Be Careful with Fire (for Kids)
Your home is a place of family, friends and warmth. Even though home is a safe place, it is important to understand that there are some things in your home that can sometimes hurt you if you aren't careful. Fire and heat can burn or scald you badly if you don't take care. Take a moment to learn some very simple things to make your home safer.
Steps
- Keep away from fire and heat. When your parents are cooking or lighting a fire, keep away from the area. You can still talk to them across the room or from several steps away but there is no need to be standing next to the heat. Keep a good distance from any fire that is burning and never place objects in a fire.
- Do not play with matches or lighters. These are not toys. They are for creating a flame to light a fire and you can easily hurt yourself. Take them to your parents if you find them.
- Keep safe in the kitchen.
- Never reach up for a handle on a stove or table. The pot may be filled with boiling water or very hot food and if it falls on your skin or face, you can be very badly burnt. Always ask if you are curious and want to look inside a cooking pot.
- Ask your parents to turn the handles of cooking pots towards the center of the stove.
- Always get adult help to cook anything.
- Never put anything on a lamp or near burning candles. The lamp can overheat and anything put near a candle might catch on fire from the flame.
- Don't pick up things that have been sitting in or fallen into a fire. The coals are very, very hot and the flames can burn you. If something falls into a fire, ask an adult for help straight away.
- Look out for your little brothers and sisters and any other young children. Make sure that they don't go near the stove or a fire source. Teach them about how fire or heat can hurt them.
- Ask your parents to buy you close-fitting nightwear. Loose nightwear can easily trail into a fire or heater and catch on fire. Close-fitting pajamas are safer.
- Be electricity wise.
- Never stick your fingers, sticks or any other objects into an electrical socket. This can burn you very badly if the electricity carries out to your body.
- Leave electrical cords alone. They can be a cause of fire.
- Practice a safety drill. If it ever happened that your clothes caught on fire, it is important to practice this so that you will do it just in case something happens.
- Stop screaming, crying and panicking.
- Drop to the floor straight away.
- Roll over and over to try to put out the flames.
- Know what to do if you are caught in a fire. If you are asleep or inside your house when a fire starts, there may already be thick, dark smoke when you try to get out. Get down low and crawl to get out. There is usually less smoke at the floor level.
Tips
- Ask your parents to fix any bald or bare wiring around the house. Electrical wiring that is exposed or chewed by animals is a fire threat.
- Ask your parents to keep a fire blanket or extinguisher in the house. Make sure that they explain to you how to use the blanket if necessary. The extinguisher may be too difficult for you to use until you are older but it is reassuring to have in the house for older people to use.
