Sarasota County Emergency Services Offers Fire Safety Tips

SARASOTA, Fla. - Sarasota County Emergency Services celebrated their annual Fire Prevention Open House, Saturday afternoon.

According to Emergency Services officials, the theme of this year’s celebrate was “Have 2 Ways Out” focusing on the importance of families having a set emergency escape plan in place.

The event was in conjunction with National Fire Prevention week which starts Sunday, October 7 and runs through October 13 ^th.

The following are helpful suggestions from director of Emergency Services and Fire Chief, Mike Tobais, that can help keep families safe in the case of an emergency:

1.)    Make sure your smoke alarm is in working condition with functioning batteries.

•    If the smoke alarm makes a chirping sound it is time to change the batteries.
• Firefighters suggest families change the batteries in the alarm twice a year. They suggest around daylight savings time.

2.)    Schedule regular fire drills that set off the fire alarm so that everyone is familiar with the sounds of the fire alarm and know when to react.

3.)    If someone in the family has special needs, make sure the escape route is adaptable for them to safely make it out of the home.

4.)    Have a set home escape plan. The chief recommends having a drawn up floor plan, or map, that identifies all of the possible escape routes out of the home. He recommends having at least two.

• Make sure to have a set meeting spot outside, that is within a safe distance from the home. Make that spot part of the escape plan so that everyone in the family knows to meet at that safety area after escaping a fire.