Household fires
are dangerous to everyone. Especially small children. The larger the family, the greater the risk of injury in a house fire. Older children are at risk of injury from a fire just as much as everyone else, but they have a much better chance of escaping than a small child. The best way to help your kids learn about fire safety is to teach them. Smaller kids need to learn in simple ways. Choose small words and use visual presentations. Here are 6 great tips that will help you teach your small children how to stay safe during a fire.
Show Them The Escape Route
Kids do not know what to do when they feel like they are in danger. In a fire emergency, your child might freeze up and not be able to move. The first thing you should teach them is what they need to do. They need to be able to recall information that will help them. If you have told them repeatedly what to do in an emergency, they have a better chance at escaping. Play out a scenario like a fire is happening. Do exactly what you would want them to do in that situation. Explain to them in simple terms why you are doing it and then have them follow you. Showing them the escape route will help them much more than just telling them.
Two-Exits Rule
Your kids should understand that there is a two-exit rule. If doors are blocked by fire, teach kids to use the windows. Show them how to open the window and how to break it (safely) if they have to. Make sure that your home is designed with two exits from every room. If the house suddenly becomes engulfed in flames, your chances of survival increase if there are two exits in each room.
Second Floor Safety
It could be intimidating for a child to think about escaping from the second floor of a home. If second windows exist in any areas on the second floor, specifically bedrooms, make sure that those are unlatched. Keep ladders nearby just in case. Make sure the ladders hook over the window so that the ladder won’t fall during the trip down. Let your older children practice escaping this way.
Feeling One’s Way To Safety
House fires do not always occur during the day time. Occasionally fires may take place in the middle of the night. And when they do, locating a safe exit under the cover of darkness may prove more difficult than expected. Have children practice using touch to locate an exit by either blindfolding them or turning off the lights.
Examine Door Knobs For Heat
Instruct your children on the proper ways to discern whether or not the doorknob is hot. When it comes to interacting with other items in the room, use gloves or at the very least thick towels. Towels will protect them from burns and protect their faces from smoke and flame if it is damp.
Stop, Drop, And Roll
Teach and practice the stop, drop, and roll technique with your children. Explain to them the importance of this move and that it is to be used in order to remove fire from clothes and flesh. Practice this move on a regular basis whenever you practice a fire drill with your family.
Fire safety is important for all to learn, whether you are young or old. And if it is not learned properly, the consequences can be dire. Adults usually have a plan of survival when it comes to fire safety, yet children lack the knowledge. A family is a family so long as it is whole. With these six tips, you will have all you need to instruct your children on fire safety.
If a fire disaster has occurred in your home, it is important to start the cleanup process immediately. Apex Restoration DKI in Chattanooga and the surrounding areas is your go-to crew for giving your home the needed repairs. Their professional teams work fast to deal with any fire and smoke damage that has occurred. Your home can be restored back to pre-loss condition thanks to advanced equipment and fire and smoke cleanup methods.
