Pet Fire Safety: Prevention & Planning are Your Best Lines of Defense
Did you know …
Approximately 500,000 pets suffer from smoke inhalation every year. And as many as 40,000 pets die in house fires.
That’s not OK. Many of these tragedies could have been prevented.
So, to recognize National Pet Fire Safety Day, let’s talk about how you can:
- Prevent fires from happening at home
- Prepare a fire safety evacuation plan
Prevent Your Pets from Starting Fires
Anyone can start a fire. Even your pets.
FACT: The National Fire Protection Association estimates that nearly 1,000 home fires each year are started by family pets.
Since July 15th is National Pet Fire Safety Day, let’s kick things off with some fire prevention tips.
Fire prevention is critical
Here are some things you can do (proactively) to reduce the risk of your pet starting a fire:
- Never leave burning candles unattended, especially if they’re in reach of your pets (on the coffee table, for instance).
- Never leave a wood-burning fireplace unattended.
- Same goes for the stove, iron, hair straightener, or any other electrical appliance — make sure they’re all turned off and/or unplugged before you leave the house.
- Keep pets out of the kitchen when unsupervised (larger dogs can accidentally turn the knobs on a stove if they get curious or smell food).
- Think about keeping your pets confined in a crate or behind a gate so they’re safe from mischief, and so emergency responders can quickly locate and remove them.
- At the very least, check your smoke detectors (and carbon monoxide detectors) once a month. Also check the manufactured date … if they’re more than 10 years old, replace them.
Better still, consider upgrading to monitored smoke detectors, which are connected to a remote dispatch centre that can alert emergency responders to a fire (or other crisis) when you’re not home.
