Fire Safety for Kids
Fire safety is a crucial area of safety parents should be educated on. Thirty percent of the children killed by fire, started the fire. Twenty percent of all fire deaths are children. 100,000 fires are set by children each year and 20,000 of those are in their own homes. Although most parents do not worry about younger children being around matches or lighters, children as young as two can light a match. Young children will do what adults do when a match starts to burn their fingers; they will drop it lighting themselves or their homes on fire. The majority of fires started by kids playing around are started with lighters and matches. It is not illegal for a child to buy a lighter, so look around and make sure your older children do not have them.
Lighters and matches need to be locked up or placed somewhere your child does not have access to. If friends or relatives come over make sure they do not leave anything lying around. Everyone needs some form of lighter or match to light a birthday candles and because of the rush or excitement lighters/matches are left out in the open. The leading cause of fire-related injuries or deaths for children 5 and under where started by matches.
You also need to store flammable materials in a safe place, preferably outside of the home. Some of these flammable materials include gasoline, kerosene, paint thinners, or cleaning supplies. If you have these items just sitting in your garage please know they can ignite at any time. All the flammable material needs is heat and your vehicle puts out heat. Many people have been burned in their garage from the heat of cars igniting substances. All flammable materials should be put in a safe place or disposed of.
