Follow these tips to keep your home fire-safe | North Kitsap Fire & Rescue

Published 12:07 pm Monday, October 3, 2011

“Protect Your Family from Fire” is the theme of this year’s National Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 9–15.

What’s the best way to protect your family from fire? Be ahead of the game, of course. There were more than 360,000 home fires across the United States in 2009, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).

So, this year’s theme focuses on preventing the leading causes of home fires: cooking, heating and electrical equipment, candles and smoking materials. Prevent these types of fires with the following simple safety tips:

– Stay in the kitchen when cooking.

– Keep anything that can burn at least three feet away from potential ignition sources such as baseboard and wall heaters, fireplaces, portable space heaters and woodstoves.

– Replace or repair damaged or loose electrical cords. – Blow out all candles before leaving the room or going to bed.

Find out more about preventing the most common fire causes by visiting www.firepreventionweek.org.

– Be prepared if fire breaks out by maintaining smoke alarms and testing them regularly.

– Replace alarms that are more than 10 years old.

-Plan and practice a fire escape plan that includes at least two ways out of every room and a meeting place outside.

NKF&R can help you reduce your chances of having a home fire with a safety survey. We are also available to install smoke alarms if needed. To make an appointment for these services, call us at 297-3619.

Our Yard Sale of excess and unneeded equipment and materials has been rescheduled from its original date on Sept. 17 to Oct. 15, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at our headquarters fire station near Kingston. No early birds, please!

Our annual Escape Planning Contest is underway in October with students across our fire district making and practicing their home fire escape plans. At each school, the classroom whose students return the highest percentage of accurately-executed plans will win an ice cream sundae party served by firefighters! If you need additional escape planning blanks, you can find a link on our website at www.nkfr.org.

Give Burns The Boot by donating when firefighters will be at Kingston Albertsons on Oct. 8, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., to collect your contributions to the Northwest Burn Foundation.

The foundation provides a wide range of services to burn victims and promotes burn prevention through education. Learn more about their work at www.nwburn.org, and plan to stop by and see your firefighters as they hold out their boots for this worthy cause. It’s a great way to “kick-off” National Fire Prevention Week.

Thank you to the many folks who came out to share breakfast with us and join us in remembrance of those who perished in the Sept. 11 attacks. In the victims’ honor, we raised nearly $500 to benefit two very worthy organizations: Snowball Express, serving children who’ve lost a parent in the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq; and Tuesday’s Children, which provides support to the more than 3,000 kids who lost a parent on 9/11. We were touched by Cub Scout Pack 4555’s gift of a special flag. Thank you to the Scouts and their families who joined us that day.

Emergency Medical Information Card is now available. At the request of several community members, we’ve worked with our responders to develop a simple form for recording vital medical history, medications, allergies and emergency contacts. Cut the form out, keep it updated and place it on the front of your home’s refrigerator so if we’re ever called to your home, we’ll know where to look. Contact us if you need help completing the form or need additional copies. The form can also be downloaded from www.nkfr.org. First Aid, CPR and AED Class will be held on Oct. 25  and 26 at our headquarters fire station near Kingston.  Class will begin at 6 p.m. each evening. Tuition is $40 per person, and must be paid in advance to reserve space in the class. For more information, call us at 297-3619.

Our free Child Car Seat Check is on the second Saturday of every month (in October, it’s the 8th) at the Paul T. Nichol headquarters fire station (26642 Miller Bay Road NE near Kingston) from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.