This week is National Fire Prevention Week. This week is set aside to educate children and adults on the dangers of fire and provide tips on how to prevent fires.
Knox-Center Township Fire Chief Kenny Pfost said it’s important to have the house numbers visible so firefighters can find your home.
“Reflective ones are the best type of numbers to have,” suggested Pfost. “It’s very important to have the numbers on your home because there’s a lot of times at night, they’re extremely hard to find. We know the general area where the fire may be, but if there’s a lot of houses in one area and there are no flames showing, it’s very difficult to find at times.”
It’s also a good time to maintain smoke detectors and make an exit plan.
“October is always a good time to change the batteries in your smoke detectors. Make sure that you have at least two exit plans. If you live in a two-story house, you need to have some sort of escape device if you should have a fire so you can escape the second floor. You should have something like a collapsible ladder. You need to have a meeting place outside to where everyone can meet up when they’re outside of the house,” said Pfost.
There is one tip that you might not think about if a fire breaks out in your home in the middle of the night.
“One of the big things is when the smoke detector goes off, everybody’s instinct when they’re laying in bed is to sit up,” Pfost explained. “You need to stay down, staying laying down, and roll off the bed. If you sit up, that first breath you take could be toxic enough to kill you with the heat and the toxic gases.”
Take all precautions necessary if you decide to burn brush in areas of the county where it is permitted, especially in these dry conditions.
“It seems like everyone wants to burn when it’s nice, but when it’s nice out it’s windy a lot. In the afternoon, when it’s calmed down, is the best time to burn,” said Pfost.
Candles should never be left unattended.
“Never leave your home with candles burning,” said Pfost. “We’ve had a lot of fires where people leave home and they forget to put a candle out. Keep them away from curtains.”
Knox firefighter, Shawn Kidder, will be at the Knox Elementary School on Thursday and Smokey the Bear will be sharing some of these tips with the students.
