Here are some basic, yet essential safety suggestions that can help to ensure your household is as prepared as possible for any fire-based incident.

Install smoke detectors
Without doubt, smoke detectors are the very best form of defence when it comes to fire safety. Indeed, suitably placed smoke detectors will alert you to a fire in your home before you are able to see, hear or smell it. Ideally, smoke detectors should be placed on every floor of your home and in the immediate vicinity of bedrooms or even in bedrooms. Ideally smoke alarms want to be interlinked with wire or radio-frequency to ensure an alarm is heard in the entire house. To ensure they remain in good working order, smoke detectors need to be tested when the clocks are changed (every half year) and have the batteries replaced at once a year.

Develop an escape strategy
Regardless of how big or small your home may be, it is vital that you and your family draw up an escape strategy that you all understand. This means planning at least two escape routes from each occupied bedroom and buying fire ladders for upstairs bedrooms. It also means that every member of your household knows basic safety procedures like checking doors for heat before opening them and crawling on the floor to stay out of the smoke. Obviously, it is important to practice your strategy every now and then so that everybody remembers exactly what they need to do.

Buy fire extinguishers
Having a fire extinguisher or two at hand can be essential as they can help to ensure small fires don’t turn into big blazes. Always keep one suitable extinguisher in the kitchen as this is the room where most domestic fires start. Get into the habit of checking your extinguishers on a regular basis – this will give you peace of mind that they are in good working order.

Use your common sense
Far too many domestic fires happen as a direct result of residents doing things which they simply shouldn’t do. For example, aspects like smoking in bed and positioning portable heaters next to flammable objects really is asking for trouble. Do not plug too many plugs and extensions in sockets.

Explore our pages further to find out more about the importance of being suitably prepared for domestic fires and view our great range of safety products in greater detail.

All four of these alarms are designed for use in building and construction sites, temporary marquees, camp sites, markets etc. where installing a permanent fire alarm system would be impractical and unnecessarily costly.

The Evacuator Site Guard is ideal for less harsh environments, such as camp sites and markets, while the Evacuator Tough Guard is perfect for busy building and construction sites where it may encounter water, dirt, dust and debris. The Tough Guard features an IP56 rated weatherproof enclosure that copes with harsh weather conditions and the occasional knocks and bumps it may have to endure.

These battery powered alarms can be used as standalone units or linked using 2 core wire. Running interlink cables all over a busy construction site may not be safe or practical, and this is where the new Tough Guard Wireless comes in. The Tough Guard Wireless has all the strength, durability and weatherproof protection of the standard Tough Guard with the added benefit of completely wireless interconnection to other Tough Guard Wireless units. The amazing 18,000m wireless range, long life battery and extremely loud 118dB sounder make these alarms an essential piece of safety equipment for any situation.

Take a look at the new models in our site alarm product range.

To meet the requirements of the business or consumer in question, we offer bespoke solutions for your fireproof storage. Typical documents requiring fire protection include insurance policies, wills, cash, contracts and certificates. However, backup tapes, backup drives and CDs also need protecting to allow a quick business start after a fire has hit.

Our fireproof boxes and safes are available in various sizes and can offer fire and water protection from thirty to ninety minutes.

Fireproof boxes:

Fireproof boxes have a top opening lid, can usually be carried and offer little protection against theft. However, they offer a cost-efficient solution when you are trying to protect a small number of documents against water and fire.

Fireproof safes:

We offer front opening fire safes which offer not only fire protection but also a degree of theft protection. Fireproof safes are front-opening and come in various versions:

-  Fireproof safes for paper and valuable protection. These fire safes protect paper from charring

- Fireproof safes for digital media, which keep the temperature low enough to protect electronic data carriers , such as CDs, hard drives and USB sticks

- Fireproof safes for data tapes, which keep the temperature of the safe in a fire low enough to even protect fine data tape or photographic film, which is very temperature sensitive.

Fireproof filing cabinets:

Fireproof filing cabinets are installed where large amounts of documents must be protected against fire while keeping the files accessible.

Our ‘refine your search’ tool will help you identify the right fire safe for you out of the huge and sometimes confusing selection of fire safes.

If you have still questions, please ring us and our friendly customer care team will help you choose the right safe.

Ensuring that any fire safety equipment in your premises is fully serviced is essential. Regularly having your fire extinguishers, fire blankets and other equipment serviced guarantees that, in the event of a fire, you can count on your equipment to protect your employees, colleagues or family.
We can provide fire extinguisher and fire blanket servicing to our clients, carried out by certified and approved BAFE engineers. Our service is transparently and competitively priced, so it is simple and convenient for you to request that we service your fire extinguishers or blankets on your premises, thoroughly and professionally.

Safelincs also offer a fire risk assessment service, whereby a member of our nationwide team of qualified risk assessors will visit your premises and carry out a meticulous assessment of the area. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 changed fire safety legislation for business premises, meaning that fire certificates are no longer required; so it is now your responsibility to ensure that your place of work is regularly assessed for fire risks.
If you would like to find out more about our equipment servicing or fire risk assessment services, please contact us.

The carbon monoxide poisoning is believed to have originated from the smouldering embers of a disposable BBQ, which was seen in the porch of their tent. Carbon monoxide can not be seen or smelt. It is paramount that in order to prevent tragic deaths like this, campers are made aware of the dangers of taking cooking equipment into tents for either cooking food or for warmth.

Camping in the UK is slowly changing, as the temperatures are remaining low longer and dropping at night. Anyone planning a camping holiday at this time of year should ensure that they have adequate bedding to keep warm at night and hat they have some form of outside cover to enable them to use BBQs and cookers a safe distance away from the tent, even when it is raining.

Taking a BBQ or cooker into a tent can cause the carbon monoxide to accumulate and linger even once the appliance has been removed. This can then render the occupants unconscious or even cause their death once they go to bed.

Our safety tips are simple: NEVER take a cooker or BBQ into your tent to cook food or as a source of warmth. ALWAYS cook a safe distance away from your tent to prevent any CO from being blown into your tent space.

Be aware of the symptoms of CO poisoning, such as headache, nausea, dizziness, drowsiness and irregular heart rate. If you or any person in your tent has these symptoms, seek medical advice.

For more information about carbon monoxide visit www.carbonmonoxideinfo.co.uk

The plan
Draw up a plan of your home and mark out escape routes from everywhere in the house. Make sure you determine at least two escape routes from each bedroom (usually window and door). Be clear about where everyone is to meet once they’re out of the house (i.e. a neighbour’s house, a road sign, a tree etc). Ensure you and your family practice your escape plan and carry out a fire safety risk assessment regularly.

Children
You must impress on your children the importance of not hiding away in a wardrobe or under their bed if a fire breaks out. If they are hiding, it will be much harder for you or a fire fighter to find them when searching the house. You must also explain to them that even though a fire fighter may look a little bit scary in his breathing apparatus, they should run towards him rather than stay away from him. Reassure children that it is quite okay to break a window if there is a fire.

Escaping
If there is a fire in your home, stay calm and respond in the following manner:

If you are asleep and get woken by a smoke or heat alarm, get out of bed and crawl to your bedroom door along the floor. It is cooler and easier to breathe at floor level. Gently touch your bedroom door. If it feels warm to the touch, don’t open it. If the door feels normal, open it, but do so very slowly as there may still be intense heat on the other side. If the landing is full of smoke or if you can see fire, close the door and use your secondary escape route to get out.

When leaving your property, stay low and close doors behind you. Closed doors will help slow the spread of the fire. Once you are out of the building, go to the designated meeting spot and make sure everybody is accounted for. Phone your local fire and rescue service from a neighbour’s house. No one should go back inside the property until the fire service says it is safe to do so.

If you can’t get out of the house because of heat or smoke and you’re stuck in an upstairs bedroom, cover any cracks under the door to prevent smoke from entering and then open a window to call for help. Do not try and exit the window unless you have a valid means of escape or unless you have no other choice.

Having an effective, simple to follow fire escape strategy can not only save the lives of you and your family, it can also provide you with great peace of mind.

Explore our pages further to find out more about domestic fire safety.

When deciding where to install emergency lighting, take into account any hazards that there may be along the evacuation route, such as corners, stairways or uneven flooring. You must also ensure that exit signs, fire alarm call points and equipment used for fire fighting, such as extinguishers or fire blankets, are adequately illuminated to be easily seen or located. Fire exit signs and emergency lighting from Ringtail are one of the best ways of ensuring that the fire exit is as visible as possible.

As with all fire safety equipment, regular testing of your emergency lighting must be carried out to ensure that it is working correctly. You should test that the lights are triggered when the mains supply is cut, and also that all the lights are illuminated as they should be. You will need to test your lighting once a month and do a full discharge test once a year. Log the results as any other fire safety equipment tests.

More information can be found in our emergency lighting guide.

Most fire extinguishers and fire blankets deprive the fire of oxygen by either covering it or dispersing the oxygen near the fire. Foam and water extinguishers will also cool the fire, extinguishing it in the process. Fire extinguishers are important in stopping a small fire from spreading. However, fire should only be tackled if staff are trained in the use of fire extinguishers and are confident in what they are doing.

Preventing a fire from starting in the first place is always the best form of fire safety. Encourage staff to keep an eye out for potential causes of fire, such as faulty electrical equipment or hazardous materials, and use flammable liquid storage cabinets to work towards removing the ‘fuel’ element of the famous fire triangle.