Safety in the home

Fire safety in the home

To prevent a fire in your home, there are a number of inexpensive precautions that you can take that could save the lives of you and your family.  It is worth looking at each room of your home and considering what precautions could be put in place.

Top tips to consider

• Take extra care in the kitchen (especially when cooking with hot oil).  Accidents while cooking account for over half of all fires in the home.
• Never leave young children alone in the kitchen.
• Keep your cooker clear of flammable objects, such as cloths, oven gloves and curtains.
• Make sure cigarettes are stubbed out properly and thrown away carefully.
• Never smoke in bed.Never leave lit candles in rooms that nobody is in, or where children are on their own.
• Is your upholstered furniture fire-resistant?  If it was made before 1988, it won’t be, meaning it can catch light easily and could produce clouds of poisonous smoke.
• Don’t overload electrical sockets – try to keep one plug per socket.
• Where possible do not use sockets under beds.
• Close inside doors overnight.
• Never dry clothes near to heaters or cookers.
• Make sure all fires are guarded, especially if you have children.
• Never prop fire doors open or interfere with self-closing mechanisms of any internal doors.
• Keep matches and lighters out of reach of children.
• Never use water on a fire involving electrical equipment, fat, oil or spirits.
• Never use a lift in the event of fire.
• Consider keeping a fire blanket in the kitchen.
• Get a Smoke Alarm

We will fit smoke alarms in your home for FREE – contact us if you don’t have any.

If you already have smoke alarms make sure they are working, free from dust and test it every week and change the batteries twice a year where necessary.

Plan your Escape

• Don’t tackle fires yourself – get out and stay out and call 999.
• You should talk to everyone in your home about how you will get out if there is a fire.  Make an escape plan for the house and put a reminder of what to do somewhere it is easily and regularly seen – on the fridge door, for example.
• You can get free advice from your local fire service.

Keep Exits Clear

Make it a habit to keep the exits from your home clear, so that people can escape if there is a fire.

If you live in a flat make sure communal areas and fire exits are clear – if your neighbours leave obstacles in the way let us know and we will take appropriate action.

Make sure you know where keys to windows and doors are and that they can be unlocked in a hurry if the need arises.

What do we do as your Landlord

• We will fit smoke alarms for FREE – we are steadily replacing battery smoke alarms with main powered alarms.
• We will service your gas boiler annually and make it is safe – when we do this we will test your smoke alarm.
• If you do not have a gas boiler in your home Radian Services trades operative will test your smoke alarm when routine repairs are undertaken.
• We will undertake a Fire Risk Assessment where front doors open on to a communal corridor – this identifies where people have left rubbish and obstacles in communal areas that could act as fuel for fire or obstruct escape routes.

We will service and maintain fire alarms and equipment where they are installed in communal areas.

Help us to Help You

• Report any vandalism or damage to fire equipment to us.
• Keep fire exits, stairs and corridors clear of rubbish or other obstacles.
• Make sure you let us in to service your boiler and test your smoke alarm each year.
• Act on the simple precautions described above.

For further advice please visit the Directgov website which has information on fire safety (link to Directgov Firekills Website) or contact your local fire and rescue service.

Gas Safety

If you think you have an UNSAFE GAS APPLIANCE immediately contact the National Gas Helpline on 0800 111 999.

If you live in a home that is connected to mains gas, you can have a carbon monoxide (C.O.) alarm fitted for FREE.

If your carbon monoxide alarm sounds then you should ALWAYS call to get it checked out.

Call Customer Service to report the problem and we will ensure our safety engineers are with you as soon as reasonably practicable.  While you are waiting for an engineer to call, you should keep your home well ventilated by opening as many windows as possible, and also turn off your central heating, immersion heater if you have one, and any other gas appliances.

Gas Safety Changes

From April 2009 the CORGI gas registration scheme is no longer recognised by law as the gas safety register and has been replaced by the Gas Safe Register.

The old, widely recognised orange CORGI logo is no longer an indication of the competence of an engineer to undertake work on gas installations and appliances.  It has been replaced by the yellow triangular Gas Safe Register logo shown on the card below.

Every engineer is required to carry a Gas Safe Register ID card with their own unique licence number.