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No one ever hopes to become intimately educated on the subject of house fires. I have, unfortunately, had far too much experience with them. We lost our home to a house fire in February of 2007, and were also involved in the San Diego wildfires of October 2003. It is with these events that I feel everyone should take steps now to protect themselves, their families, and their belongings.

During the San Diego fires, our home received some minor damage, but many of our friends did lose their homes entirely. After helping rebuild the community, I made a few changes to our fire safety strategy, and after losing our own home in 2007, I have made even more changes which I will describe for you in the hopes that you never need them.
The obvious steps of having fire extinguishers throughout the home and having smoke detectors cannot be overlooked.
Make sure that there is always a fire extinguisher within a short distance from all areas of your home, not just in the kitchen. You should also have the extinguishers checked as often as recommended by your local fire department. This is a step that they gladly do for you free of charge in many areas. If they need to be charged, or replaced, they will let you know. Fire extinguishers are so inexpensive in comparison to the money they can save you, and most importantly the lives that they could potentially save.
Smoke detectors are often the most overlooked items in our homes. If they are not annoying us with their beeping, they must be fine, right? The answer is a resounding WRONG! You should check the batteries every year. I have set the date of changing our batteries to the anniversary date of our fire, easy to remember as the thought of that fateful day will never be forgotten. It is important to pick a date and stick to it. I suggest a date that you would remember naturally, and associate it with adding the task. Ladies, perhaps an anniversary day, or a birthday will work. Gentlemen, the day of the NFL draft, or the morning of the Daytona 500 may be a little easier to remember. Sorry ladies, I am bound to speak the truth here.
Merely having a smoke detector and changing the batteries is not enough, contrary to popular belief. Recently, the requirements with regards to smoke detectors have become much more stringent. This applies to new homes. They are required to be hard wired as a backup in case the battery fails, they are also interconnected so if one goes off, they all respond. This is absolutely fantastic,

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