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You might have the "It can't happen to me" attitude about them, but something as terrible as a house fire could happen to anyone. Have you left your stove unattended only to come back to a smoking kitchen, with your dinner burnt to complete blackness? Things could've very well ended a lot worse than that. It is essential to take extra measures to fire-proof your home. There are all kinds of small things you can do to make your home that much safer.

-The most obvious of all: Have smoke detectors in every room, and make sure they have fresh batteries. And of course the second most obvious, have sufficient fire extinguishers. You'll probably want a class k for grease fires, a class c for electrical fires, and a class ABC for general fires.

-Don't leave your home with stoves still running (obviously), no exceptions. Even if you are just boiling a kettle of tea or something don't leave your home with it still running.

-The same goes with candles. Don't leave your home with them still burning. Make sure to keep them away from curtains, draperies, furniture, books, and any other flammable material. Make sure to keep the wax pool free of wick trimmings, matches and debris.

-An essential thing to have is a fire-proof safe. Say worst-case scenario you couldn't prevent the fire from starting, some of the first things to go are going to be paper documents. There is a lot of sensitive and important information you don't want to lose just because you weren't prepared. You can store all your back-copies of important documents (i.e credit cards, insurance policies, your lease) and other such things, as well as any other valuables you would be worried about losing in a fire.

-Buy fire-proof outlets. Ever plug something into a wall outlet and see a little flash of light come out and think nothing of it?
Well, give it another thought before letting it sit. A power surge might be enough to cause a bit of a problem. Be especially
wary during the holiday seasons, when you're plugging in a large number of lights and such into an outlet. http://bsafeelectrix.com/
offers fire-proof outlets that will take at least some degree of worry off your back.

Some of the things on the above list may seem like "common-sense", but a lot of people don't even do them. So do them! Is it that much extra work to blow out your candles, pick up the wicks, and buy a few new outlets?

Learn more about this author, Tony Catalano.
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