Simple Fire Safety Tips Can Help Boost Survival

• Install a smoke alarm on every level of your home, test the batteries every month and change the batteries at least once a year.

• Keep an extinguisher in every part of your home where fire might occur, especially in the kitchen, living room, laundry room and bedroom.

• Keep smoking materials away from anything that can burn.

• Never smoke in bed or when you are drowsy, intoxicated or medicated.

• Use large, deep, non-tip ashtrays to prevent ashes from spilling onto furniture and check them frequently (Do not rest ashtrays on sofas or chairs).

• Empty ashtrays into the toilet or an airtight metal container. Warm ashes dumped in trash cans can smolder for hours, and then ignite. Completely douse butts and ashes with water before throwing them away.

• Encourage smokers to smoke outside.

• Do not allow smoking in a home where an oxygen tank is in use.

• When smokers visit your home, ask them to keep lighters and matches out of reach of young children, preferably in a locked cabinet.

• If you smoke, choose fire-safe cigarettes.

• Don't leave cigarettes, cigars or pipes unattended.

• Be sure to check on the floor and around chair cushions for ashes that may have been dropped accidentally by visiting friends or relatives.

_{Sources: U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)}