Fire Safety and Pets

 National Pet Fire Safety Day

In 2009, July 15th was declared National Pet Fire Safety Day by the American Kennel Club and ADT Security Services to educate pet owners on how to keep their pets safe should a fire arise, to prevent fires, and to plan for unexpected emergencies. For pets, prevention is key in fire safety. For people, we tend to do fire safety drills with our family and have safe meeting places. For our pets, we can't just tell them "Fido, I need you to meet me by the big tree in the neighbors yard". Your pet is going to be scared and they're going to run and hide. 

Safety Tips

1. Extinguish open flames. Pet are curious and will want to investigate what the dancing flames are. They are not cautious creatures and will jump into an open fire. 

2. Use flame-less candles in the home. If they get knocked over by curious pets, they won't start a fire and pets won't get burned. 

3. Use metal and plastic bowls for water bowls outside. Glass bowls filled with water outside on a wooden deck can heat up and actually start a fire. 

4. Keep pets out of the kitchen while cooking. Cats like to climb and sizzling pots and pans can attract kitties. Hot grease and curious cats can cause a kitchen fire fast.

5. Remove stove knobs when you're not home. Stoves can't get accidentally turned on if there's no knobs.

6. Keep young pets in kennels while you're away from home. 

7. Keep leashes and collars by the doors and have a plan in case something does happen so everyone knows who is responsible for which pet. 

8. Put window clings on your windows with how many and what kinds of pets are inside. Put them on the windows of the rooms the pets are kept in while you're away. If you have dog in a kennel in the master bedroom and the cat is in the kid's room, each window needs a cling with the pet labeled for that room and another cling for the doors saying the total number of pets inside.