Plan & Prepare for a House Fire – Guidance from Fire Damage Restoration Professionals

When it comes to burdensome life events, there are events as draining than a fire that damages your residence and personal possessions. Being a fire damage restoration company, Paul Davis understands what a serious hazard house fires are. Without warning, all it takes is a couple of minutes before a fire sparks. A fire in your house is a horrible and emotionally exhausting situation, even if it destroys everything or not. However, you can do specific things to ensure that you are ready for when a fire happens.

Prepare Your Property for the Prospect of a Fire & Always Have an Emergency Strategy

When it comes to home fires, some of them aren’t in your control and can’t be prevented. That’s why the most effective thing for you to do is have safety measures in place. Smoke alarms and fire extinguishers are a must, and always check that you have the correct number to suit your house. However, you should consider installing smoke alarms that can detect smoke from fires caused by electricity, since faulty wiring is one of the main causes of house fires. If you have children, you’ll want to instruct them on how the smoke alarm sounds and what to do when one goes off.

Other precautions consist of outlining fire escape routes in your house. Design a strategy and ensure everyone in the house understands the emergency fire escape routes – there should be two exits for every room in the home. Also, it’s necessary to have a designated meeting spot outside so you know who gets out of the house and who is absent.

Something else you need to do is secure your valuable items such as photographs, birth certificates and passports. You can create digital replicas and store them into cloud storage as a backup, and you can buy a fire safe box to keep the real copies secure as well. Lastly, take inventory of all your personal belongings for insurance purposes in case they’re consumed by the flames.

To Lessen the Chances of House Fires Take These Measures

Even though some fires aren’t avoidable, there are a few things you can do to decrease the possibilities of a fire from occurring in your house:

  • Fireplaces: Creosote is highly flammable and it forms in your fireplace and chimney after it’s been in use, so always get your fireplace cleaned regularly. Getting a large, durable screen is also crucial to prevent sparks from flying into the room and rolling logs.
  • Portable Heaters: It’s fundamental to keep any combustible or flammable items at least three feet away from a space heater. You’ll also need your space heater to have a control mechanism as well as other features for safety such as turning off if it falls over.
  • Smoking: Cigars and cigarettes are serious threats for fire, and smoking outside is the best way to prevent a house fire. If you smoke inside, make sure you have ashtrays with deep walls and that under any situation you don’t smoke in bed or while you’re lethargic. In addition, never smoke inside if someone in the house is on oxygen because this is extremely combustible.
  • Children: Explain to your children that fire is not something to play with, and make sure to store matches and lighters in an area that is out of sight and out of reach.
  • Cooking: Remain in the area at all times while food is on the stove or in the oven and never leave it alone. If you need to step out of the area, get someone to watch over the food until you come back.
  • Appliances and Electrical: Do a habitual examination on your electrical appliances and ensure the cords and plugs are in good condition. Also, when switches for your lights are hot to the touch, then you need to switch them out.

Contact the Fire Damage Restoration Technicians at Paul Davis

Immediately call the professional fire damage repair team at Paul Davis if your residence has had a fire. Our skillful contractors can re-mediate any fire damage and get your house back in good condition. For a Paul Davis franchise near you, give us a call at 888-473-7669.