First, we want you to know what to do if
something happens in your home and how to
prevent some of the most common fires,
Greensboro fire and life safety
Educator D Shelton is joining us
covering over all things related
to fire safety in your home,
and she's taking your questions as well.
You can text us your questions.
The number is 336-379-5775.
Remember this is text only,
so please don't call alright D.
Let's first talk about those
Greensboro fire stats and you kind
of have them listed about what?
Causes the most fires and then
all the way down the list.
Right so and not really,
only just in Greensboro.
But nationwide cooking always is the
top of the list unattended cooking.
You gotta stay with what you're cooking,
especially if you're frying foods, are more.
Cooking something in a high temperature,
and we even, you know,
kind of suggests that we don't cook on high.
You know a lot of times,
we want it, we want it.
Now we're in a microwave society,
so we want to fry something
or we want to boil water.
We put it on high and we leave it.
And then you know it's
going to take a few minutes.
You leave the room.
You answer the phone,
you check the TV or check your.
You know whatever,
and then we forget about it.
And that's what causes the most fires.
So stay with it.
Keep a lid on,
you know right nearby that fits
the pan that you're cooking in,
and make sure that everyone is out
of the area like pets and children.
Anybody that could cause you to trip.
Or if you're going to spell something,
keep them out of the area or
at least three feet away.
Stay with what you're cooking.
You can't say that
enough. Stay with what you're cooking.
The 2nd on the list is the bedroom.
They say that's the second highest
at incidence, and you said most
of that is from either smoking or
phone chargers, right?
I mean, a lot of people don't realize that.
Don't go to sleep with your phone plugged in,
or your iPad or your computer,
and now it's plugged in.
You're in the bed with it and you
fall asleep trying to make sure you go
ahead and take that out of the bed.
Set it over on a hard surface.
I realize it needs to charge.
But those things heat up
and they do 'cause fires,
so be careful with that.
Smoking should be done outside,
definitely not in the bed,
but that if it's in the bedroom area,
those typically seemed
to be the reasons why.
For
the most part, right on that same list.
Next off is laundry and then people's
outside balconies. Yes, laundry room.
That's kind of a no brainer.
The dryer is our biggest
issue in the laundry room.
Making sure that your vents are cleaned not.
Only the vents are clean,
like you're cleaning out
that trap after every load,
but you want to make sure that the
hose that vents to the outside.
Sometimes it's a straight hose and you
still need to clean those or the corrugated.
You can clean them or just replace them.
They're pretty cheap at
least once or twice a year,
and just check the plugs and make sure
you don't see anything around the plug.
Any dark area or something that
looks like it may be melted right?
And
that exterior balcony thing that's
people are cooking there and
that kind of stuff or smoking.
Outside and they forget to
like extinguish things. Yes,
discarded smoking materials is huge.
Cooking on a balcony.
If you're in an apartment and there's
people above you, or if you're at
home on your porch or whatever,
get the grill off the porch or
out from under those balconies.
Make sure there's no overhang
where you're grilling your food.
All right.
Let's talk about smoke alarms.
There are things that we kind
of take for granted that they're
just always going to work,
and I think one of the biggest
fallacy's is people think well,
even if the smoke alarm doesn't get it,
I'm sure all wake up.
No, not true. Smoke has
carbon monoxide in it as well,
so it does not wake us up.
It will put you in a deeper sleep and
then you don't wake up and and that's it.
So you want to make sure that
your smoke alarms are working.
A lot of people think I replaced the battery.
I pushed the button, I tested it, it beat.
So it's working,
and that's not necessarily true.
They typically come with a 10 year warranty.
They last about 10 years.
How do you know the age of yours?
Flip it over, look on the back for the
date that's the manufactured date.
Add 10 years to that tells you when
he expires, not like a light switch.
It doesn't just flip on or off,
it just kind of through the years at.
The radiation dissipates and
it causes it to listen.
It's accuracy and it used
to be we would say check
the battery once a year and if yeah
you know hit the little button and
it beeps then it's still good.
But you say don't go with that.
We should do that. You should test it
every month to make sure your
battery is good, but at the same
time when that 10 year span is out.
If it's giving you that chirp
that you think it's the battery
and you replaced the battery
and it doesn't stop chirping,
then it's giving you an end of
life and you need to replace
the alarm right? And again,
what she's saying is that smoke alarms,
like so many other things,
have an expiration.
So sometimes you actually need
to take the smoke alarm down,
look at it and look at the date.
And really it is 10 years and
you need to go and so a lot of
times they're like do I have
enough smoke alarms in the house?
You should have them wear.
Well that it is based on the code
at the time the home was built,
but not to get in the weeds on that.
If you have questions, of course
will give you the number at the end,
but it is great if you can add in smoke
alarms and have one in every bedroom,
one out in the hallway like
outside those bedrooms and at
least one on every level of the
home, at least on every level home.
But don't put it right in your
kitchen because every time you
cook and you burn something,
it's going to go off. So have
it right outside your kitchen,
not outside the kitchen and
not outside the bathroom.
All right, we're going to
continue to take your questions
and talk about fire safety.
We'll be right back.