Fire Safety Reminders for Parents

Welcome! If you're new to The (Un)Experienced Mom, make sure you don't miss a thing! You can subscribe for free updates via RSS feed or via email to have new posts delivered directly to your inbox. Thanks for visiting!

As a mom, our biggest priority is to keep our kids safe (along with happy and healthy of course!). But sometimes we need a refresher course on common sense safety tips since our minds are bogged down with so many other daily details. A friend of mine from junior high school is now an EMT/firefighter in the area and I’ve asked him to supply me with a list of reminders about fire and other safety concerns.

These tips are mainly geared towards school-aged kids (i.e. 5 and older), but it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with them even if your kids are younger than that for future reference. Also, you could potentially tweak some of these concepts to be more age-appropriate for the young ones (i.e. starting with introducing them to the concepts of safety, fire, and getting help).

The following information is directly from my friend, with my comments inserted in ITALICS.

Fire Safety Tips from the Professional:

1. Teach your kids about 911. Instruct them that it is an emergency number to call if there is a fire or if mommy or daddy is really sick (I think parents might not remember to remind them to call for this, so this is a good reminder!). You can joke with them to make sure they know not to call if they want to order a pizza as it is for emergencies only.

2. Teach them how to stop, drop, and roll. Explain to them that by running it will only make the fire bigger and increase the chances of burns.

3. Explain to them what a smoke detector does and what to do if one goes off. Teach them to recognize that when they are beeping, they are in need of new batteries and reward them if they bring it to your attention.

4. Teach them to stay low and crawl if they are trying to get out of a smokey house. We explain to the kids that it is cooler, easier to see, and easier to breathe closer to the floor. We usually show them that it is how we [the firefighters] go through a house when performing a search.

5. Practice fire drills on a regular basis and make sure that your family has a meeting place that is pre-planned. The meeting place could be a neighbors house (that way their phone may be utilized if necessary) or a tree in the front yard.

6. Emphasize that once your kids are out of the house that they are NEVER to go back inside. Remind them that the main thing is for them to be safe and be out of the house. Favorite toys are replaceable but they are not. Also, tell them not to go back into the house for any pets. Assure them that a lot of the times the pets will be the first ones out of the door, and that we, as firefighters go in to save fish, birds, dogs, cats, etc… I know because I have done it.

7. Make sure that they know the worst thing they can do is hide and that they should try to make it to the pre-determined meeting place. Hiding underneath beds or in closets should be discouraged.

8. Teach them how to open a closed door. They should first use the back of their hand on the door itself to check the door for heat. If there is fire on the other side of the door, leave it closed.

9. If they are trapped in their room and cannot get out of the window (if they are on the second or third floor), instruct them to keep the door closed and place towels, clothes, or blankets at the bottom of the door to keep the smoke out. We also like to tell them to open their window up and throw clothes or toys out of the window so that when we arrive on scene, we see them lying on the ground and look up at the window to see if there is someone trapped.

10. Teach them not to play with matches or lighters and to tell an adult if they see them laying out or if another child is playing with them.

11. Take them to Fire Department Open Houses so they get a chance to see how a firefighter looks with all of his gear on. Sometimes kids are scared by what we look like with the mask and gear on and they need to be shown that we are there to help them.

12. Try to identify hazards: pots on the stove with the handle hanging over the edge. Also, teach them not to put things in outlets or play with cleaning chemicals.

13. CO2 detectors should plug into the wall. This should be plugged in the wall in a low position (i.e. closer to the floor) and have a battery back up. A good name to get is a Night Hawk detector.

Extra Tips:

-Get CPR certified. If there is a problem with one of your kids, the 4-6 minutes it can take for us to get there can seem like an eternity and I can only imagine what it would be like to feel helpless for that period of time. Administering CPR can increase the chance of survivability and buy time until the ambulance gets there. (Note: I was also told by someone once that not all 911 dispatchers are trained to explain CPR, so knowing it yourself is a very good skill to have just in case).

-There is usually a smoke simulator for kids to go through at county fairs or fire expos. It is a trailer that simulates a home with fake smoke. A firefighter is usually there to teach them what to do and practice how to crawl out to safety.

-You may also want to contact your local fire departments Fire Prevention Bureau, as they may have additional material, resources, and/or training seminars (offering to help with smoke detector placement, escape plans, etc.).

-These are the videos we show the kids….they are dated and quite annoying, but they get the point across.
Fire Safety Tips for Kids 1
Fire Safety Tips for Kids 2

I want to thank my friend Brian so much for providing us with these safety reminders. Even though we may think we know all of this, reminding ourselves of these tips regularly will help us act effectively in the event of an emergency.