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OCTOBER IS

FIRE PREVENTION MONTH

October 9th-15th is Fire Prevention Week. The National Fire Protection Association’s theme for this years Fire Prevention Month and Fire Prevention Week is “Fire Wont Wait. Plan Your Escape”. This year, the NFPA is encouraging individuals and companies to develop fire escape plans. Workplaces need to be fire aware, and home fire escape plans need to be formulated with all members of the family and practiced regularly. Access Health Louisiana’s Director of Security and Emergency Planning, McKinley Day comments on some of the things AHL has done to prevent fires at home and the workplace, “we are doing everything we can to get the word out to all of our staff and partners about creating a plan to Prevent Fire at home and at work. Some of a few other things we’ve done:

Partnering with local fire officials to ensure our own fire plan is current
Ensuring that all fire extinguishers have recently been inspected and that every staff member knows there location.
Conducting mock fire drills at each site.
Posting current and relevant information on our social media platforms.”

For most people, home is where individuals feel safest from fires. However, according to the NFPA, home is where you are at the greatest risk of fire, with 74% of all U.S. fire deaths occurring in homes. McKinley adds, “Some of the most common fires at home are caused by cooking item left unattended, not cleaning the ventilation on your dryer, leaving lit candles unattended and using space heaters. In regards to the work place, most common [causes] are space heaters and electrical outlet overuse.” Additionally, individuals are much more likely to be seriously injured or die in a house fire compared to the 1980s.The NFPA states that “Today’s homes burn faster and hotter than they used to, minimizing the amount of time they have to escape safely. In a typical home fire, you may have as little as two minutes to get out from the time the smoke alarms sounds.”

To help keep our work places safe, Access Health Louisiana has been conducting fire drills and awareness at each of our clinical sites. Additionally, our staff has been trained on the importance of creating a fire safety plan for their homes.

The NFPA has 5 key messages as a part of their “Fire Won’t Wait. Plan Your Escape” theme:

Make sure your home escape plan meets the needs of all your family members, including those with sensory or physical disabilities.
Smoke alarms should be installed inside every sleeping room, outside each separate sleeping area, and on every level of your home. Smoke alarms should be interconnected so when one sounds, they all sound.
Know at least two ways out of every room, if possible. Make sure all doors and windows open easily.
Have an outside meeting place a safe distance from your home where everyone should meet.
Practice your home fire drill at least twice a year with everyone in the household, including guests. Practice at least once during the day and at night.

The National Fire Prevention Association has many resources for creating fire awareness plans such as a checklist and a home fire escape plan. Samples of each of these files can be found below. For the full files, click here for the fire awareness checklist, and click here to find the Home Fire Escape Plan.