Fire prevention and safety tips

Careful planning can often help you avoid loss or injury to your family and property. Follow these fire prevention and safety tips to safeguard your family and property.

Take precautionary measures

1. Install smoke detectors on each level of your home, inside bedrooms and outside every sleeping area. We recommend a hard wired system so the signal can be heard throughout the house. For an even better level of protection, consider a professionally installed monitored alarm system. If you opt for battery operated smoke alarms, be sure to check the batteries regularly and replace them semi-annually.
   
   
2. Keep multi-purpose fire extinguishers (class ABC) in areas accessible to the kitchen, utility rooms and garage.
   
   
3. Keep candles away from drapes, upholstered furniture, and other flammable items.
   
   
4. Never leave candles unattended or place them in high-traffic areas where children or pets might knock them over.
   
   
5. Don't overload extension cords or use indoor extension cords outdoors.
   
   
6. Keep extension cords out of reach of children and pets.
   
   
7. Don't run cords under carpets. The wire can fray or be pinched by heavy furniture and start a fire.
   
   
8. Don't nail or staple through the cord or light wiring.
   
   
9. Plug outdoor lights into circuits protected by ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs) to prevent electric shock.
   
   
10. Inspect all extension cords and lights for frayed wire, cracked insulation or excessive kinking before using them.

Practice family safety

• Establish and practice an escape plan with your entire family. Every family member should know two ways out of every room.
  
• Predetermine a meeting place outside your home.
• Teach everyone to: “Get Out, Stay Out” in the event of a fire. Call the nearest Fire & Rescue station immediately.

Get insured

• You might have vaguely remembered having signed up for fire insurance when you purchased your property; while fire insurance covers the damage against home structure, it does not cover the damage against what’s inside the house.
• Let’s say an electrical fire starts in your living room. That fire won’t just damage the wallpaper, it could also damage your TV set, sofas, carpeting and curtains.
• Fire insurance protects the building, while home insurance protects its content. It is important that you have a right insurance in place to protect what is important to you.

Check out Chubb’s Simply Home, a customizable insurance solution that comes with complimentary value-added benefits to ensure that your house and its contents are well protected for your utmost enjoyment as a home owner.

Find out more about Simply Home now >