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I have a confession to make, and I’m not proud of it. Up until very recently, we had never really discussed fire safety with our kids. We actually didn’t even have a plan in place for if there ever was an emergency in our home. It’s not lost on me that this is a major parenting fail. Sure my older kids have learned about fire safety at school. They have endured fire drills, and they know all about how to stop, drop, and roll, but if there were ever a fire in our home, I’m not confident they would have had any idea what to do. A huge part of being a parent is educating our children, and keeping them safe, so it was time to make some changes, to put a plan into place, and to sit down and have an open discussion about fire safety with our kids.
The first thing that we did was upgrade the smoke detectors in our house with First Alert 10-Year Sealed Battery Alarms with Voice Technology because of this alarm’s amazing benefits and features. The voice technology is what made these alarms particularly appealing to us. Studies have shown that voice and location technology helps children wake up when there is an emergency in the house (Journal of Pediatrics, 2018). Our kids sleep with sound machines and fans on, so this was a big plus! Above and beyond that incredible safety feature, we loved that the First Alert 10-Year Sealed Battery Alarms with Voice Technology were super easy to install, and offered hassle-free protection that could help keep our family and our home safe for a decade. This 10-year sealed battery option eliminates the need to climb up on a ladder and change the batteries every six months. If you do however, have smoke alarms with regular batteries, be sure that someone in your home is changing them regularly! These alarms also won’t wake you up in the middle of the night with an annoying chirp when the battery starts to die (raise your hand if you’ve been there!).
Making this change was so important to us after we learned that maternal voice alarms woke 86-91% of children, prompting 84-86% to escape successfully within 5 minutes of the alarm’s onset. That’s compared to only 53% waking and 51% escaping with a standard alarm, which is a HUGE difference. Once our First Alert 10-Year Sealed Battery Alarms with Voice Technology were installed, it was on to the next steps for educating our kids about what to do in the event of a fire.
One of our biggest goals was not to scare our kids, but to prepare them. We knew we needed a plan of action, so we drew up an escape route, and went over what to do if there was ever a fire emergency in our home. We also installed and tested our new smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in front of the kids, so that in the event of a real fire they would know what they would hear and what to expect. Getting your kids involved in the process is such a great way to educate them. Reading about the subject helps too. We purchased a few age-appropriate books for them to read that would help them understand on their level. These are a few of our favorite books: Pete the Cat: Firefighter Pete, Big Frank’s Fire Truck, and No Dragons for Tea. Lastly we hung our escape route map in a place where they will see it often, and even practiced what to do if there is ever a real fire. My intention is to practice this every few months, an at home fire drill if you will, to really drill the procedure into their heads.
We found that by doing all of these things, our kids have a better idea of what to do and we feel like we can breath a little easier knowing that our home and our family are prepared!
Some Helpful Fire Safety Tips for Everyone:
- Install smoke and carbon monoxide alarms on every level and in every bedroom of your home.
- Test your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms regularly.
- Replace your batteries every six months or upgrade to First Alert 10-Year Sealed Battery Alarms with Voice Technology.
- Alarms don’t last forever. If you have alarms with 10-year sealed batteries, be sure to replace them every decade.
- Make a plan and practice an escape route with your family!
Do you have a fire safety plan in place for your family?
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