NFPA - National Fire Protection Association and CPSC - Consumer Product SafeTy Commission recommend the following heating safety tips:

• Space heaters need space. Keep all things that can burn, such as paper, bedding or furniture, at least 3 feet away from heating equipment.
• Turn portable heaters off when you go to bed or leave the room.
• Plug power cords only into outlets with sufficient capacity and never into an extension cord.
• Inspect for cracked, frayed or broken plugs or loose connections. Replace before using.
• Have your chimney inspected each year and cleaned if necessary.
• Use a sturdy fireplace screen.
• Allow ashes to cool before disposing. Dispose of ashes in a metal container.
• Install smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home. For the best protection interconnect all smoke alarms throughout the home — when one sounds, they all sound. Test smoke alarms at least once a month.
• Install and maintain a carbon monoxide alarm in a central location outside each sleeping area.
• Never use an oven to heat your home.
• For fuel assistance, contact the National Fuel Funds Network at 1-202-824-0660.

NFPA has introduced two new heating safety campaigns to help spread this lifesaving message this winter. Every fire department in the country recently received “Keeping Your Community Safe and Warm”, a toolkit of support materials to help them conduct successful heating-safety campaigns in their communities and NFPA worked with Scholastic to reach nearly 5 million families through schools around the country with take home materials and activities aimed at reducing the number of home heating fires.

For more information on either of these campaigns contact: public_affairs@nfpa.org

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 23rd, 2007 at 11:16 am and is filed under Home Safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.