No parent wants even to consider a fire breaking out in their home. While prevention is always better than cure, it’s vital you know how to respond should the worst happen.
To successfully protect your loved ones and your property, you should learn the steps you need to take should you experience the disaster. Keep reading to find out what to do if there is a fire in the family home.
Inform Your Loved Ones
If it is impossible to tackle a blaze by yourself, you must immediately shout for your loved ones to leave the property to ensure their safety. Never rely on a smoke detector to inform them, as they could malfunction in different points within the home.
Call the Fire Department ASAP
If a fire is spiraling out of control, you must immediately call the fire department to combat the blaze. If you have left your cellphone in your home, you must not return and instead ask to use the phone of a neighbor or passerby to call 911.
Grab a Fire Extinguisher
If a fire is localized to a small area within the home, grab a fire extinguisher at the sound of a smoke detector. It could help you to quickly put out a fire, which can minimize property damage and protect your family. If, however, the fire extinguisher is failing to curb the blaze, you must immediately leave the property with your loved ones and call the fire department.
Maintain Your Safety
Ensure you and your loved ones remain safe by remembering essential safety tips. For example, if there is thick smoke across the home, instruct your nearest and dearest to crawl to safety quickly and to remain close to the ground.
Inform them they must remain low until they have escaped the blaze to prevent smoke inhalation. If possible, use either a damp towel or shirt to cover your nose to prevent smoke from entering your lungs. Also, if your clothing should catch fire, you should remember to stop, drop and roll.
Close Your Doors
Protect both you and your family by closing the door on a blaze, which can prevent a fire from spreading to different points across the home. This will designate the blaze to one spot for a short time, which could minimize damage and stop the spreading of thick smoke.
Organize an Emergency Property Repair
Once you have led your loved ones to safety and the fire department have eliminated the blaze, your next concern might be the Fire damage caused to your property. Rather than worrying about how you will recover from the disaster, you should call up emergency cleanup contractors, who have extensive experience restoring fire damaged properties.
Don’t Immediately Turn on Your Utilities
It is likely a firefighter will turn off all utilities to avoid another fire breaking out in your home. If a fire department has disconnected your utilities, you should contact both your provider and the fire crew before you attempt to turn them back on. Otherwise, you could cause an additional fire, water damage, or a gas leak.
