A well developed Fire Escape Plan could save your family

If a fire occurred in your home today, would your family get out safely?

Everyone must know what to do and where to go when the smoke alarm sounds. Take a few minutes with everyone in your household to make a home fire escape plan, following these steps:

Draw a floor plan of your home

Use a grid notebook to draw a plan for each level of your home and include all possible emergency exits. Draw in all the doors, windows, and stairways. this will show you and your family all possible escape routes at a glance. Include any features such as the roof of a garage or porch, that would help in escape.

Show two ways out of every room, if possible

The door will be the main exit from each room. However, if the door is blocked by smoke or fire, identify an alternate escape route, which could be a window. Make sure that all windows can open easily and that everyone knows how to escape through them safely. if windows have security bars, equip them with quick releasing devices.

Does anyone need help to escape?

Decide in advance who will assist the very young, older adults, or people with disabilities in your household. A few minutes of planning will save valuable seconds in a real emergency.

Choose a meeting place outside

Choose a meeting place a safe distance from your home that everyone will remember. A tree, street light, or a neighbor's home are all good choices. In case of a fire, everyone should head to this meeting place so you and your family is all accounted for.

Call the fire department outside your home

Don't waste valuable seconds calling the fire department from inside your home. Once you have safely escaped, call the fire department from a cell phone or a neighbor's home.

Practice your escape

Review the plan with everyone in your household and walk through all the escape routes. Make sure all the exits are practical and easy to use and practice so you wont hesitate as your escape routes may be quickly blocked by smoke or flames.

REMEMBER

• Plan two ways out of every room if possible
• Once out always stay out - never re-enter a burning building
• Hold a fire drill twice a year

If you live in a high-rise apartment building, contact the property manager or superintendent for information on your building's fire safety plan. 

At Sturino & Associates we want you to get the most up to date information and cater to all of your insurance needs. for more information call us at 416-233-8252 or drop by locally at 7 Jopling Avenue S. Etobicoke, ON.

H.F.S.T. (Home Fire Safety Tips)

Weather you are a brand new home owner or have owned your home for a few years now, it is always important to set down some prevention initiatives for your home. These initiatives can make a difference when disaster strikes.

At Sturino & Associates, we want to make sure that you and your family are aware of the best practices to protect your investment, the following are some tips to prevent, detect, and escape in case of a fire at your home.

Prevention

• Ensure that all matches and lighters are out of the sight and reach of children
• Teach young children not to touch matches or lighters
• Always stay in the kitchen when you are cooking
• keep children at least one meter from the stove
• If you are sleepy or have consumed alcohol, don't use the stove
• Always blow out candles before leaving a room
• If anyone is the home smokes, smoke outside
• Ensure that you have no overloaded electrical outlets or circuits
• Extension cords must be used only as a temporary connection
• Ensure that items that can burn easily are at least one meter away from space heaters or any ignition source

Detection

• Ensure working smoke alarms are installed on every story of your home and outside all sleeping areas - It's the law and the responsibility of every homeowner and every landlord!
• For extra protection, install a smoke alarm in every bedroom
• Install smoke alarms with a "hush" feature to silence nuisance alarms - never remove batteries of disconnect smoke alarms
• Use of Photoelectric smoke alarms may reduce the frequency of nuisance alarms outside the kitchen and bathroom
• Ensure a carbon monoxide alarm is installed outside of sleeping areas in homes with a fuel burning appliance or attached garage - It's the law and the responsibility of every homeowner and every landlord!
• Test your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms at least once a month
• change smoke and carbon monoxide alarm batteries annually and whenever the lo-battery warning sounds 
• Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms have a limited lifespan. In general, replace smoke alarms that are more than 10 years old and carbon monoxide alarms that are more than 7 years old. Check with the alarm manufacturer or the manufacturer's instructions for complete details
• Always follow the manufacturer's instructions for installing, testing, maintaining and replacing smoke and carbon monoxide alarms

Escape

• Develop a home and fire escape plan and practice with the entire family - You may have less than one minute to escape a fire emergency
• Keep all exits at home clear and easy to use

Fire Damage Recommended Practices

Fire...

For thousands of years, it's helped mankind survive and thrive.

But, when it comes to your property, fire

...it's simply not good for business.

Fire can wreak havoc on our client's buidling. Help your commercial and residential building owners develop a full understanding of their exposure - a fire assessment plan is a good place to start. Our clients can take steps to prevent or mitigate fire damage in their building simply by understanding their risks better.

In Canada, the top five causes of fire are:

1.  Electrical Distribution Equipment
2.  Flammable/Combustimble - liquid and/or gas ignition
3.  Cutting/Welding Equipment
4.  Heating Equipment Related
5.  Human Error

Our Monthly Fire Risk Checklist will help our clients understand what areas of their building's operations are most at risk for fire damage.

• Smoke alarms save lives; providing early detection and warning of a fire allowing occupants time to get out of the building.  Diligently check smoke alarms and make sure that they are always in working order.
• Housekeeping is key. Don't feed a fire! Keep all areas inside and outside of your building free from debris and build up. Use the Monthly Checklist can be found on the following link http://www.thedominion.ca/Libraries/Pdf_Files/Fire to help you focus on this.
• Ensure fire prevention equipment is maintained, ready and accessible when needed. Regularly inspect your:
• stand pipes and hoses
• siamese connections
• sprinklers
• fire suppression systems
• Fires in dumpsters are on the rise. Keep your dumpster away from your building so fire cannot spread from one to the other.
• Go to the following link http://www.thedominion.ca/Libraries/Pdf_Files/Fire to view our key tips for fire damage prevention - easily copied and then sent to our clients.
• Go to the following link http://www.thedominion.ca/Libraries/Pdf_Files/Fire to view our Fire Equipment Maintenance tool - one our client can quickly access and start using today to inspect their equipment! Send them to The Dominion's YouTube channel or link to the checklists to our website.
• Send our clients our video: the Keys To Business Protection For Fire Prevention.
• Share one of the Tweets below.
• Send our clients helpful hints and tools branded by The Dominion and our brokerage.

BRAND YOUR EXPERTISE

Ask your underwriter for the brandable version of our printable educational materials today, and insert our brokerage's logo.
Embedding a video onto our website or within communications allow san individual to view the video then and there - directly on our site.
Embed our videos in our website in three easy steps:

1. Go to www.YouTube.com/TheDominionINS and choose the video you want to embed.
2. Each video on YouTube has a "Share" button directly on the video bar. Click this button - and choose the embed function.
3. Select your desired video size and use the embed code provided in the back end of your website or emails.

MAKE SURE OUR CLIENTS ARE COVERED

Our Building Owner's Advantage Product offers insurance coverage for buildings and contents to ensure our commercial clients are covers. Peace of mind built just for them, in one convenient pacakage. This product has many unique features to meet the needs of our clients - and not just for our realty accounts. This product was developed with all building owners in mind. For more information on our Building Owner's Advantage Product, speak with our Underwriter.

#Fire can wreak havoc on your building. Do you know how to prevent it? Learn a few quick tips in two minutes here http://goo.gl/wK4zs
Do you know how your tenants' operations could impact your fire safety? Use this simple checklist to learn how: http://goo/gl/rk6TJ
Lean how to protect your building from #fire, with help from @TheDominionINS http://goo.gl/wK4zs

Sturino & Associates Insurance Brokers Ltd.
7 Jopling Avenue South
Etobicoke, Ontario  M9B 3P4