Question:

I'm not shouting fire! But I would rather prevent than worry about to how to repair my home after a fire! Do you know of a site, link, publications dealing with fire prevention in the home? Anything you can share would be helpful, perhaps helpful for other newsgroup visitors here.

Answer:

A great many home fires are cause by smoking materials, often under the influence of alcohol. Many of the most tragic fires are the combination of children and matches or cigarette lighters. Have a grandson who started a house fire at age 4, in the middle of the night. He got frightened and climbed in bed with mom and dad. Only reason they survived, I believe, is that my son awoke to the smell of smoke. He extinguished the fire just as it was beginning to burn the living room drapes. Don't use gasoline for anything but it's intended purpose - running an automobile or internal combustion engine. If you need to use flammable products, use the least flammable, buy the minimum amount needed, store it properly and read the label. Don't overload electrical circuits or extension cords, don't leave cooking foods unattended (or any other fire). Check your smoke alarm often, keep fire extinguishers on hand, train kids and the rest of the family what to do - alert others, escape, call for help. It's all on the internet, National Safety Council, etc. Assume the kids will mess with anything they can get their hands on. Many FD's will do a walk through of your home and I've been through more than a few demonstrations of fire-fighting and evacuating at work. If you have an invalid in your home, everyone should be trained in removing a disabled or unconcious person from hazard. Easy to do when you know how. What else is there? Portable heaters - very dangerous. When my kids were small, I was cooking dinner on the gas range. The kids were playing in the yard. My daughter, then about 4, came in to tell me something. As she spoke to me, I detected the smell of gasoline. We were standing next to the open flame of the range. I asked her what the smell was. She had gotten into some tar that dripped from the roof on a hot summer day and my helpful neighbor had cleaned it from her hands with gasoline. I read an article in Reader's Digest, years ago, about the most severely burned person ever to survive. It was a girl, about 10, who had gotten into some paint. She took a gasoline soaked rag into the bathroom to clean the paint off. Laid it down, started running a tub of bath water, and when the gas water heater outside the bathroom came on, the fumes exploded. She was burned over 90% of her body. It's the most dreadful thing I can think of. I came close to burning my house down once, too. Painting my kitchen late one night. I had gotten some spray shellac to cover stains on the ceiling. Sprayed like mad and then remembered I had forgotten to put out the pilot light for the gas oven on the range. I had the room covered with plastic tarps, so had to scurry underneath to blow out the pilot. Had the windows wide open but it was a warm, still night so the vapor just hung in the room for quite a while. Scared the heck out of me. I won't tell you about the time my hubby and I were trying to burn out a palm tree stump and I poured denatured alcohol from a gallon can onto the hot stump.

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