Prevention & Preparedness
Action & Response
Resources
Knowing how to shut off your home’s utilities—gas, water, and electricity—can prevent disasters and keep your family safe during emergencies. These skills are essential for protecting your home from additional damage during fires, floods, or leaks.
Firefighter Frankie recommends keep a minimum of one fire extinguisher on each level of the house.
Properly disposing of ashes is crucial in preventing accidental fires. House fires often result from improper ash disposal, whether due to using the wrong container or placing it too close to a home. Always use a metal bucket for ash disposal, and never place it on a deck, porch, or anywhere near the house—even if it's in a metal container.
Make sure your utility room has a smoke detector. For maximum safety, we recommend using interconnected smoke detectors—either hardwired or wireless—so that if a fire starts anywhere in your home, all alarms sound simultaneously, giving you immediate notification.
Having interconnected smoke detectors will allow for immediate notification throughout the house if any detector is activated.
Buy replacement batteries from reputable manufacturers.
The storage and disposal of 9-volt batteries is something that is rarely discussed, but because of the design of the battery, where the positive and negative posts are on top, next to each other, if it comes into contact with anything metal it will spark and if there fuel around, a fire may start. To minimize the chances of this occurring, we recommend the following:
Firefighter Frankie does not use Gasoline Powered Generators near the house. Make sure to keep the generator at least 10-15 feet away from your home & be sure to install Carbon Monoxide detectors in the house as well.
Firefighter Frankie is not a fan of candles. Sorry -- little flames can turn into larger ones very easily. Candles can be knocked over by the cat, forgotten or break. Any number of things can go wrong. Firefighter Frankie doesn’t allow the use of candles outside of the kitchen or the middle of the kitchen island. Fake candles can and should be used in place. Firefighter Frankie doesn’t give candles as gifts and takes them from his wife and children when they are given as gifts.
View an indepth guide to reducing wildfire risk here
Ensure everyone in the household knows how to turn off gas, water, and electricity in case of an emergency.
Firefighter Frankie recommends never operating appliances when you are not in the house. Dishwashers, washers, and dryers can all malfunction when you are away from home. Sometimes fires occur because of a malfunction, and what would have been a small, detectable fire simply goes unnoticed when there is no one home to address the matter.Likewise, ceiling fans, bathroom fans, portable fans, and air purifiers should all be shut off if no one is around. Although these devices rarely malfunction, it does happen—and serious fires have resulted. Any device that has power going to it could malfunction. The safest step you can take is to not use the device when you are not around.
Never operate the washer or dryer when you are not home. If you have to leave your house, pause operations until someone is home.
Make certain everyone (if old enough) knows how to turn off your utilities (gas, water, power).
Teach your children how to open windows and doors throughout your home. Children should know how to open windows in their bedroom if it is their secondary escape route.
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