone in your home, and practice using different ways out. During the drill, test the smoke alarms so that everyone knows the sound. 
  • When you hold your fire drill, everyone in the family should practice getting low and going under the smoke to the exit. During the drill is also a good time to teach children how to use the back of their hand to check doors for heat before opening and to use a different way out if the door is hot.
  • If escape ladders are part of your disaster escape plan, show everyone where they are kept and spend time practicing using them during your drill.
  • If you live in a multi-residence building, always plan to use the stairs to get out, never the elevator. Make sure to practice using the stairs as part of your escape plan. 
  • If you can’t exit a multi-residence building due to smoke or fire in the hallway or stairway, call the fire department to report your exact location and gather in a room with a window to await their arrival. Close all doors between you and the fire. Use duct tape or towels to create a seal around the door and over air vents in order to keep smoke from coming in. Wave a flashlight or light colored cloth at the window to let the fire department know where you are located.
  • Children can become scared and confused during emergencies, so teach them not to hide from firefighters and other emergency personnel. 

A fire or other disaster can easily occur in your home, regardless of your home’s age, location, or condition. Take the time to make and practice an escape plan for the safety of everyone in your home. For more information regarding Sentry Window Guard products and our experience and leadership in understanding NYC safety requirements, contact us today!

Filed Under: Safety Tips Tagged With: ,

Tips To Avoid Christmas Tree Fire Hazards During the Holidays

December 5, 2018 by

Happy Holidays New York! With the excitement and anticipation of this magical season, we want you to remember a few safety tips when trimming your Christmas tree. Although beautiful to admire, overloaded lights and dried-out trees are a recipe for fire disaster. According to the National Fire Protection Association, here are some scary facts:

#1: Fire departments respond to an average of 210 structure fires caused by Christmas trees each year.

#2: One of every three home Christmas tree fires is caused by electrical failures.

#3: Although Christmas tree fires are not common, when they do occur they are more likely to be serious.

#4: A heat source too close to the tree causes roughly one in every five of the fires.

We advise you to take the necessary steps to ensure you and your loved ones stay safe during the holiday season.

1.  How to choose the right tree for your family:

  • Artificial Tree: Make sure it’s labeled, certified or identified by the manufacturer as fire retardant.
  • Live Tree: Choose a tree with fresh, green needles that don’t fall off when touched.

2. Where to place the tree in your home:

  • Cut 2” from the base of the live tree trunk before placing it into the tree stand.
  • Make sure the live or artificial tree is at least three feet away from any heat source such as a fireplace, radiator, candle, heat vents or lights, and not blocking an exit.
  • Add water to live tree stand daily.

3. How to safely light the tree:

  • Indoors or outside, use only lights that have been tested for safety.
  • Check each set of lights, new or old, for broken or cracked sockets, frayed or bare wires, or loose connections.
  • Do not use more than three standard-size sets of lights per single extension cord.
  • Fasten outdoor lights securely to trees, house, walls or other firm support to protect from wind damage.
  • Never use lit candles to decorate the tree.
  • Always turn off Christmas tree lights before leaving home or going to bed. Lights could short out and start a fire.

4. How to dispose of the tree after the holidays:

  • Get rid of the live tree when it begins dropping needles. Check with your local community to find a recycling program for your tree.
  • Bring outdoor electrical lights inside to prevent hazards and extend the life of the lights.

At Sentry Window Guards we make it our mission to help keep families safe in New York. While our business is to help prevent falls from windows, we also recognize the importance of preventing potential fire hazards in the home. For more information regarding our window guard products and our experience and leadership in understanding New York City safety requirements, contact us today!

Filed Under: Holidays, Safety Tips, Winter Home Tips Tagged With: , ,

Creating Your Fire Safety Plan in New York

October 1, 2015 by

Creating a Fire Safety Plan in New York     

As summer winds down and cooler temperatures begin arriving we’ll all begin spending more time indoors, as a result, most home fires occur between the months of November through March.  Now is the time to make a fire plan or review your existing one.  Fire’s don’t just happen to careless people, anyone could be at risk.

Here are some recent statistics:

  • In 2014 public fire departments in the United States responded to 1,298,000 fires.
  • In 2014, 494,000 fires occurred inside of a structure.
  • An alarming 74% or 367,500 fires occurred inside of homes.
  • Every 86 seconds a U.S. fire department responded to a home fire in 2014.
  • Cooking equipment is the leading cause of reported and unreported home fires and injuries.
  • Children under five years old are almost 1-1/2 times more likely to die in a home fire as the average person.
  • Most home fires that cause child deaths occur during the months of December – February.
  • In 2014, there were 26,531 structural fires in the five boroughs of New York City with an FDNY average response time of 4 minutes and 9 seconds.

What to Do

Leaving you as little as one or two minutes to escape once your smoke alarm sounds, fire can spread rapidly through your home.  This is a great opportunity to get the entire family involved in creating an escape plan.  You should try to create two means of escape from each room, utilizing windows and doors.  Sometimes a drawn floor plan with escape routes and smoke alarms noted is easier for children to understand.

NAFTA provides a very child-friendly, interactive grid which gets children involved in a safe, fun way.

http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/escape-planning/basic-fire-escape-planning

NAFTA recommends that smoke alarms be installed in every room where anyone sleeps, outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home.

It is imperative that every person in the household understands the escape plan. During your fire drill, make sure the escape routes are clear and doors and windows can be opened easily.

Fire safety in a high rise or apartment building has its own challenges because of many differences such as time/distance to get out of the building, smoke movement, and fire department access.

Best practices for planning an escape from an apartment building can be found here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/pdf/safety/fire_safety_education/2010_02/07_residential_apartment_fire_safety_english.pdf

  • Choose an outside meeting place (neighbor’s house, a light post, mailbox, or stop sign) a safe distance from your home or apartment building where everyone can meet after they’ve escaped. Make sure to indicate your meeting place on your family’s escape plan.
  • Make sure your street number is clearly visible from the road so that responding emergency personnel can find your home.
  • Make sure everyone is familiar with contacting 9-11 or the Fire Department directly.
  • If there are infants, older adults, or family members with mobility limitations, make sure that someone is assigned to assist them in the fire drill and in the event of an emergency. You’ll need a backup person in case the person assigned to assist isn’t home during the emergency.
  • If windows or doors in your home have security bars, make sure that the bars have an emergency release so that they can be opened immediately if necessary.
  • You should consider telling guests or visitors to your home about your family’s fire escape plan. When staying overnight at other people’s homes, ask about their escape plan. This is especially important if your child attends a sleepover.
  • If your smoke alarm sounds, be fully prepared to get out.
  • Once you’ve escaped the fire, stay out!  Do not go back into a burning building. Let the fire department know if someone is missing.

 

Testing your Plan

  • You should have a home fire drill at least twice per year.  Once children have mastered your escape plan, consider having one at night when they are sleeping. You don’t want to frighten them, so tell them before they go to bed that you’re having a fire drill. Having a fire drill at night will also let you know if anyone in the house sleeps through the smoke alarm, if so, assign them a buddy who will wake them up.
  • If your home has two floors, make sure everyone can get out of a window easily from the second floor.
  • Teach your family to stay low to the ground to avoid any toxic smoke.
  • Close doors as you escape, which slows the spread of the fire and may give you more time to escape safely.
  • Teach family members, especially children what to do in the event that they cannot escape.  Show them how to stuff towels or clothes under doors to prevent smoke from entering the room they are in.
  • Don’t forget to teach everyone about testing the door for heat before you open it.
  • Make sure everyone understands “stop, drop and roll”.

 

Fire Prevention Week

NFPA has been the official sponsor of Fire Prevention Week since 1922. According to the National Archives, Fire Prevention Week is the longest running public health and safety observance on record. This year’s fire prevention week will be October 4 – 10th and the theme is “Hear the Beep Where You Sleep.” For more information on Fire Prevention Week click here: http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/fire-prevention-week

The FDNY has a very interactive fire prevention department, for more information click on the link: http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/html/safety/index.shtml

 

At Sentry Window Guards, your family’s safety is very important to us! If you have questions about fire safety and your current window guards, give us a call!

________

Sources

http://www.usfa.fema.gov/data/statistics/

http://www.esfi.org/

http://www.nfpa.org/

http://www.nyc.gov/

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Child Safety, Safety Tips Tagged With: ,