Home Fires: Winter Weather Awareness Week

Winter is just around the corner and it can bring it’s own set of safety concerns for your home. Home fires occur more in the winter than any other time of the year.

Here are some steps you can take to help keep your family safe and prevent home fires in the cold months ahead:

• Check smoke and Co (carbon monoxide) detectors monthly. Make sure your batteries have been changed in the last 6 months and that your system’s life expectancy has not been exceeded. (Generally, the life expectancy of a fire alarm is 10 years and a CO detector is 5-7 years.)
• Have a qualified professional clean and inspect your chimney and vents. When storing cooled ash from your fireplace or wood burning stove, place them in a sealed metal container and leave them outside, at least 10 feet from any structure.
• Keep portable generators outside the home and away from windows. You want your generator to be as far away from your house as possible.
• Keep a fire extinguisher in an accessible place and make sure everyone in your family knows how to use it properly.
• Keep anything flammable at least 3 feet from any heat source (such as: fireplaces, wood burning stoves and space heaters). Do not plug more than one heat source into an electrical outlet at a time.
• Make sure all tree branches are trimmed away from your house and any power-lines.
• Have an emergency kit prepared in case of power outages.

Do you need your smoke or carbon monoxide detectors evaluated, maintained or replaced? Call NAS Security Systems at (845) 342-4400 to schedule an appointment.