Easy Ways To Prevent House Fires

House fires claim lives and destroy property all across the globe, but you and your home do not have to be a victim. As long as you follow a set of guidelines that have been developed to protect you and your family, the chance that your home will catch on fire will be greatly reduced. Make sure the rest of your household knows these new rules and that you plan on having them follow them to the letter, though, or the effort will be wasted.

One of the most important things is to realize that most house fires start in the kitchen. These usually start due to human error or negligence, but mostly it is because items are left unattended on the stove. This is something that you should never do. Do not allow yourself to become occupied with other events in your home such as fighting children, the telephone, or family members wanting you in another room. If you want to watch something on TV while you are cooking, have a small television installed in the kitchen, perhaps under one of the upper cabinets. Give yourself every reason to stay in the kitchen.

You should also not ever try to open your stove’s oven door while it is cleaning itself. Most ovens lock shut while they are cleaning themselves and you should not try to force this door open due to the amount of heat inside. This is a hotter temperature than it will allow you to cook things at.

If you ever have to clean anything with gas or turpentine, do it outside away from your house due to the fumes. The fumes are heavier than air and settle around the floor, making any spark from a wall outlet a serious threat. These and other materials marked as highly flammable should be stored outside the home and away from it, in a shed of some kind if possible.

Your electrical outlets should never be overloaded with accessories that create extra outlets or extension cords. Extension cords, when you do have to use them, should not be used with devices that are created to emit a large amount of heat, such as space heaters or items that you cook with, such as electric skillets. These will melt most household extension cords, so a more heavy duty variety should be used. Never run extension cords under rugs or carpet.

The batteries in your smoke detectors need to be changed at least once a year. Test your smoke detector every few months to make sure that it is working correctly and having one that also detects carbon monoxide is an added bonus, since this is a silent, invisible killer that is more common than you may realize.

The Best Ways To Shop For Windows

New windows can help not only with your utility bill at the end of the month, but they also look better and will add a significant amount of value to your home if they are installed correctly. Shopping for windows does not have to be a difficult process as long as you know what you need to do when you go.

The first thing that you need to decide is just where you will get the new windows that you want. You can either go shopping online for the windows that you need and trust your own instincts as to what style will go perfectly with your home or you can shop around in the physical world and talk to a designer to see what they think. No matter which option you choose, you will want to do a little shopping around first and see who will offer you the best price. Make sure you know what size windows you need and how many before ordering online, so you will save on shipping.

The next thing to consider is who you are going to have install the windows for you. If you shop in the physical world at a store, they will likely have an installation service that they will try to sell you, but if you order online and they are shipped to you, you will have to either find someone to install them for you or you will have to do it yourself. If you shop at a store in the real world, find out if the price of the installation is included in the final price of the windows, since in most cases, it is not and will cost you extra.

There should be a warranty on the windows that you purchase and when you hire someone to install them for you, you should ask about a warranty on the labor. Be extremely skeptical of hiring anyone who will not give you a warranty in writing on the labor he or she performs while installing the windows. Try to deal with only reputable companies.

Depending on whether you life in an area prone to wildfires or not, you may want to purchase multi-pane windows instead of large single pane windows, since they will radiate a lot less heat into the house and will be less likely to cause drapery to set on fire.

Shopping For Windows

Adding new windows to your home can give a number of benefits, like improving the insulation of your home and reducing your utility bill at the end of the month. When you go shopping for them, you might find yourself a little overwhelmed at the number of different styles and types available to you, but getting the advice of the manager or the in-house designer may be a good idea to help you get the exact windows that are right for your situation. A good example of when to get new windows is if your current ones are made of wood and are starting to show their age. Wood rots over time and should probably be replaced with vinyl or perhaps even aluminum windows, as long as you do not live in a coastal environment. The salt in the air on the coast will deteriorate aluminum.

You can also shop online for windows, even though shopping in person at the store is the most popular method. Whether you decide to shop online or offline, you want to look around at a few different places first to make sure you get the best price that you can. When shopping offline, you need to ask if the installation is included in the price of the windows, because most of the time it is not and you will have to purchase it separately. Whenever you purchase a service like this for your home, always ask about hidden costs and warranties. There should be a 10 year warranty on the windows that you buy and another 10 year warranty on the labor that it took to have them installed. You should not hire anyone who will not give you a warranty on their labor. Proper installation is necessary to prevent water from leaking in the house and causing water and mold damage. These are huge problems that can cost quite a bit of money to repair, not to mention the health effects that mold can cause by itself.

The window hardware that you choose also needs to match the rest of the hardware in your home and the style of window that you choose. Whether you choose a brass finish, nickel, gold, or any other type, you should keep it consistent throughout your home to create a sense of unity.

You can purchase many different kinds of locks for your new windows to help make your home safer than it already is. To further increase the level of safety around your home, put bushes underneath the windows, preferably something like rose bushes that will discourage intruders from taking that route inside. Unfortunately, this is a trade off, since if your house catches on fire, a window may be your only way out. The decision is yours to make.

Is Your Home Safe From Fire?

Everyone should know how to prevent fires from happening in their home and there are a number of ways that you can increase fire safety. Make sure all members of your home know these guidelines and follow them.

A common item that you can use in the kitchen to put out small fires on the stove is baking soda. Salt can also be used, but baking soda does a little bit better of a job. It might take two or three handfuls of both to put out a small fire, but this is significantly less messy than using a fire extinguisher to do this. Try to use a fire extinguishing method that is proportional to the size of the fire to avoid having a large mess.

Keep at least one 5 pound fire extinguisher in your home at all times, especially in the kitchen. If your home has more than one floor, you will want to have one on each floor, just in case.

If your oven cleans itself and locks the door, do NOT try to force the door open. It is extremely hot inside your oven, hotter than it allows you to cook things in it, and this level of heat is very dangerous. When the oven is cleaning itself, leave it alone.

All items that are labeled as being extremely flammable need to be stored outside in a separate building, if possible. If you do not have a separate building in your yard, you need to at least create an area to put them in that is not near your house.

Do not clean anything in your home with gas or turpentine. The fumes from these chemicals will settle to the floor and a spark from any electronic device could set them off. Clean items in this way outside and away from your house.

Keep combustible materials away from your furnace and other appliances that get hot. This includes space heaters that you use in the winter to keep your house warm. If you can help it, do not place these on carpeted surfaces and never use them to dry socks or gloves wet from snow or water.

Your smoke detector’s batteries need to be checked and changed regularly to make sure they will work when you need them to.

If you have a chimney, it needs to be cleaned and inspected at least once a year.

Guaranteed To Prevent House Fires

Even though house fires claim a great many lives around the world and cause billions of dollars in damage to property, there are a lot of things that you can do to reduce the risk that your home or business will catch on fire. Following a few basic guidelines will do this, as long as you make sure the rest of your home follows them, as well.

Store everything that is labeled as flammable outside the house, preferably in a shed of some kind. This includes items like turpentine, gas, paint thinner, propane, and etcetera. The further away from your home these items are, the better.

You should never clean anything with gas or turpentine in your house. Fumes of a lot of flammable chemicals like this are heavier than air and will settle to the floor. All it takes is one spark from a wall outlet and the whole house will go up in flames.

Any time you do work in the garage or outside and you have rags or paper towels that become soaked with flammable chemicals, you should never throw them in the garbage along with other paper materials. The gas needs to evaporate from these items, not insulate so that it becomes heated.

The space heaters in your home that you use in the winter to keep warm should never be placed near combustible materials. This is one of the worst mistakes you can make, along with leaving the home while the heaters are in operation. You should also never use space heaters to dry wet clothes, even a small pair of socks or mittens.

Appliances like space heaters that emit a lot of heat should never be used with extension cords that are not considered heavy duty. A heavy duty cord that is at least a 14 gauge should be used with these or else the cord will melt.

Extension cords should also never be run underneath a rug or carpet, since this will insulate the heat emitted by the cord.

Your smoke detectors should be tested regularly and the batteries replaced.

Finally, most house fires start within the kitchen, even though a large number of them go unreported simply because they did not do any damage extensive enough to warrant an insurance claim. Never leave anything you are cooking unattended.

Great Ways To Protect Your Home From Wildfires

Wildfires to extensive damage to the natural world and the homes and property of mankind every single year that they occur, but if you own your home, there are some things that you can do to slow down or even completely prevent excessive damage to it. All you have to do is follow a few simple guidelines and wildfire damage to your property will be minimized.

If you live in an old home and not a new construction, you may want to consider having some of the exterior materials of your home replaced with some that are more fireproof. If the outside of your home is wooden or vinyl siding, you may want to have it replaced with brick, stone, or even metal, since these materials resist catching on fire much better than the former two.

The material on the roof of your house also probably needs to be replaced. The shingles that you have on your old home are probably made of asphalt, wood, or even metal. The metal is fine unless it is rusted and leaking, but wooden and asphalt shingles need to be gotten rid of since they will catch on fire fairly easily. The roof is the most important exterior surface of your house, since firebrands carried by the wind can land on it and set it on fire. This is one reason to keep your roof wet when a wildfire is anywhere near your home and to keep dead vegetation away from your house. This means raking up cut grass and dead leaves and getting rid of it as soon as it starts to collect.

You also need to have small windows in your home instead of large ones. Windows that have multiple small panes instead of one large pane in them will radiate a lot less heat and will be less likely to catch drapes on fire or burst and allow wind laced with firebrands into your house.

You should also not have any trees close to your home, especially with branches that hang over the roof. While you can keep the roof and the exterior of your home wet with your garden hose to help protect against firebrands, keeping the tree wet might be a little too difficult.

When evacuating your home because of a wildfire, take only those things that are the most valuable and cannot be replaced. If you are evacuating voluntarily, you may have a little more time to prepare, but if it is mandatory and enforced by local law officials, you might not have much time.

Are You Ready To Prevent A House Fire?

Preventing your house from catching on fire is probably not as difficult as you think it is, even though there are a large number of house fires all around the world every year. These cause an extensive loss of life and loss of property, but knowing a few simple rules and guidelines can save you from most of the risk of this happening to you. After you read this, make sure the rest of your family knows your house fire safety rules and that you are serious about enforcing them.

The first thing that you need is a fire extinguisher on each level of your home and the knowledge of how to use it correctly. It should be at least 5 pounds and there should be one in the kitchen, since this is the main area of the home where fires start. Know that a fire does not always have to be put out with a fire extinguisher, so if you can put out a small fire on the stove that started under the burner with a handful or two of baking soda, go for it. But, do not hesitate to use your fire extinguisher if you think for a minute it is getting out of hand.

All combustible materials need to be kept away from heat sources like furnaces, water heaters, and space heaters.

Space heaters are a problem all to themselves, since their specific purpose is to put out heat and since you have the option of placing them wherever you want them, their level of risk is increased. Never place these items on carpet if you can help it, especially those space heaters that sit low to the floor with short legs. Do not use these to dry any fabric and never use them with extension cords unless the cord is heavy duty. Small extension cords coupled with appliances that use a lot of electricity, especially to produce heat, will melt.

Flammable chemicals need to be kept outside of the house and away from it in a shed, if possible. If you do not have a shed or storage area to put these in, have a neighbor or a friend who does store them for you.

Cleaning items with turpentine or gas should be done outside. The fumes from these chemicals should not be allowed to build up inside the house, since they are heavier than air and will settle on the floor.

Are You Protecting Your Home From Wildfires?

The damage caused to homes and other property by wildfires every year is extensive, but if you are planning on building a home in a rural area where these fires are a risk, there are a few different things that you can do to help minimize the damage to your home.

Fireproof materials are what should be used in the construction of your new home and the surface of your home that presents the most amount of risk is the roof, because it has the largest amount of surface area of any part of the exterior. Your roof needs to be made of metal, tile, or fiberglass, never oil-based materials like asphalt shingles. Wooden shingles are also a very bad idea. These catch on fire pretty easily and when a wildfire is nearby, small sparks are carried on the wind and will land on your roof, causing it to catch on fire.

You also need to use materials for the exterior of the house like brick, stone, and metal, since these will offer the greatest amount of protection. Vinyl and wood siding will give you very little protection against the elements.

The windows that you have in your home are also going to be very important, since when the windows burst, it will allow the wind and firebrands into the house and everything inside will catch on fire. You should either have small windows or multi-pane windows, because large single pane windows will radiate a lot more heat.

Any trees that are close to your home should be cut down, since having this kind of vegetation near your home in a wildfire prone area is a serious risk. You should also not allow dead organic material like cut grass or dead leaves to pile up anywhere near your house. Keep these things cleared well away from the home as much as possible, but if you have neglected to do this and you have to evacuate your home because a fire is nearby, the best thing you can do is take your garden hose and soak them and the rest of the yard with water. Wetting the roof and the rest of the exterior of your home is also a good idea when a wildfire is nearby and will neutralize the threat of firebrands.

If you do choose to evacuate your home or are made to by local law enforcement, you should only take the most important things with you. Depending on how much time you are given or feel like you have, you can load up whatever valuables you need to in your vehicle, but if you are pressed for time, take money, jewelry, valuables, and etcetera.

Taking Care of a Fireplace

Lots of people have fireplaces in their homes, but keeping them clean and smoke free takes some maintenance and effort on the part of the homeowner. The fireplace will not maintain itself, even though there are some fireplace cleaning logs on the market these days. These will not completely replace a professional cleaning, though, so you should have one of these done at least every year or two.

You should also have the proper tools stored next to your fireplace and these are available in many different materials and types. Cast iron is a good and durable material, but fireplace tools are also available in brass, pewter, nickel, and etcetera. There is a large selection on the market and you will surely be able to find what you are looking for.

A fireplace blower can help build up the fire and add more heat to it. You have probably seen one of these before and it can be a real help when first starting to build a fire.

Fireplace tongs can be used to move around logs that are obviously too hot to pick up with your hands and this is necessary, since the logs will not always be exactly where you need them to be to get the most heat and longevity out of the fire.

A fireplace poker can be used to stir around coals and spread them so that the heat is more evenly distributed. This helps larger logs catch on fire faster than they normally would.

A shovel is used to clean out the ashes that are left after a fire is out and a small broom is necessary to keep the area immediately outside the fireplace cleaned up.

If you are having problems building a fire that does not spill smoke back into the room, you need to make sure that nothing is blocking the chimney on top of the house. Leaves, bird nests, and sticks can clog it up during the spring, summer, and fall and make it completely unusable.

Using the correct wood is also important; logs that are freshly cut and have a lot of moisture still in them will smoke instead of catch fire. Use logs that are dried out and try to store them in a place where they will not get wet.

Start the fire slowly by building it up with paper and small sticks at first to get the chimney warm. Warming up the chimney is important so that the air inside it becomes warm instead of cold. Cold air pushes the warm air and smoke down and back into the house.

Here Is How To Prevent House Fires

Fires happen all over the world, but the fires that happen inside a person’s home are often the most preventable and all it takes is a little diligence and some common sense to discover what the fire hazards in your home are and how to get rid of them when you find them.

It is a fact that most house fires happen in the kitchen. Even though a great number of these small stove fires go unreported because they do not do any damage, you really need to learn what you can do to prevent them from happening in the first place, because it only takes a second or two for a small fire to spread into a much larger one. House fire prevention begins in the kitchen by learning that you should never leave anything on the stove unattended unless it is an emergency and you should never leave the house to go and run errands during this time unless someone is going to be there to keep an eye on the cooking.

You also need to be careful with deep fryers and electric skillets. Any appliance that emits a large amount of heat needs to be monitored consistently to make sure that it does not overheat and catch on fire and you should not ever have to use an extension cord with these. Small extension cords like the ones you would use for lamps will NOT work and will melt. If you must use an extension cord, make sure it is a heavy duty one with a gauge of at least 14.

Heating shortening and oil in the kitchen also poses a significant problem, since it is so flammable. Heat these slowly so that they do not burn and do not catch on fire and if you have to leave the room, turn them off or have someone watch them for you.

Space heaters are also a big problem during the winter time and like with deep fryers and electric skillets, do not use an extension cord with these. Do not place them near drapes or other fabric items and keep children away from them. Also try not to leave them on overnight while you are sleeping unless you absolutely have to and even then, make sure you take the necessary steps to keep flammable items away from them. Do not use these in the bedrooms of small children due to the amount of flammable stuffed animals, pillows, and blankets that are likely to be there.

The worst thing that you can do is let yourself become comfortable with these appliances and allow yourself to think that you know what you are doing and a fire cannot happen to you. Letting your guard down in this manner is what causes a large amount of house fires.

Is Your Home At Risk Of Fire?

Purchasing a house the first time is generally very intimidating, but the notion of losing that home to a house fire is much scarier. For for anyone who is buying a house, one of the first things that you ought to learn about would be safety concerning fires. Your home is likely to be the most important purchase you can make and safeguarding it ought to be something that is important to you at all times.

There are a lot of varied things inside your home that may catalyze a fire and a lot of these can be circumvented.
An unfortunate fact is that a large number of house fires begin in the kitchen and since household chefs simply are not paying attention to what they are doing. Getting preoccupied with other chores or items inside the house, such as the computer or family, is one of the worst things that you can do while you are cooking dinner.

If the phone rings, be sure it is in the kitchen and that it remains close to you always. You should not leave the house when you are cooking unless someone will stay there to keep an eye on the stove when you are not there.
Grease fires tend to be very normal within the kitchen, although most of these are tiny and easily put out. Most of these do not get reported due to that, concealing precisely how common these fires truly might be.

Be prepared for an oil fire by heating it gradually, having a pot lid to smother the fire, and a box of baking soda in case it starts underneath the coil. These start underneath stove burners many times because they have gotten oil beneath them and have not been washed out like they ought to be. with baking soda, but you should also have a fire extinguisher close by in case the fire gets out of control.

You need to be careful while you are using electric skillets and deep fryers. Although these may have the option of heating it up to or over 400 degrees Fahrenheit, you should not walk away while these appliances at these temperatures for very long. Extension cables should not ever be used with these appliances, except when they happen to be heavy duty ones. Small, normal home appliance extension cables can melt.