If a fire starts while you’re asleep – and you don’t have a working smoke alarm – there’s a strong chance you’ll never get out. You will just drift deeper and deeper into a fume-filled sleep. Children are particularly vulnerable in a fire. If they are scared, they may hide rather than try to escape. Find out how to keep your family safe from fire.

Did you know?

• You and your children are twice as likely to die in a house fire if you don’t have a working smoke alarm.
• When firefighters put out house fires, they find that many families’ smoke alarms aren’t actually working. For example, the batteries are dead or have been removed.
• Families where someone smokes are at greatest risk. Cigarettes, matches and lighters are the biggest single cause of fatal house fires. But – worryingly – smokers are less likely to own a smoke alarm than non-smokers.
• Cooking starts almost half of all house fires, with chip pans and greasy grill pans common culprits.
• Faulty electrics start up to one in six house fires. Causes include overloaded sockets, loose wiring, damaged cables and leads, and faulty or misused electrical appliances.
• Tea lights get hot enough to melt plastic.
• 6,000 fires a year are caused by children under the age of 10. Children can be fascinated by fire but don’t understand its dangers.
• Your family is almost three times more likely to be killed in a fire that starts during the night.
• The smoke released in a house fire contains poisonous gases – including carbon monoxide. Most people caught in a fire die from breathing in poisonous smoke.
• It can take just a few minutes from a fire starting to your home being full of smoke. The smoke is thick and dark, so it can be hard to see where you’re going.
• All UK fire brigades provide free home fire safety checks.

Safety tips

• You need a working smoke alarm on every floor of your home – upstairs as well as downstairs – to warn you quickly if a fire starts.
• Test your smoke alarms every week to check that they’re working.
• If the smoke alarm by your kitchen keeps going off when you’re cooking – don’t remove the batteries! Move the alarm further away from the kitchen door. Or change it for one with a silencer button or one that’s ‘toast-proof’.
• Change your old lighter for one that is child-resistant. And move matches and lighters where children can’t see them or reach them.
• Stub cigarettes right out in an ashtray. And – if you’re feeling sleepy – never be tempted to light up.
• Replace your chip pan with a thermostatically controlled deep-fat fryer or use oven chips. If you can’t give up your chip pan, never fill it more than one third full of oil.
• One plug per socket is safest if you want to avoid an electrical fire.
• Don’t put night lights or tea lights on a plastic bath or on top of a TV set – they can melt the plastic and start a fire.
• Plan how your family will escape if a fire breaks out. Then practise the plan together.
• Tidy up your hallway. Move bags, shoes and toys, so there’s no chance of tripping over them if you need to get out in a hurry.
• Keep keys to doors and windows where family members can find them quickly and easily in an emergency.
• In the event of a fire, get out, stay out and call 999.

Useful links

Test your knowledge with our quizzes on fire safety or enter our fire safety competition (link to quizzes for parents and carers)

For more fire safety advice, visit www.direct.gov.uk/firekills or www.dontgivefireahome.com

For information on free home safety visits and free smoke alarms, contact your local fire and rescue service:

England visit www.fire.gov.uk/Find+my+region.htm

Wales visit www.southwales-fire.gov.uk, or www.nwales-fireservice.org.uk or www.mawwfire.gov.uk

Scotland visit www.dontgivefireahome.com/fire_safety/1347.html

Northern Ireland visit www.nifrs.org/locations.php

Find and fix home fire hazards with an interactive room-by-room guide at www.dontgivefireahome.com

Practise escaping safely from a burning home at www.staywise.co.uk/activities or www.dontgivefireahome.com

More information on electrical safety and house fires

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