A family home in Woolton has been devastated after their four-year-old accidentally set fire to his mattress. This happened after he got hold of a candle lighter.
The blaze quickly spread and has destroyed most of the upper floor of the property. Thankfully, no-one was injured thanks to their smoke alarms.
When Peter, their father, went upstairs after hearing the smoke alarms, he found his two sons watching the fire spread. It turns out his son Kieran had taken the lighter upstairs to light a candle.
The family had no insurance and are receiving no help from their housing provider due to the nature of the fire. As a result, they are now left with a clean-up bill of potentially thousands.
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Our Thoughts
No family should have to experience such a traumatising ordeal. However, this is a timely reminder that fire can really happen to anyone, and as such you should prepare for the worse.
Thankfully they had working smoke alarms installed in their home, which meant the alarm was raised so they could all safely escape.
As a bare minimum, you need to have at least one smoke alarm on every floor of your home. But for more reliable protection, you’ll want alarms in the rooms your family spends the majority of their time. So these will be in bedrooms, living and dining rooms.
Optical smoke alarms are generally better at detecting smouldering fires which are common with those involving furnishings. Plus, they are less prone to false alarms.
In order to prevent a fire in your home, you should reduce every potential risk as much as possible. This includes keeping lighters, matches, and candles well out of reach of children. Not only is this to prevent an accidental fire, but also from harming themselves.
Educating your children is also one of the most worthwhile things you can do to keep your young ones safe, as it sets them up for life.
It’s not only about helping children to understand what can cause a fire, but also how to act in the event of a fire.
With your family, you must decide the main route out of your home, and a place where you will assemble. This may be the tree in your front garden.
Then with this fresh in everyone’s mind, you should practice this route. This will help to establish any issues that may exist, but it also makes it more familiar so they’re better prepared and less likely to panic.
If you want any more advice when it comes to teaching fire safety tips to your kids, then check out this article.
Friends of the family are trying to raise money to help them refurbish their home.