In today’s scenario, it is inevitable to keep oneself well-informed about safety precautions regarding ways to combat fire accidents. With the growing demand for apartments, space crunch grows alongside. In order to accommodate the requirements, the builders too, take shortcuts by going for sub-standard materials. This in turn, definitely affects the quality of the building and fire safety pre-requisites are hardly followed. While complaining about the external factors in such matters, there are sure ways to keep ourselves and our neighbourhood safe from accidental fires.

As I contemplated this, I realized that it is very important to highlight the importance of safeguarding everyone possible from accidental fires. I decided to gift my friend a fire extinguisher to underline the significance of what I intended to say.

After COVID our idea of safety has changed for good!

My gift proved quite strange to my friend. She was puzzled, indeed. She is not really aware of accidental fires happening across residential buildings, schools, hospitals etc. As I have been writing for a few years for Beyond Carlton, I realized the importance of keeping ourselves and our neighbourhood at bay from any sort of fire accident. The solution lies in our very own hands. I try to educate my family, friends and neighbours on fire safety, in every manner possible. Gifting a fire extinguisher is definitely one such attempt. I strongly feel that by gifting a fire extinguisher, I will be in a better position to explain to her the importance along with the technical know-how.

Apathy still prevails

In general, the common notion among the general public is those fire extinguishers are meant to be kept only in shops, malls and public places. There is almost no awareness even among the learned community regarding accidental fires and fires caused due to negligence at home. The danger of fire accidents begins from a single matchstick or candle or diya to gas stoves and cylinders. The spread of such fires in an unkempt household fueled by unawareness can cause the utmost tragedy.

Why is it important to teach your children about safety?

As the saying goes, it’s better to practice than preach. To exercise awareness and hit on my message, I gifted my friend, a fire extinguisher. This helped me in the best possible manner as,” actions speak louder than words.” My message was bang on, which is not surprising to me. This is how I wanted to send across my singular message. It proved successful as the entire family, especially, the kids were extremely curious to know ‘why a fire extinguisher was in my home?’. They even wanted a demo on the usage, so that they can try using the fire extinguisher once. This seemed like a fun activity coupled with sensible learning. As their presence of mind is far greater than adults,I exploited this opportunity to drive lots of sense into the young, inquisitive minds. This simplified my task as I got an opportunity to explain the importance and usage of the fire extinguisher. The curious minds were highly convinced of my reasoning on the necessity of owning it and, more importantly on how and when to use it.

The entire family appreciated my efforts and concern in this regard. They were all in praise of my thoughtfulness and sensibility. A little presence of mind goes a long way in helping your community in educating on such unspoken-of issues. It proves all the more important in today’s scenario as most of houses are crowded with electrical appliances in small spaces. Every now and then we read and hear news about accidental fires across communities. But, sadly we go past such unfortunate accidents, thinking that it will never happen to us. There is absolutely no takeaways or lessons learnt at any point. But this involves the precious lives of our beloved family or friends. Hence, the awareness of the prevention of fire accidents needs a strong mention.

A small investment can make a difference

It is at this juncture, I take the opportunity to share the details of basic fire extinguishers. A basic fire extinguisher can last upto a year or two, costing around INR1000. Since it’s easily available online, you may conveniently order it and sit back and relax, as you have made one of the best investments for the safety of your family.

There is also a car fire extinguisher which you may want to make a great addition to your annual budget. These might seem unnecessary at the outset, but such small investments are really worth it, after all, we really don’t mind spending a few thousand on protecting our mobile phones!

Signing off with a strong message,”Prevention is better than cure”, fits perfectly with reference to awareness of accidental fires and ways to combat them.

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Written by Vidhya Renganathan

Vidhya is a content writer based in Chennai, always envisions the betterment of society & captures it in writing.