Delran Fire Department

Fire prevention for your home

Smoke detectors

Install smoke detectors on every level of your home, including the basement, and especially outside every sleeping area - inside, as well, if people sleep with the doors closed.

Test smoke detectors monthly by pushing their test buttons.

Install new batteries at least once a year or when your detectors "chirps" to warn you that battery power is low.

Install smoke detectors away from cooking vapors to prevent nuisance alarms.

Clean your detectors regularly, according to manufacturer's instructions.

Replace any smoke detector that is more than 10 years old.

For complete home protection, consider also installing automatic fire sprinklers. Sprinklers attack a fire in its early stages by spraying water in the area near the fire and can gently reduce smoke and damage.

Escape plans

Plan and practice your escape at least twice a year. Every member of the household should know at least two exits from each room. Make sure that doors and windows needed for escape are unobstructed and easy to open. If an exit route involves an upper story window, make sure there is a safe way to reach the ground. Decide a meeting place outside the home where every member of the household can gather once they've escaped. Know the phone number of the fire department and arrange to use a neighbor's phone in the event of fire.

Sleeping areas

More than half of the fatal home fires happen while people are sleeping. Smoke detectors installed outside of or in every sleeping area can wake people before smoke or toxic gases overcome them.

And remember: Never smoke in bed.

Living and family rooms

Remove fire hazards and practice fire safety to prevent home fires.

Use extreme caution with cigarettes, matches, and lighters. Provide large, deep, non-tip ashtrays for smokers. Before you go to bed or leave your home after people have been smoking, check for smoldering butts under and around furniture cushions.

Keep space heaters and woodstoves at least three feet (one meter) away from anything that can burn. Always turn space heaters off when you go to bed or leave the room. Never leave children alone near a working fireplace, woodstove, or space heater. Refuel kerosene heaters with kerosene only, outside your home, and after the heater has cooled.

Use a metal fire screen on your fireplace. Have your chimney inspected by a professional once a year and cleaned if creosote has built up in the flue. Use only dry, seasoned hardwood in woodstoves and fireplaces.

Kitchen

Stove burners and ovens can burn you and start fires. Be attentive and remember these safety tips:

Never leave cooking unattended.

Keep your stove surface and oven clean.

Wear short, tight-fitting, or rolled-up sleeves when cooking to avoid catching your clothing on fire.

Keep combustible materials away from the stove. Don't hang curtains, potholders, or towels near the range or store items on stovetop.

Turn pot handles inward so they can't be bumped or pulled over.

Enforce a "Kid Free Zone" three feet (one meter) around the range.

In microwave ovens, use only those containers designed for microwave use.

If a small fire starts in a pan, carefully slide a lid over the pan to smother the flames, and turn off the burner. Leave the lid on until cool.

Never pour water on a grease fire.

Workshops, storage areas, and outdoors

You may have flammable material in your home. Exercise fire safety inside and out.

If you store gasoline, keep it outside your home in a shed or detached garage. Keep only a small quantity in a laboratory-approved safety can. Use gasoline only as a fuel, never as a cleaning agent or indoors.

Before starting your lawnmower, snow bowler, or motorcycle, move it away from gasoline fumes. Let small motors cool before you refuel them.

Always store paint and other flammable liquids in their original, labeled containers with tight-fitting lids. Use and store flammable liquids far away from appliances, heaters, pilot lights, and other sources of heat or flame. Never smoke near flammable liquids.

Have your chimney, furnace, and boiler checked by a professional at the beginning of the heating season.

Remove trash from your home. Don't store anything near a furnace or a heater.

Use barbeque grills with caution. Never use gasoline to start the fire and don't add charcoal-lighter fluid once the fire has started - even to glowing coals. You can use dry kindling to revive the flame.

Use cooking grills only outside, not on porches or balconies, and away from vegetation and combustibles. Store propane cylinders outside.

Escape from fire

It is important to realize:

Once you have made your way out of a burning building you may already be suffering the effects lack of oxygen.

These effects include:

At 21% Oxygen level Normal Atmospheric Level

At 19.5% Oxygen level Minimum Healthful Level

At 15-19% Oxygen level Decreased stamina and coordination also may induce early symptoms described below.

At 12-14% Oxygen level Breathing rate increases with exertion, increase in heart rate. Impaired coordination, perception, and judgment.

At 10-12% Oxygen level Breathing further increases in rate and depth, lips turn blue. Poor judgment.

At 8-10% Oxygen level Mental failure, fainting, unconsciousness, nausea, and vomiting.

At 6-8% Oxygen level Fatal after 6-8 minutes.

At 4-6% Oxygen level Coma in 40 seconds, convulsions, respiration ceases, and death.

One of the major effects of lack of oxygen is the impairment of judgment. You may not realize it, but the possible exposure of lack of oxygen on the way out may impair your ability to think clearly and rationally. Even if you are not affected, others who escaped with you may display the impairment of judgment.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO PREVENT OTHERS FROM RE-ENTERING!

Other Dangers

Another hazard, which exists in a burning building, is the presence of toxic gases. Carbon Monoxide is a main by-product of fire. It is odorless, colorless and tasteless. In high concentration it can immediately cause unconsciousness and subsequent death. Even in moderate amounts carbon monoxide can cause impairment of mental functions much similar to the lack of oxygen.

Fire itself is a serious hazard in that it can cause fatal or debilitating burn injuries. A building fire can generate heat upwards of 1500 degrees F. Keep in mind that water boils at 212 degrees F, and that most foods are cooked at temperatures of less than 500 degrees F. There is the possible danger of flashover where a room is immediately engulfed in flames in an explosion-like area.

Gas mains, propane tanks, and even small arms ammunition can explode causing serious injury.

The structural integrity of the building can be affected during fire. Ceilings and walls can collapse on top of you, the floors can fall from underneath your feet, and other structures such as stairways and porches can collapse.

Often electrical lines can become exposed inside the building and fall from outside connections to the ground on the exterior of the building. This can result in electrocution.

Finally…

Go to a safe place (preferably prearranged) far enough away from the building in case of collapse or explosion and perform a head count of those who were in the building with you (family members or co-workers).

If someone is missing it is critically important that this be conveyed to arriving Firefighting Personnel. Tell them who and how many people are missing and where they were last seen.
"DO NOT GO BACK IN AND TRY TO FIND THOSE MISSING".

Seek medical care if you or any others who escaped form the burning building are injured. Keep in mind that the symptoms of lack of oxygen and / or exposure to toxic gases can closely resemble those of alcohol intoxication. Get these people immediate medical attention.

Seek shelter from the elements in a safe neighboring building, especially in the cold, rain, and extreme heat.

Ask Firefighting Officials or a neighbor to notify insurance company, nearby relatives or the Red Cross to arrange lodging (if applicable).

If you are not going to remain in the building, make sure your property is secure. Ensure the police are aware of the building being unattended. Lock up or board up open windows and doors.

Never re-enter! Results could be deadly!

One of the greatest hazards of life that exists in a building fire of any magnitude is the lack of sufficient oxygen.

Oxygen is not only essential for human life, but also is key to supporting the life of the fire. When fire and humans compete for the limited amount of oxygen within a burning building, fire always wins!

Most fire fatalities are caused because of this. It is often referred to as death from smoke inhalation but put in much simpler terms it is death by suffocation.

The dangers of oxygen displacement in a burning building as well as other hazards including the presence of toxic gases, the fire itself, the risk of explosion, building collapse, and electrocution make re-entering a burning structure dangerous, if not deadly proposition.

Safety Procedures