Keeping Your Pets Safe in a Home Fire

9/25/2021 (Permalink)

While fires are scary to think about, it is necessary to take the right steps in prevention and preparation to ensure your furry friend is safe.

While it is every pet owner's nightmare to have their animal trapped in a fire, unfortunately these circumstances do occur. According to the National Fire Protection Association, pets and other animals are responsible for about 750 fires in the home each year, including involving cooking equipment, fireplaces, chimneys, space heaters, lamps, bulbs, electrical wiring, and candles. Because there are many times when pets are left in the house alone, monitoring and preventing potential fire hazards in your home could save your pets life.

As a responsible and loving pet parent, it is important to understand these circumstances and utilize the following steps to prevent a tragedy.

Prevention for Pet Fires

While it is not always possible, hands down the best way to protect your pet from a fire is to prevent it from occurring in the first place. Your pet should never be unattended in any areas that contain an open flame, like fireplaces, lit candles, or the kitchen. In fact, in a pet household, a flameless candle is often in much safer alternative to an open flame. Even if the tail of an animal knocks it over, it will be safe from preventing any harm.

Mitigate Hazards in the Kitchen

As the most common place for open flame to occur in the home, it is absolutely crucial 2 fireproof your kitchen. One of the biggest ways to do this is to use stove knob covers that prevents your pets from accidentally turning on the burners of your stove top. If you do not have knob covers, you can also just remove the knobs when you are not home to prevent any curious pets from climbing in the kitchen and starting a fire.

Ensure First Responders Know You Have a Pet

Having a pet alert decal in your front window alerts firefighters that there is an animal in the home they need to protect. Especially if you are not home when the fire occurs, this window decal will tell the firefighters how many pets are inside of the home. If you crate your animal while away, it is a good idea to keep the crate close to the front door in case of an emergency.

Consider a Monitored Smoke Alarm

While you obviously need to have a working smoke detector in your home, some pet owners take it a step further by investing in a monitored smoke alarm. This monitored smoke alarm can alert the fire department quicker, which is crucial if your pet is still inside the home.

While this tragedy is often scary to think about, it is necessary to take the right steps in prevention and preparation to ensure your furry friend is safe in a fire. As always, SERVPRO of Pompano Beach is here for you should a fire occur in your home or business. Our fire damage experts are on call and ready to help immediately in the event of an emergency.