General Home Safety

Fire spreads fast. There is no time to gather valuables or make a phone call. In as little as two minutes, a fire can become life-threatening. In five minutes, a residence can be engulfed in flames. Prevention is the key to protecting your family and your home.

Smoke Alarms

• Install smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each separate sleeping area and on every level of your home, including the basement.
• Test smoke alarms at least once a month using the test button.
• Make sure everyone in the home understands the sound of the smoke alarm and knows how to respond.
• Replace all smoke alarms when they are 10 years old.

Escape Planning

• Pull together everyone in your household and make a plan. Walk through your home and inspect all possible exits and escape routes.
• Know at least two ways out of every room, if possible. Make sure all doors and windows leading outside open easily.
• Have an outside meeting place (like a tree, light pole or mailbox) a safe distance from the home where everyone should meet.
• Practice your home fire drill at least twice a year with everyone in the household.

Kitchen Safety

• Stay in the kitchen when you are frying, grilling, boiling, or broiling food.
• If you are simmering, baking, or roasting food, check it regularly, remain in the home while food is cooking, and use a timer to remind you that you are cooking.
• Keep anything that can catch fire — oven mitts, wooden utensils, food packaging, towels or curtains — away from your stovetop.
• If you have a small (grease) cooking fire and decide to fight it, smother the flames by sliding a lid over the pan and turning off the burner. Leave the pan covered until it is completely cooled.

Heating Safety

• Keep anything that can burn at least three feet away from heating equipment, like the furnace, fireplace, wood stove, or portable space heater.
• Have a three-foot "kid-free zone" around open fires and space heaters.
• Never use your oven to heat your home.
• Remember to turn portable heaters off when leaving the room or going to bed.

Electrical Safety

• Frayed wires can cause fires. Replace all worn, old or damaged appliance cords immediately and do not run cords under rugs or furniture.
• If an appliance has a three-prong plug, use it only in a three-slot outlet. Never force it to fit into a two-slot outlet or extension cord.
• Immediately shut off, then professionally replace, light switches that are hot to the touch and lights that flicker.

Outdoor & Wildfire Prep

• Clear leaves and other debris from gutters, eaves, porches and decks. This prevents embers from igniting your home.
• Remove dead vegetation and other items from under your deck or porch, and within 10 feet of the house.
• Remove flammable materials (firewood stacks, propane tanks) within 30 feet of your home's foundation and outbuildings.