While we should be taking steps year round to safeguard our homes, Lacombe Fire Department is out with some tips and reminders in this Fire Prevention Week.

The provincial theme is to practise a home escape plan, including having two ways out of your home.

Fire Chief Ed van Delden says it's good to take your family into each room of your home and put some thought into how you would get out in the event of fire.

“We often put children in basement bedrooms because we need to, and I am in that camp, I did that when we had children, but having a basement window that meets the code, doesn’t mean that it meets your needs in terms of escape. Can your child push a dresser underneath the window, or is there a dresser there, do they just need a chair?”

van Delden says during a fire you have about 3 minutes to clear your home, survivability decreases rapidly after the 4 minute mark.

There's a couple of easy and cost effective ways to help safeguard your family according to van Delden.

“Change the battery in your smoke detector and test it, check to see when it was replaced last. They’re cheap, really they are cheap. Carbon monoxide alarms, I can’t speak enough about carbon monoxide alarms. We’ve already had our first incident this year where we had someone taken to hospital because of carbon monoxide poisoning, again pretty cheap’.

“If you have a wood burning appliance, when was the last time you have cleaned the chimney, are you handling the ashes appropriately?”

The Fire Chief also encourages you to check your fire extinguishers and if you don't have one in your home, he recommends a small, multi-purpose extinguisher.

National stats show cooking is the main root cause for fires in the home, primarily due to distraction.

(Lacombe Fire Chief Ed van Delden)