Fire safety tips for families with young children

In this blog, we share fire and burn safety tips to keep your loved ones safe. From creating a fire escape plan to teaching kids about hot surfaces, being prepared is essential.

• Install smoke alarms throughout your house, including outside and inside every bedroom, to alert your family when there is a fire. Test your smoke alarms often to ensure they are working and so your kids can become familiar with the sound.

• Create a fire escape plan for your family and put that plan into action by practicing it at least two times a year (in the day and at night). During a fire escape, younger kids should be accompanied by an adult. Your family’s fire escape plan might include showing your kids how to guard themselves from smoke, or to feel doorknobs for heat before exiting a room. It is also important to identify two exits out of every room.

• Remind your kids to “stop, drop, and roll” to extinguish flames if their clothing catches fire. Keep in mind that kid’s sleepwear is flame-resistant or tight-fitting in accordance with federal safety standards. This means that pajamas are the best sleepwear for your children.

• Keep your kids away from hot appliances, including space heaters, stovetops or anything else that gets hot to avoid burns. Lighters and matches are also a risk of catching fire. Misuse of lighters and matches can increase the risk of causing a fire.

• Be cautious around hot liquids. “Burns from hot liquids are the most common types of burns we see in kids,” says Leigh J. Spera, MD, Medical Director of the Burn Program at Riley Children’s Health. “So, another important tip is to keep hot liquids like coffee, tea, cocoa, and soups out of their reach. Set these items on stable surfaces like a tabletop and keep them back away from the edge where they can reach up and pull them over. Never let kids take items out of the microwave as they may tip the item and spill it on themselves.”

• Take extra care during holidays. Holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving see an increase in home cooking fires and fire deaths. During this time, never leave cooking unattended. When your meal is ready, check the kitchen to make sure all burners and other appliances are turned off before sitting down to eat. Make sure hot food and beverages are pushed back on countertops and tables. And turn pot or pan handles toward the back of the stove so that they are out of reach from kids. It's helpful to designate a kid free zone during holiday cooking. “I recommend establishing a three feet “kid free zone” (at minimum) around all hot cooking surfaces, oven doors, and resting hot food containers,” says Dr. Spera.

“We understand that accidents can happen, even in a few seconds, so trying to anticipate and protect from likely exposures with proper supervision is key,” says, Dr. Spera. If a serious burn occurs, call 911 or go to the nearest Riley Children’s Health Emergency department.

Know that Riley Children’s offers a dedicated pediatric burn program verified by the American Burn Association (ABA) and the American College of Surgeons (ACS), the Burn Program at Riley Children’s offers care for children who have experienced various types of burns.

For more information on fire safety visit healthchildren.org, nfpa.org, or redcross.org.

This information was medically reviewed by the Burn Program, part of Indiana’s longest-standing Level I Pediatric Trauma Center at Riley Hospital for Children in downtown Indianapolis.