Have you ever been through a test fire drill while at work and dismissed it as a waste of time or even completely ignored it along with any other fire safety related notion? I admit I have, until I was caught in a fire emergency and had to know what to do to survive in order to be able to help others and, at the same time, minimize the risk of others endangering their lives or even die trying to get me out of trouble because of my incompetence. That was a lot of literally vital stuff I had to make the right decisions on with very little time to spare.

I have since realized that fire safety drills and periodical training and procedures are mostly designed to help you draw a mental map of the steps you should take to protect yours and others lives in case of a real fire emergency. It is imperative that we all pay much more attention to this subject not only in the working environment, but most importantly at home where we are totally responsible for the safety of our loved ones in case of such an emergency.

It is easy to realize that because of our busy lives we have virtually no time at all to get up to speed with many vital emergency procedures like fire safety. I could have used some more knowledge when I was suddenly put on the spot and I bet the vast majority of people that survived such an ordeal would agree. Therefore finding ways to draw attention to simple, accessible and useful information on the subject has almost become a mission for me after that experience.

For example, one of the fire safety tools I was totally ignorant about even though I could see them virtually everywhere was the fire extinguisher, there is one even in my car. But do you know how to operate it correctly? Have you ever asked yourself if you would be able to quickly establish what kind of fire you are fighting and if the fire extinguisher you happen to have in your hand is the correct one to put that fire out? If you believe this is Fire-fighters stuff only, please do not wait until you have to pull that trigger to find out you are wrong.

Another life saving device I used to totally ignore is the humble Smoke Alarm. This simple device is a real life saver and there should definitely be one installed in each room of your home, no exceptions. It can be easily sourced, even at your local supermarket, comes with great designs to suit the style of your home and is worth the small investment thousands of times over if you think only for a nanosecond what it is in fact designed to do. In case of fire, an early wake up call will mean the difference between life and death.

All you have to do now is place your smoke alarms strategically on the walls or ceilings of all your rooms and make sure you periodically maintain them which mean performing a functionality test according to the device maintenance schedule which comes with each device and eventually change the batteries if needed.

Basically if you can change a light bulb you can install and maintain a life saving smoke detecting device and alarm, it is that simple and you will not regret it.