Fire Safety for Kids
It is important to communicate about fire safety with kids to avoid injuries during the critical situation. Not scaring the child, and having one-to-one conversation with them to teach them what to do during emergencies is important! It’s never too early to make them learn the fire safety rules. After the age of four, they start understanding about things and you should prepare your family for the unexpected!
Evacuation during fire breakout is not the one time plan, instead you need to make them practice several times so they get trained and get confident when it comes to reacting to these situations. Discuss with them about the hazards and ways to save themselves during fire breakouts. Few points mentioned below will help you make your kids learn about fire safety:
Create Fire Escape Route: Draw your house map on a sheet and make your kids understand and plan the route which can help them escape during fire! Making them learn this way will keep them interested and engaged and will encourage them to know more about it!
Move safely through home: During the actual fire, kids should know how to escape out of the house safely and should learn signs such as:
Fall and crawl: Teach them to go on knees and crawl through the floor safely during the fire and then get out of the house! In case when there’s no electricity, they should be prepared to escape that situation as well, make them practice by blindfolding them and finding the way through.
Test door knobs before opening the doors, if the knobs are hot then find the alternate way to escape.
Call 101 when they have made it to safer place to stop the fire.
If trapped in a room with no exit, then use a towel or cloth to cover the cracks of the door in order to ensure that no smoke flows in.
Follow the rule STOP, DROP AND ROLL: Do not panic when the fire breaks out, stop at a place, think wisely and make the next move!
Lay down on the ground and cover your face using hands and keep your body straight!
Try extinguishing the fire by rolling the barrel back and forth several times.
Most importantly, practice and practice. This will help you prepare yourself and your family very well for mishaps. Take precautions to avoid fire breakouts in your house such as make sure your devices and wiring are working perfectly without any sparks, don’t light the candles at random places in your house, and keep electrical appliances away from flammable objects! Stay safe!