Each year, nearly 40,000 pets lose their lives in house fires. Furthermore, about 1,000 of these fires were started by dogs or cats. These statistics can be a bit alarming, especially if you are a pet owner. However, if you take heed of the following pet fire safety tips, you can keep your family and pets safe.
Preventing Pets from Starting Fires
- Never Leave Open Flames Unattended If you enjoy lighting candles and placing them around your house, never leave them unattended, especially if you have pets. Pets are curious by nature and can easily tip a candle over if they choose to investigate it. If you are getting ready to leave the room or your home, always be sure to extinguish any lit candles.
- Remove the Knobs on Your Stove The National Fire Protection Association states that stoves and hot plates are the primary causes of house fires today. Additionally, many fires caused by stoves were started by pets. This is because pets can accidentally turn your stove’s burners on should they paw at the knobs. As such, keep the knobs off of your stove until you need them.
- Pet-Proof Your Home Just as you would child-proof your home if you had a baby or toddler, you need to pet-proof your home if you have a dog or cat. Make sure electrical cords are out of reach, cover up any loose wires, install protective grates in front of any fireplaces and use child gates to keep pets out of restricted areas.
Fire Safety for Pets to Ensure Your Pet’s Safety
- Pet Safety Rescue Stickers Invest in various pet rescue stickers and place them on several windows of your home. Be sure to place at least one on a front window. These pet safety stickers will alert emergency personnel to the presence of pets in your house. Typically, pet safety rescue stickers also have spaces where you can write down the number and types of pets in your house as well.
- Participate in Occasional Fire Drills Assign your pets to various family members and conduct occasional fire drills each month. Depending on the number of pets you have, each family member can be responsible for carrying one of them out of the house. In this way, if a fire does occur, you will all be prepared.
- Prepare a Pet Safety Emergency Kit Compile a pet emergency kit and keep it next to your front door or in the trunk of your car. Some items you will want to place in the pet emergency kit include a list of pet-friendly accommodations, leashes, a few pet toys, your pet’s medical records, a current photo of your pet, two bowls, a bottle of water and a small bag of pet food.
- Keep Identification on Your Pet Unfortunately, many pets are misplaced when there are fires. However, you can help relocate your pet if you make sure that it is wearing a name tag with your current phone number. Another option is to take your pet to your veterinarian and invest in a microchip.
If you are a pet owner, you will want to keep your pet safe at all times. One of the things you will need to practice is pet fire safety. There are many things you can do to prevent fires in your home, and the pet fire safety tips described above can help keep your family and pets safe from the devastation caused by fires. If you have more useful tips about fire safety for pets, please let us know so we can add these to this list!