Public Fire Safety Education

Fire can be devastating, and we believe a big part of our job is to help prevent them. Should they do occur, we want to make sure our residents know what to do in order to protect themselves and limit the damage from fires. The following are some of the programs we offer:

• School fire safety presentations and lessons
• Fire stations tours
• Fire and fall prevention presentations for older adults
• Fire safety presentations for community groups and organizations
• Assisting older adults and those in need with installing their smoke and carbon monoxide alarms
• Assisting those who live in homes with fire sprinklers in understanding how to inspect them
• Conducting fire inspections in your home

Please contact the Division of Fire Prevention for information on how to request or participate in any of our Fire Prevention or Fire Safety Education programs.

Home Fire Safety Basics

Most people don’t think it will happen to them, yet nearly every day, someone in our nation is killed in a fire. Over 3,000 people are killed every year in their own homes. You have some control over if it, yet will you take action? If so, here are a few precautions you can take to save your family from fire.

Install & Test Your Smoke Detectors

Most deaths in home fires occur in homes without working smoke detectors. There have also been countless times where smoke detectors were present but never alerted the occupants because the detectors had missing or exhausted batteries. Install smoke detectors on every level of your home, near and in all sleeping areas. Don’t fool yourself, many people without working smoke detectors never wake up during a fire, and if they do, they have often inhaled too much toxic smoke to escape. An early warning is even more important if you need to help get sleeping children out of the home.

Plan & Practice Your Escape

A lot of people talk about it, yet few really do it. Once a smoke detector activates, you need to make sure that every member of your family knows how to get out, especially if hot blinding smoke is blocking one of your paths. Teach everyone two ways out, and practice it. We teach our children how to ride a bike and cross the street; why not how to escape a fire. Why do firefighters and many other professions train so often? Because they need to know what to do when they have to do it, whatever it is. How many times has your family been faced with a fire? They need to know what to do.

Close the Door

Consider sleeping with your door closed. This will help protect you from smoke if a fire starts outside your sleeping area. If you determine it is not safe to open your door, and you need escape through a window or await rescuers, this will buy you time. But if you are trapped, make sure to alert rescuers of your location by calling 911, and/or alerting rescuers by yelling out a window or other way. Also, if are able to escape from a room that is on fire, or from your home that is on fire, close the door behind you once everyone is out, preferably unlocked if possible. This will reduce the amount of oxygen feeding the fire, and should help to slow its spread.

Consider Installing Home Fire Sprinklers

Fire sprinklers are now available and affordable for home installation. A home fire sprinkler system may be the best home improvement you’ll ever make. Fires happen fast, sometimes too quickly to escape, especially for children, the elderly, and the physically and mentally challenged. Most fires in homes that have sprinkler systems are extinguished by a single sprinkler even before the Fire Department arrives. The Village of La Grange Park believes home fire sprinklers are so important that we now require a sprinkler system be installed in all new residential construction.