A Safer Home Is Just A Click Away

As part of MCFRS’ on-going commitment to innovation and building a safer County, the Community Outreach Section of the Division of Volunteers Services & Community Outreach has launched a new, on-line tool designed to efficiently manage and streamline requests for home safety and smoke alarm checks for County residents.

Most fires in the home are preventable and the effects can be devastating.

It’s important that you know how to reduce the chances of a fire starting in your home and how to keep yourself, your family and your home safe from fire. This new tool will provide residents with a fast and convenient way to request a home safety visit.

What is a home fire safety visit?
Representatives from the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service will visit your home and offer advice on how to make your home safe and where appropriate smoke alarms should be located and installed for free.

Who is eligible?
Residents of Montgomery County may request a free home safety visit. The installation of free alarms is targeted to high risk individuals that include older people and senior citizens, individuals with mobility, vision or hearing impairments and residents who may have a disability or be economically challenged.

The on line tool can be easily accessed via desktop, web or mobile device. Go here to learn more: Schedule a Home Safety Evaluation 

Every Second Counts!

In the event of a home fire, every second counts. Have a home escape plan? If not make one! #SpringIntoSafety

Partnering Up To Help Make Our Seniors Safe

MCFRS and Red Cross teamed up for a Senior Safety outreach effort yesterday. Working with Meals on Wheels, more than a dozen homes had a home fire safety evaluation. 

Smoke alarms were checked and any potential fire and/or injury hazards identified! If smoke alarms were not working, crews either installed a new alarm or battery depending on the circumstance.

More than a dozen homes are a little bit safer now than before yesterday!

Exit Drills In The Home - Have Two Ways Out!

Having working smoke alarms and residential fire sprinklers play a large role in you and your loved ones surviving a fire in your home. Another crucial part of surviving a fire in your home is developing a home fire escape plan and then PRACTICING the plan! As they say in sports: "If you fail to prepare than prepare to fail!"

While we hope you never experience a fire in your home, the women and men of MCFRS hope that you prepare the right way so as to increase the chances you and your loved ones will survive if fire does occur.

You can go here to learn how to develop a plan: Develop a Home Escape Plan

Once you develop that plan and familiarize all occupants of the home with the plan, make sure you hold a fire drill -- just like you did in school -- to practice the plan!

Below is a great video from our partners in safety at FEMA and the US Fire Administration that provides more information.

Smoke Alarm Saves!

At a townhouse fire earlier this morning on Knoll Mist Lane, a smoke alarm alerted two sleeping children, in the basement, who then escaped with no injury! Cause - unattended cooking. Area was the 1st floor kitchen. Damage estimated at $100k with one family, two adults and two children, displaced. Approximately 45 Firefighters responded to extinguish the fire.  

Exit Drills In The Home - Have Two Ways Out!

Having working smoke alarms and residential fire sprinklers play a large role in you and your loved ones surviving a fire in your home. Another crucial part of surviving a fire in your home is developing a home fire escape plan and then PRACTICING the plan! As they say in sports: "If you fail to prepare than prepare to fail!"

While we hope you never experience a fire in your home, the women and men of MCFRS hope that you prepare the right way so as to increase the chances you and your loved ones will survive if fire does occur.

You can go here to learn how to develop a plan: Develop a Home Escape Plan

Once you develop that plan and familiarize all occupants of the home with the plan, make sure you hold a fire drill -- just like you did in school -- to practice the plan!

Below is a great video from our partners in safety at FEMA and the US Fire Administration that provides more information.

If There Is a Fire In Your Home - Get Outside and Stay Outside!

From our partners in safety at the NFPA is a video for kids that relates to our Summer of Safety theme this week - Home Escape Planning.

Please take a moment to have your child watch the short video below.  Remember it is important that you include your kids in developing a home escape plan.  As well, it is important you practice the plan by having a fire drill at home!  Practice makes perfect!

Make Sure Your Child Is Prepared For A Fire

Every home should have working smoke alarms and an escape plan in case of a fire. Include all family members in the planning process and make a plan for anyone with special needs or limitations such as a baby or toddler, the elderly or the disabled.

Create a fire escape floor plan:

• Start by drawing a rectangle on a piece of paper. Draw one for reach room of your home. Then draw in all doors and windows. Your children can use crayons to draw in beds, tables, etc.
• In one color, draw a line that shows the fastest way out of each room. Then, in another color, draw another line that shows the second fastest way out.

Now that you have your fire escape plan, talk to your family about how they would escape from each room of your house or apartment if there was a fire. The Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service recommends having home fire drills regularly so everyone knows what to do in an emergency.

Know what to do in case of a fire.

• Pick a meeting place outside of your home where everyone can gather after they have left the burning building.
• NEVER use an elevator to escape a fire.
• Conduct home fire drills and make them realistic by holding your drills in the evening since kids can get disoriented in the dark and fires often happen at night.
• In case of a fire, get out first then call the fire department with a portable, cell or neighbor's phone from a safe location.
• Make sure that everyone knows that once you're out, stay out! Never go back inside of a burning building.

Escape Tips:

• Close doors behind you as you escape to slow the spread of fire and smoke.
• If you have to escape through smoke, remember that smoke rises. Teach children to "get low and go" if there's smoke. The air will be cleanest and easier to breath near the floor.
• Test doorknobs and spaces around closed doors with the back of your hand. If the door is warm, try another escape route. If it is cool, open it slowly. Slam the door shut if smoke pours through.

Things to Think About:

• If you're having a baby-sitter or overnight guests, these people need to learn your household fire escape plan, too. They should be familiar with the sound of the smoke alarm, escape routes and your family's meeting place.
• Can everyone in your home - including children - unlock and open all doors and windows?
• You may want to consider supplying upper bedrooms with escape ladders. Show children where the ladders are kept, how to attach them to the window and how to use them. Demonstrate how to back out of the window and go down the ladder feet first. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue recommends practicing from a ground floor window where there is no risk of falling.
• If you need to descend a ladder to escape, be sure to lower children to the ground before you exit from the window. They may panic in an emergency situation and not follow you if you go first.
• If your windows have security bars, equip them with quick-release devices, and teach everyone in your household how to use them.
• Test your smoke alarms once a month.
• Replace alarm batteries once a year.
• Smoke alarms don't last forever. Replace alarms that are more than 10 years old, following manufacturer instructions.

Fire Prevention Week – Check Your Fire Safety Knowledge & Video

Hopefully all of you are having a happy and SAFE Fire Prevention Week.  A couple of items I believe you will find of interest.

Think you know all there is to know about fire prevention and safety?  Well, put yourself and family members to the test – or should I say quiz.  Please take just a few minutes to complete the Fire Prevention Week Quiz.

After you are done please take one minute out of your busy day to watch the below video from our partners in safety, the U.S. Fire Administration, and learn more about developing a home fire escape plan.

It Is Fire Prevention Week! Have Two Ways Out Of Your Home In Case Of Fire!

Did you know that this week, October 7 – 13, is Fire Prevention Week?  Of course here at MCFRS we think each and every week during the year should be fire prevention week!

This year’s theme is “Have 2 Ways Out.”  What does that mean?  It means that you and your family need to have a home escape plan in case of fire.  As part of that plan, you should identify at least TWO ways out of your home in case your first way out is blocked by fire or smoke.

To learn how to develop a home escape plan, please see below.  You can download, print out, and sit down with your loved ones to develop a home escape plan TODAY!

Fire Escape Plan Sheet for Web

Did You Know?

CPSC estimates an annual average of more than 386,000 unintentional residential fires, nearly 2,400 deaths and more than 12,500 injuries each year from 2006 through 2008.


Fire kills and injures!  Make sure you check your smoke alarms today!  Also develop a home escape plan for you and those you love!

What Every Family Needs to Know - take a couple of minutes to talk to your family about fire safety today!

No one wants to think about having a fire at home. But thinking about it and being ready for it can and does save lives. Having working smoke alarms in your home provides early warning if there is a fire. Planning and practicing a home fire drill can prepare you to get out safely. If you think your home is not at risk for a home fire, consider these statistics: every 60 seconds there is a fire in the United States, approximately 4,000 people die in fires annually, and about 80 percent of these deaths occur in the home.

Please take a couple of minutes to talk to your family about fire safety today!  Learn more here: Keep Your Family Safe!

Sincerely,

Chief Bowers and the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service