MARCH: Fire Prevention Month

        The month of March is normally the start of hot weather in our country. Many might observe that gone are the days of the cool breeze of December. The scorching heat during the day generates, on almost anyone, sweat as that of an athlete in action. Since the later weeks of last month, the rise in the temperature of the wind touching our skin has becomes noticeable.

          In line with this month's celebration of being the Fire Prevention Month, I have come up with this blog post. Below is a list of some tips on "do's and don'ts" to prevent fire. These are just mere ideas sprouted from a simple student like me, but I'm hoping that this list would be helpful to you.

SIMPLE HOME FIRE PREVENTION MEASURES

1. If you are in a habit of smoking, crush your cigarette and cigar stubs thoroughly before discarding them. Provide yourselves with ashtrays. Do not smoke in bed.

2. Oil and gas and other native lamps should be placed away from curtains and other objects that easily catch fire. Do not put them where the wind, children, cats or other moving being may topple them. Put out the flame before going to bed.

3. Do not store any flammable substance or any volatile liquid in the kitchen. Cover the flammable container tightly.

4. Extinguish all live charcoals and embers or concentrate them in the middle of the stove after being through with kitchen chores. Make it a habit to inspect the kitchen before retiring. Most fires in the home occur at night.

5. Keep matches and lighters away from reach of children.

6. Clear the concerns and nooks of the house from rubbish, rags, and other waste materials.

7. Remove the accumulation of leaves in gutters and other parts of the roof and wood shavings and litters in the attic.

8. Quantities of flammables, such as gasoline, oil, benzene, naphtha, alcohol, and other highly flammable materials should be kept in dwelling houses.

9. Rubbish burning should be done on the stove or in the yard away from the house wall. Every smoldering coal left from bonfire should be extinguished. Be careful that no flying embers from bonfire would alight on the roof of the houses.

10. Do not use open flames for decorations in the houses,

11. Combustible objects, such as firewood, waste paper and rags should not be indiscriminately dumped or strewn in the house. Boxes should be regularly cleaned.

12. Kerosene and oil stoves should be checked for leakage and they should be regularly cleaned.

13. Regularly check for leaking liquefied petroleum gas.

14. Check regularly your electrical installations, and have all frayed wiring, damaged sockets, switches, and other defective electrical fixtures be changed or repaired promptly.

15. Do not overload your electrical circuits by using too many lights and appliances.

     If we don't want our houses and our properties to be transformed into ashes, let us always be alert and prepare so that worse things will not happen. Aside from the awareness the Fire Prevention Month brings to the people, I believe that our government must also be aware of the need to equip or re-equip our firemen for them to be effective in their fire-fighting tasks. :)