Chetek Fire Department

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Winter Fire Safety Tips
compiled by Hudson, WI Fire Department

Candles
Make sure all candles are out before going to bed or leaving the house.
Keep candles matches and lighters out of children’s reach. Keep candles away from Christmas trees, evergreen clippings, decorations, presents and wrapping paper.

Wood Stoves and Fireplaces

Look at these equipment safety issues:

Check that your stove or fireplace is of good quality and structurally sound
Insure it has an UL safety certification.

Use a glass or metal safety screen to control sparks and embers. Clean or inspect your chimney annually.

Make sure the fire is out and the damper is open before you go to sleep.

Watch What You Heat

Do you like helping out in the kitchen and cooking up tasty snacks for your friends and family? Preparing yummy treats can be lots of fun, but it's important that kids who like to cook know how to be safe in the kitchen. These tips can help you figure out what you're old enough to do on your own - and when it's time to ask a grown-up for help.

Getting started - Before you get cooking, you need to get a grown-up's permission. If you plan to use a recipe, look it over with a grown-up first to decide what you can do on your own and what you need help with. And once you get started, never be afraid to ask for help. Even the best chefs rely on their assistants to help them out in the kitchen.

Helping out is fun - From mixing up cake batter to cutting shapes out of cookie dough, helping a grownup in the kitchen can be lots of fun. So if you're not old enough yet to cook on your own, not to worry; being the chef's helper is the most important job in the kitchen.

All kids are different - and a grownup should always decide what is safe for you to do in the kitchen - but here are some guidelines that you can use.

Get ingredients out of the refrigerator
Lick the frosting off of a spoon (yum!)
Mix ingredients together in a bowl
Pour liquids into a bowl
Wash fruits and vegetables off under cold water
Use a cookie cutter to cut shapes out of cookie dough

Open packages
Use a butter knife to spread frosting, cream cheese, peanut butter or soft cheese
Peel vegetables
Measure ingredients
Stir ingredients in a bowl
Set the table

Begin to follow a recipe
Open cans
Use electrical kitchen appliances, such as a blender, electric mixer, microwave oven or toaster oven when a grownup is present
Make a salad
Use a grater to shred cheese and vegetables
Turn stove burners on and off and select oven temperature when a grown-up is present
Help plan the meal

Operate the stove or oven without an adult present
Heat food up in the microwave without an adult present
Drain cooked pasta into a colander
Take a tray of cookies out of the oven

Fire Safety Tips

First Alert OneLink Wireless Smoke Alarms

Code officials in State College, Pennsylvania recently became aware of a problem involving the First Alert OneLink wireless smoke alarms where the batteries are being drained within weeks of installation.

Following a fatal off-campus fire in April 2005, an ordinance was passed requiring the installation of interconnected smoke alarms in the bedroom of all of the 15,000 rental units in State College.

A number of landlords installed First Alert OneLink wireless smoke alarms starting in January 2006. However, within six weeks of installation, the batteries were drained on a number of the units.Code officials first became aware of this problem on Tuesday, February 21 when an electrical contractor advised one of the officials that First Alert was replacing all of the OneLink smoke alarms in the area. No other notification had been made to the code officials.

On Thursday, February 23, First Alert confirmed to Campus Firewatch that they were undergoing a replacement program in State College and that there was a problem with the batteries being drained on "a small percentage" of First Alert OneLink wireless smoke alarms. Subsequent written statements from First Alert noted that they had been aware of this issue for "several months."

On Friday, February 24, inspectors tested the smoke alarms in one building with 55 apartments where the smoke alarms had been installed six weeks earlier. Approximately half of the apartments had non-functioning smoke alarms because either the batteries had been drained or the occupant had removed the batteries because of the low-battery alarm.

The code officials in State College notified the Consumer Product Safety Commission who has launched an investigation. Code officials have retained several of the smoke alarms for CPSC to test.

A statement from First Alert on Monday, February 27 stated that they had been aware of the situation "for several months" and had developed an "enhanced model" that had been "validated." The enhanced model was being made available in State College and First Alert was going to pay for the replacement of all of the installed units, including labor. The plan was to have all of the replacements completed in one to two months. Photographs of the labeling and packaging of the new units were included to aid the code officials in identifying the enhanced model, which bore an ETL mark. (In one case, a single landlord had 1,956 installed smoke alarms.)

On Monday, February 27, Campus Firewatch contacted ETL, the independent testing laboratory that had initially tested and listed these models as meeting the requirements of UL 217. ETL was unaware of the problem involving the OneLink smoke alarms. Following this conversation, ETL initiated an investigation and the code officials have sent several smoke alarms to ETL for testing at ETL's request.

First Alert provided the following statement to Campus Firewatch on Tuesday, February 28: We were notified of the premature low battery indication in the State College area several weeks ago and immediately started investigating the situation. We have had a small number of individual consumer calls in the past several months indicating a premature low battery indication. Upon thorough analysis we have identified and developed a product enhancement to eliminate the potential in our product of the premature low battery indication. This enhancement is under review and evaluation by Intertek Testing Services as part of our existing ETL listing. This enhanced product has not been released to be installed until it is authorized to receive the ETL mark.

Roughly 70 percent of home fire deaths result from fires in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms. Smoke alarms are the great safety success story of the 20th century — but only when they're working properly.

Fire can spread rapidly through your home, leaving you as little as two minutes to escape safely once the alarm sounds. Your ability to get out depends on advance warning from smoke alarms, and advance planning—a home fire escape plan that everyone in your family is familiar with and has practiced.

Burn First Aid

Stop, Drop and Roll to extinguish a clothing fire.

Cool a burn. For minor burns, run cool water immediately over the burn.

Seek emergency medical help immediately for more serious burns.

Below are some NFPA Safety Bulletins

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Cooking Safety

Turkey Fryers

Winter and Holiday Safety