Thank you First Alert for sponsoring this post.

We just marked two years since becoming homeowners and, like responsible adults, celebrated by inspecting our fire safety equipment. Installing our  First Alert 10-Year Sealed Battery Combination Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarms and Rechargeable Home Fire Extinguishers are an important way that we help protect our family. With two young children and a cat, we can relax better in our home with the knowledge that we are prepared for potential emergencies.

For Fire Prevention Month this October, I am so excited to raise awareness and share how First Alert is helping to keep our home safe. They are the #1 brand in fire safety and are committed to providing reliable products and education for all families.

My Home Safety Checklist

First Alert recently sent us a fire safety kit and inside was a brilliant, visual checklist to ensure that no areas of our house are forgotten. You use the template to sketch your home, basically creating a map. As you walk through your home and check your equipment, you place color-coded stickers on your map to indicate that you have the proper fire safety equipment in each room. It’s a wonderful way to get the whole family involved and help your little ones become aware of how your home is kept safe.

Install Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarms

We started by checking our smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. It’s recommended that you install alarms on every level in your home, in every bedroom, hallway, and common areas. As you go through your house, make sure they’re all functioning properly. Most alarm batteries should be changed every six months, but First Alert’s 10-Year Sealed Battery Combination Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarms have a 10-year lifespan meaning no battery replacements. After ten years, you just replace the whole alarm.

The voice and location alerts feature is my favorite part of these alarms. If one of them goes off, it will tell you the location and type of danger in your home so that you can respond accordingly.

Have Fire Extinguishers

The next part of our safety check was assessing our fire extinguishers. The First Alert Rechargeable Home Fire Extinguisher is incredibly easy to install and operate. You want to have at least one of these on every level of your home. Kitchens, garages, laundry rooms, and grills are common areas for fires and should all have extinguishers nearby to help be prepared. As you create your checklist, make sure the gauge on the top is still pointing to the green area and look for any overall signs of damage.

You should also get well acquainted with how your fire extinguishers work. The acronym P.A.S.S. is a simple way to remember how to use it when needed:

P– Pull the pin

A– Aim the nozzle toward the base of the fire

S– Squeeze the trigger

S– Sweep from side to side

Create An Emergency Escape Plan

It’s a smart idea for your entire family to discuss and practice your emergency escape plan frequently. I know that it can be uncomfortable to imagine your loved ones in a dangerous situation, but being prepared will give you so much peace of mind. Teach your children two possible ways to exit from every room in your home and designate a safe spot outside to meet once you’ve evacuated. Since our kids are still very little, we’re always conscious of where they are so that we can guide them outside.

A few more things we’ve taught our kids are to crawl on the floor if there’s smoke, not to open a hot door because there’s likely to be fire behind it, and to never go back into our home if there is an emergency inside. Adjust your plan so that it makes sense for your family and be sure to run through the complete routine at least twice a year.

Shop First Alert for Your Home

First Alert fire safety products can be found at Lowe’s. As part of Fire Prevention  Month, Lowe’s Home Improvement wants to #buildthanks for first responders, doctors, and nurses with a 10% discount Oct. 22-24. Register for this special offer at Lowes.com/firstresponders.

Be sure to spend this Fire Prevention Month protecting your family and keeping your home safe with First Alert!

Talk to you soon!