FIRE SAFETY

So the other day we got a thing in the mail for a free dinner at Madelines steak house for the first x amount of people that call so we called and got in. But the catch was we had to listen to a fire safety presentation. I just have to say it was the best informative meeting I have been to. I can't believe how many people have been killed in a fire. It is the number one killer for 5 year old children and younger. The factor is TIME....the guy said no one should die in a fire when a fire starts you have to get out in two to three minutes or usually someone doesn't make it out. It so sad he showed us a lot of newspaper articles of people that didn't make it out because there smoke alarms didn't go off and for some reason fires usually start in the night when people are sleeping...don't know why. People usually don't wake up in enough time and then it's too late to get everyone out. He also said smoke usually kills people before the fire. It gets in your lungs and then it causes you to ...oh whats that word I can't think of it but he said its the same as being drunk. So when you have too much smoke inhaled your thinking is off and you can't remember how to get out of your house. The whole time I was in this meeting i was thinking about my boys being at grandma's house and is grandmas house safe?. For example don't have all your appliances plugged in...check the lint in your dryer, make sure you don't have batteries stored in junk drawers with flammable items in there as well. Don't store paint or gas containers in mechanical room. ( who does that? but there are people that do). Clean your smoke alarms by dusting them off...a note he said in most cases smoke alarms will not go off when there is an actual fire because the smoke particles are so big that it usually bounces over the sensor and doesn't set it off...I know weird. It always goes off when you have a small cooking fire though. So if you don't have a fire extinguisher now please go get one ....his advice store it in your bedrooms. Make sure its not a plastic one it should be metal. Check batteries in your smoke alarm. Have a fire escape plan for your family especially for the little ones so they know to get out instead of hide under a bed. Have something to break a window ...the window usually won't open in a fire due to the heat. So yes I am buying a fire extinguisher today probably a couple. You always think it won't happen to you but you never know. Since fire has killed more people than people killed in all the wars combined. I hope this lhelps in being prepared in case of a fire.