- Install a smoke alarm on every level of your home. Test smoke alarm batteries every month and change them at least once a year. Consider installing a 10-year lithium battery-powered smoke alarm, which is sealed so it cannot be tampered with or opened.
- Never smoke in bed. Replace mattresses made prior to the 1973 Federal Mattress Flammability Standard.
- Don’t put ashtrays on the arms of sofas or chairs.
- Use deep ashtrays and soak ashes in water before disposal.
- Don’t leave cigarettes, cigars or pipes unattended. Put out all smoking materials before you walk away.
- If you begin to feel drowsy while watching television or reading, extinguish your cigarette or cigar.
- Close a matchbook before striking and hold it away from your body. Set your cigarette lighter on “low” flame.
- If smokers have visited, be sure to check the floor and around chair cushions for ashes that may have been dropped accidentally.
- Develop and practice a fire escape plan. In case of a fire, crawl or stay low to the ground, beneath the smoke, and use the escape plan you have worked out. Get out and stay out.