As this is the month of Thanksgiving, I just want to take time to give thanks for all of you. I’m thankful for you, THANK YOU for allowing our team to serve you and your family. I try to approach each day with gratitude and I am very grateful for what I get to do. I love what I do. I love helping families protect their children, pets, other loved ones, homes, vehicles, and everything else.
I also love helping to educate people about their insurance. I’ve seen a lot in the 30+ years I’ve been doing this, and one of the hardest situations I see is when a client experiences a fire in their home.
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), a fire department responds to a fire somewhere in the U.S. every 23 seconds. Sometimes fires are a freak accident, but many times they are preventable. The leading causes of U.S. home fires are cooking and heating – both are preventable.
Fire Prevention & Safety Tips:
Ask anyone who has experienced a home fire – it’s much better to avoid any type of fire altogether. It is worth it to take any possible steps to prevent a fire in the first place, versus losing your home completely or being displaced for months to a year while your home is repaired, cleaned and put together.
Follow Cooking & Heating Safety Tips
I highly recommend at least looking over the following two NFPA tip sheets on cooking safety and heating safety. As we head into December, January, and February, keep in mind that half of home heating fires are reported during these months.
Use a Monitored Fire Alarm
If you haven’t yet, I would think about adding a monitored fire alarm system. These systems monitor your home 24/7 looking for smoke. Then, as soon as it detects smoke, the monitoring system can contact your fire department. This allows a quick response and makes it much more likely that you’ll be able to save your home and your stuff. Most insurance companies offer a credit for monitored fire alarms, so make sure to let us know if you have or add one so we get any applicable credits applied to your policy.
Clean Dryer Vents Yearly
Dryer vents should be cleaned at least once a year. They number one cause of dryer fires is from not cleaning the vent regularly. There are companies out there you can hire to clean your dryer vents or purchase attachments for your vacuum cleaner to help with removing all the extra fuzz. This NFPA dryer safety tip sheet has some helpful hints as well.
Clean Gutters Twice a Year
Open gutters should be cleaned at least twice a year. Hire someone else if you should not be on a ladder. If you are cleaning them yourself, make sure you have someone holding the ladder and watching out for you. This was an issue with my father who at 85 decided to clean the gutters alone, didn’t tell my mom, and then showed up at the door covered in blood needing stitches since he fell off the ladder. Please be careful!
Clean Chimneys and Wood Stoves Yearly
Chimneys and wood stoves really should be cleaned every year. Chimney fires can damage your chimney liner and cause your house to catch on fire.
There are so many little things that can done to prevent a fire hat it’s hard to cover them all here. The NFPA has a ton of information and additional safety sheets besides the ones already linked to on here. I hope you and your loved ones stay safe and have a wonderful upcoming holiday season!
We’d love to hear from you – please reach out! We are here to help.
