Whether it’s a birthday, engagement or New Year’s party, celebrations at home are usually full of drinks, music and occasionally fireworks. While we all need a good pick-me-up after almost 2 years of distancing from loved ones, celebrations can potentially be dangerous if they’re aren’t kept under control. So, while we don’t want to put a dampener on any upcoming event, we do want to give you a few fire safety tips to help you stay safe during celebrations.
Keep Your Eyes on Dinner
Of course, party food is essential when you’re throwing any kind of celebration, but it’s easy to leave the hors d'uvres cooking while you’re entertaining. If we’re being honest, the best food is often on the greasier side and, with all that grease around your stove, a grease fire could easily occur and spread quickly. According to The Zebra, the top three causes of fires in homes are a result of cooking, heating equipment and electrical malfunctions. So we recommend keeping flammable items away from the stove (so no party hats on the worktop) and keeping an eye on your food.
Check You Lights and Wires
Fairy lights can transform your garden into a magical backdrop for your social media feed. However, if you only pull out these lights a few times a year, the wires, plugs, and bulbs may be damaged without you knowing it. So, when plugging them back in for your party, you could end up with the lights causing a fire. We suggest carrying out a trial run and plugging your lights in before hanging them up. It’s always a good idea to check over the wires and plugs for poor connections and ensure that there aren’t any missing or broken pieces.
Inspect your alarms
This is possibly the most obvious of our tips, but it’s extremely important to make sure your fire alarms are working properly before any celebration. Sometimes we fall into bad habits with our smoke alarms, like deactivating them while we’re cooking, or forgetting to change the batteries.
These bad habits may not seem like a huge deal, to begin with, but that seemingly innocent act could make a huge difference to your safety. So we advise you to leave the batteries where they are and always check your alarms are working properly before your party.
We all deserve to enjoy celebrations with our friends and family after not seeing them over lockdowns, but Fire Stoppers are here to help you celebrate safely. If you would like to read some of our other blogs, visit our website today.
