If you own a business or a home, and most of us do, then having a fire security system in place can often make good sense.

The fire security system is a next step up from the fire alarms that most of us faithfully install in our homes. These are installed professionally. The cost is somewhat more than it would cost to fit your home with the more low priced do it yourself type fire alarms but the end result may that that it saves you a vast amount of money.

You do have insurance of course in most cases but does your insurance cover the loss of things that can’t be retrieved, such as your family photos, antiques and heirlooms that have been in your family for years? If not then maybe considering a professional monitoring system is something you’d like to do.

Multiple kinds of professional systems are out there. Most install fire and security alarms for a reasonable cost. Then for a monthly fee they monitor those systems so that if a fire were to break out while you were not at home, an alarm would be triggered in their offices which would then be phoned in to the fire company who would respond, or to the police who would send a car to investigate.

Security systems can cost a relatively high price, so much is true, but having a monitored system that will give an alert even when you aren’t home to get it makes a vast amount of difference in how fast the emergency services make it to your home. It can make the difference in whether your home is saved, or burns to the ground.

Business and residence alike can benefit from some level of security or fire monitoring. As with any other service, make sure that you do your homework. Find out the ones that are scams and which ones have bene in business for a long period of time. Compare pricing and services before you sign on the dotted line.

A fire can break out at any time, in any part of the house. Do you have fire extinguishers that will handle the various fires that can take place? When is the last time that you tested them to make sure that they worked?

Fires, unfortunately, are not expected things. When one does happen you need to know that you can respond to it immediately to remove the fire and extinguish the blaze. Having a fire extinguisher on hand in your home is a must have part of being a home owner.

If a fire breaks out you want to be ablt to put it out before it becomes larger and costs you your home. A structure fire is something that can take your dwelling in very little time. If you can prevent that with the purchase of something as small as a fire extinguisher, then having one on hand only makes good sense.

There are multiple types of fire extinguishers. Some are made for specific types of fire. The best fire extinguisher to have is one that will be acceptable for an electrical, a grease fire, or a fire of paper or wood.

Your best course of action will be to purchase an ABC fire extinguisher. These can be used for nearly any kind of fire. They will smother the flames and smoldering so that further materials are not caught on fire in the process.

Keeping a fire extinguisher in several parts of your home is the preferred way to practice home fire safety. One should be in the kitchen, on placed in an exterior hall and if you have a second story, one should be in the bathroom or hall way upstairs in order for you to be able to retrieve them quickly if you need to.

With every year that comes and goes, someone is injured trying to light fireworks or using sparklers to celebrate a holiday. While may states ban the use of fireworks as well as many countries, others permit them to be used without limits.

Making sure that fireworks are used safely can prevent injuries as well as house and wildfires.
The biggest problems seem to be the lighting of the fireworks as well as the extinguishing of them.

Prior to lighting fireworks read all of the safety warnings and do your best to adhere to them. Make sure that fireworks are lit on smooth surfaces so that they aren’t prone to tip over and shoot in the wrong direction.

Make sure that a water source, such as a bucket or tub of water is in the immediate vicinity of the fireworks. Keep those who are watching the fireworks safely back from the area where they are being lit. You can’t watch your fireworks as well as your viewers too. Don’t permit anyone who is not actively lighting fireworks to be within 12 feet of the area where you are lighting them. Children should be well back at all times.

Keep your garden hose running with a nozzle on it that will turn off. This way you have only a few inches to get a means to stop any small fire that may start from the fireworks. Keep clear of dry leaves or grass when lighting. While that sounds like common sense, it quite frequently happens that people don’t do that and light the lawn or leaves afire with their sparklers or fireworks.

If you have a firework that didn’t light or work. wait about ten minutes and then place it entirely into your bucket of water, making sure that it is completely submerged.

Light only one firework at a time, never five or six. If there are two adults lighting, alternate your lighting. Never permit anyone drinking alcohol, no matter how small the amount, to work with fireworks.

If you smoke, don’t do so around your fireworks, or use your cigarette or cigar to light them. Stay clear of the firework area when you have a lit cigarette. A single spark could cause a display that you’re not ready for.

When you’re not at home one of the most frequent problems that can happen is a burglary or breakin. While you can’t completely prevent a break-in from taking place, there are some steps that you can take to minimize the likelihood that it will happen.

Keeping your home looking lived in and active while you’re not there is the key to that. Make sure that a timer or some other method of getting the lights turned on and off is in place. If you don’t have electric timers on your lights, ask a neighbor to visit the home and see to that.

Don’t let your mail or newspapers stack up. Call the postal service and the delivery and have those services stopped if you’re going to be away from home for an extended period. Even two or three days of news papers stacked up by your door in in the drive makes it appear that no one is around and that’s what you’re trying to avoid.

If it isn’t possible to stop your services, make it a point to ask your neighbors or friends to pick up your mail. Ask an adult child to take it out of the box and place it inside your home if it doesn’t go through a mail slot. Let the neighbors and friends know that you’d like the papers removed and they are welcome to have them if they like.

Keep an outside light on in areas where it is darkened and hidden from the street. Keep those lights on a timer so that they automatically come on at a given time or at dusk. Yes, its going to cost you more on the electrics bill, but inevitably it will save money if it prevents a burglary from taking place.

Making your home look lived in while you’re away is the key to preventing problems. If you have the option of a house sitter, take it. The money you save paying them a small salary may be more than you imagine.

Top Ten Ways To Keep Your Home Safe

Your home should be your castle. It should not be a hotbed of accidents, where you’re consistently waiting for the other shoe to drop. In order to assure that you and your family stay safe there are some steps that you can take to make sure it stays that way.

The top ten ways to keep your home… and you… safe are:

• Keep your steps and other darkened areas well lit. Areas which are overly darkened naturally should be lit up. If you don’t have the capacity to add lights there, add the stick on, press to illuminate type of lights that will at least give you some measure of prevention against falls. Install solar lighting on paths and dark areas outside.

• Make sure that electrical problems are attended to immediately. If you have lightbulbs or constantly flipping breakers, get an electrician in to find out why. When things like toasters and coffee makers, effective dead shorts, are not in use, unplug them. Never leave home while the dryer is in operation.
  
• Practice regular fire drills and keep a smoke-fire alarm in good condition at all times. In a fire you generally have less than five minutes to get out of your house. Getting a good alarm will save lives.
  
• Consider a CO2 alarm. While you may have no problems at all with this, making sure that you don’t is invaluable.
  
• Keep your doors safe. Install bolts and chain locks so that you can have the door open a crack to see who’s there prior to answering. Light up areas of your outdoors that are currently hidden from view.
  
• Safeguard all of your outlets by installing the safety plugs that are available for that purpose.
  
• If you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t repair your own appliances and household items. In most cases they’re probably cheaper to replace.
  
• Keep stairways and other areas clear of obstacles. Having things on the stairs or at the top of the stairs is one of the most common problems or reasons for falls in the home.
  
• Make it a rule that no one is permitted in the driveway when you are backing your car out or leaving for work but make it a rule too that you walk all the way around your car prior to starting it and backing it out.
  
• Keep snow and ice clear from your walkways and stairs by using an ice melt product as soon as you see the ice there.
  

Just like in the real world, the internet has its seamy side and can be a lot less fun for children if they find that rough side too soon. You can take some steps to protect them from the things that the internet has to offer by setting down a few house rules and then making sure that they get the attention they deserve.

Children who work online are proven to have better communications skills and learn more than those who do not, but that doesn’t mean the internet has nothing shoddy to offer them.

Stay Involved in Their Online Life.

Just as you would get involved and stay involved in their social life, you must also get involved in their online world and stay there.  If you would not let your kids visit the neighborhood five blocks away without walking them you should not let them just log onto the internet and stay there for several hours without at least knowing what’s happening there.

Preventing yourself from falling asleep as you visit the twentieth website devoted to online pets or toys is something that is nearly impossible to do but prior to your kids being 6 or 7 you need to be with them while they surf.

Once they reach seven or eight years of age, the experts say if you have taught them well then they can surf without you by their side but you should be close by and checking in frequently as to what they are doing.

Set Guidelines and Limits for Internet Use.

Make sure that you know when the kids are online, what sites they are using and then choose how long they can stay there. That depends a lot on the sites they visit of course. Children who are under age 8 or 9 who are visiting primarily sites like Webkinz or pet shop sites don’t require as much overseeing as others but still be certain they don’t spend several hours there, and check in frequently to make sure that they haven’t gotten bored and are now surfing other sites.

Some families also say that they permit certain sites to be part of the places kids can go online without permission but that anything new that they view and spend time on has to be seen and approved by mum or dad prior to being on the list of sites that they can simply go to without approval or someone viewing with them

Teach your children to take care of their own privacy by refusing to reveal things like personal information, schools, addresses, phone numbers or when they are at home or not  home.

Instruct them to never open an email from someone they don’t now to not reply to messages from those who they aren’t familiar with and to never arrange to meet anyone online.

Have you ever wondered what you’d all do if there were a fire inside your home. Whether in the daytime or at night, a fire in your home is scary  business, but you can take steps to make sure that everyone gets out safely if you plan ahead.

The key to doing your best to assure the safety and security of your family in fires, home invasions and nearly any other scenario is to pre-plan what you might happen in those circumstances.

There are ways to minimize the chance of those things happening, which we’ll address in other items for you, but for the purposes of this one, what would you do, if you woke to find a fire in your home?

Would you know the closest exit and how to get outside? Would you have a meeting place planned for yourself and your family?  You would if you take a few simple tips and then spend some time with your family making a plan of action for the event of a fire emergency.

As an adult, it’s our job to keep our children safe. Using our heads and passing them the knowledge they need and making sure that they have it memorised is what we need to do first of all. While we do need to take steps to assure that we don’t unduly frighten our kids, they need to commit to memory the steps to take in the event of a fire emergency and then practice it so that it’s a natural routine for them in the event it ever happens.

Simple safety rules that all children should know:

Steer clear of flammables. Keep your matches and lighters as well as your candles out of reach of young fingers but make sure that the rule is clear that even if they see them, they don’t touch them.

Leave electrical appliances and lamps alone. Ask an adult to plug in or unplug something if you need it to be done.

Never place anything over a lamp. Things that are fabric should be kept well away from lamps or lights in any room.

Preparing for an Emergency:

To get your kids ready so that they have the best chance of staying safe in an emergency, make sure that you plan ahead, share the plan with them, practice that plan, and imprint the seriousness of remembering it on them.

**Have a fire escape plan. Let your kids know which doors to use, how to get out if they can’t get to a door (Throwing a chair through a window if they don’t open, how to open their window if it does)  Tell them what to do once they get outside. Select a meeting place for the entire family so that you all know the others are safe. PRACTICE the fire escape plan at least every couple of months so that it stays fresh in their memories.

**Make sure that you have at least two means to get out of any room in your home at any time of day or night. The best way is always a door but  if the door is not available, make sure they know the second means.

**Test your smoke alarms on a monthly basis and two times each year, replace the batteries in your fire or smoke alarm.

In The Event of an Actual Fire

Get out as fast as you can once you hear the smoke alarm. Don’t waste time trying to find objects or pets.  Never hide from the firemen or women.

Follow the plan of escape that you have practiced.

Before you open any door, feel it. Lay the BACK of your hand on the door, not your palm. If the door is hot, don’t open it. It’s quite likely there is fire on the other side of the door. Find another way out.

Smoke rises. Smoke is poisonous gas so stay low to the ground and get out.  Call emergency services as soon as you are safely outside.

Once you are outside of the burning home, go directly to your meeting place. DO NOT re-enter your home for any reason. No matter who is missing or what you forgot, stay outside until the emergency services arrive.
Staying safe in a fire is something we can teach to our children to assure, so far as we can, their safety in this situation. Make sure that you take the planning and practices seriously and they will too.
Do your part to assure that your kids and you are safe in the event of a fire and that everyone knows what they should be doing and how to do it.  Many people are reticent to speak with their children about emergency situations for fear that they will scare them.

While the thought of a fire is a frightening event for a young child, not teaching them what they need to know will make it even more frightening and leave them unprepared to deal with it if the event ever happens.

As more and more families see both parents working it’s sometimes the case that a child comes home alone to wait half hour or an hour for parents to arrive home from work.  Called latch key kids in some areas, the incidence of a child of 12 or 13 coming home to an empty house is becoming more common.

This is not a new thing in actuality since the term Latch Key kid actually was coined in the UK more than 100 years ago when children who came home alone wore a house key on a chain or cord around their necks.

While kids of this age are well able  in most cases to stay home for a half hour and await a parent, there are some simple rules that need to be made clear to them and safety tips that all children need to know, regardless of their age.

If your children come home to an empty house make sure that they know the rules that you’ve laid down for their safety and understand not just the rules themselves but also the reasons for them.

When your children are home alone for any reason, they should be taught that answering the door is not acceptable. This holds true for those you know as well as those you do not know. It’s not at all uncommon for a parent to ask someone to look in on them but they should be expecting that and if they are not then answering the door is not permitted. In most cases it is a good idea to encourage that the door be kept locked at all time while you are not at home.

Explain to your children that while you are not trying to frighten them, things do happen and the world has changed somewhat, that you believe in their ability to be safe and secure but that certain rules are necessary to assure that.

When you make the rules for your children who come home alone, encourage certain behaviors

They will always take the same route to and from school so that everyone would know what route that is.

Consider after school activities and prearrange transportation from those events if walking is not an option

Make a plan for an every day phone call or text message from your child letting you know that they arrived home safely and the time they arrived. Assure that they know that they are to come straight home without stops in other places or at friend’s homes.

Friends are not to be in the home unless you’ve prearranged that. To invite others over to your home with your children while you’re not at home is definitely a bad idea.

If the telephone rings and you permit them to answer then they should do so and take a message. If the caller is not someone they know then offering the information that mom and dad are not at home is not a good thing to do. Teach them instead to say that their parents are not available to come to the phone but that you will return their call as soon as you are able.

Practice and make sure your children know emergency procedures so that calling the emergency services is something they know well how to accomplish.

Try to keep the responsibilities lighter for them at first. Assure and teach them about safety and encourage them to discuss any fears they may have about being home alone and address them promptly at meetings or discussions about how things are going so that you are aware of any problems that may be taking place.

Your home security is of course important to you. Nothing means more than assuring the safety of your home and your family. In a world that is rapidly changing, what can you do to secure your home against criminals?

There are several methods that should be taken into consideration and looked at for their effectiveness in your situation. Each has positive and negative points but also offers some type of additional protection for your home.

Home Alarm Systems

Among the best ways to prevent a burglary or a home invasion is a home burglar alarm. There are multiple choices for home alarms, including the motion sensor variety, where detectors that sense movement such as doors or windows opening will trigger the alarm, contact detectors that will activate an alarm when the magnets are no longer in contact, as well as several others. Most of these alarm systems make use of a control panel as well as a housing that contains a loud alarm or bell to alert you to the presence of an intruder.

Alarm systems come in both wired and wireless varieties and having those monitored by a security company who will immediately alert the police or emergency services for you is also an option.

Camera and intercom System

No one who is in the business of house breaking wants to be caught on tape doing something that they shouldn’t, so in many cases the close circuit camera variety is a very effective means of discouraging intrusions and illegal activity. Sensors are triggered by movement and the cameras record what is causing the motion. Intercoms permit you to ask who is at a door or a gate prior to opening it to permit them into the property or home.

Door Security

The home doors, both front and back should be fitted with locks that are of the secure deadbolt variety. Each door should also have a viewer as well as a door chain or some other type of door guard such as a bar. Doors should have some means to open a slight amount in security before opening the door in it’s entirety to permit an entrant to come into the home.

Lighting

Fit lights into the porches by all doors. If you have areas of your yard or garden that are particularly dark or hidden by trees or fences they should have a means to light them up and keep them well lit. This is a deterrent for most burglars. No one wants to be lit up and in full view if they are there for nefarious purposes.

Window Locks

Double hung windows don’t break quietly so make sure that your glass is kept in good condition so that its tough to break into the home. Install window locks on any window that can be used to enter the house.

Gates

If you have side gates to your property, make sure that they are secured with a lock and bolt or that the gate must be climbed over to get into the property as opposed to quietly opened and entered.

Garage

Lock your garages and sheds securely to assure that there is not an easy entry. Consider magnetic alarm installation on the doors. If your garage has a connecting door to your home assure that this door is kept securely locked at night and when you are not at home to assure that there isn’t an easy entry into your home.

Privacy Hedges and Fencing

If you are providing for your own privacy, consider making a very unwelcome surprise for someone entering your property through the fencing or hedges. Plant a single row of some type of thorn hedge or plant to assure that entry isn’t easily accomplished and will be less likely to be done in silence.

Mail Delivery

When you are away from home, ask a neighbor to check in and keep your mail and newspapers from piling up. Ask the postal service and newspaper services to hold your mail and other deliveries for you if this is possible, to assure that your home doesn’t look as though its empty.

The reason people use a guard dog is that they tend to bark and frighten away, intimidate or in fact actively and aggressively attack an intruder on command.

Contrary to popular belief these dogs are also loving and attentive companions as well as guard dogs. The key is selecting the right dog and choosing one who has the temperament to do the things that you want but still to be a companion.

Getting a dog which will be a guard dog is a big investment and one that will cost quite handsomely by the end of training, so assuring that the temperament and breed of dog are what you need for the job are essential.

Larger breed dogs are generally used in guard dog training for understandable reasons but some midsized dogs have also been used with good success. Understanding the breed at hand is important.

Some breeds simply do not have what it takes to be a guard dog, while others, which are not generally seen as guard dog material, such as standard poodles may respond quite well and make admirable guard dogs for your home and family.

When you begin to select your future guard, pay close attention to his or her temperament and attitude. A puppy should be neither too shy nor too aggressive when you approach them.

Buy from a breeder who is known in the community and is reputable. Getting a dog from a pet shop or a backyard breeder or one who has many dogs under one roof is usually a mistake. You will ideally want a pup that has been socialized and handled as he or she was growing to their current age.

Ask questions of the breeders about the temperament of the adults that they have and ask for references from previous customers. It’s always a good idea to get the names of others who have purchased dogs from your breeder to see how satisfied they were with the puppy they purchased.

If there is a parent on the premises ask if you can interact with the pup’s parents and spend a few minutes observing them and their reaction to you. Make sure that they don’t behave as if they are frightened but neither do they react to you as if they are feeling aggressive toward you.

Ask specific questions of the owners about other pets, and how your new dog will react to them, as well as any problems they may have had with smaller children. This will be an important indicator of the right dog.

POPULAR GUARD DOGS

• Doberman
• German Shepherd
• Rottweiler