Comfort Keepers 24 HR Home Care for Seniors: Safety and Prevention Tips on Fire Accidents in Walnut Creek, CA

How can you help your senior loved one prevent fires this winter? 24 hr home care experts - Comfort Keepers of Walnut Creek, CA can help!

The current situation

Human beings have utilized fires for long, be it in cooking, lighting or even for scaring creepy animals at night. As much as fire is useful to us, it’s good to mention that fires could result in detrimental fire accidents which can lead to loss of life and insane amounts of property. Comfort Keepers 24 hr home care for seniors is aware that cases of wild fires and house fires are quite ubiquitous with the latter being reported in the tune of thousands. Fire victims tend to be mostly the elderly, especially those above 65 years and they are vulnerable for a number of reasons as will be revealed.

It is surprising that the elderly who only consist of about 10% of the population account for the majority of casualties, about 40% in fire accidents. This exposes the major issue Comfort Keepers 24 hr home care for seniors seeks to address, the idea of saving the elderly from evitable fires.

The risk factors

 Aging comes with its losses and declines in ones physical and mental capabilities are part of them. We as Comfort Keepers Home Care appreciate the significant impact of this on how this vulnerable group responds to fire emergencies. This is made worse by their impairment in fully utilizing the five senses for survival in case of fire accidents.

The elderly also have an improper reaction time. This has been attributed to anatomical alterations in the corpus callosum as well as other key neural parts which greatly affects this group’s mechanical capabilities. Some of the medications that seniors are on could also lead to them being quite drowsy. Comfort Keepers 24 hr home care for seniors recommends that you check the side effects of the medications that they are on besides an eye on them at all times.

Although the above risk factors could predispose the elderly to getting injuries in fire accidents, it appears that some preventable causes are left to take their final course. Being less keen while cooking, tolerating faulty electrical circuits, poor smoking habits, and the use greasy cooking utensils are some of the preventable causes of fires.

Recommendations on fire safety and prevention

• Getting a smoke detector; smoke detectors are helpful in alerting you in case a fire breaks out. Their location is critical and some of the recommended areas include ceilings, sleeping quarters and in each floor, where this applies. Smoke detectors should be cleaned on a regular basis and their batteries changed biannually.
• Crafting a plan; it is good to be prepared for the eventuality of a fire accident. A good plan on how to approach fire accidents will help in directing efforts during escape or putting out a fire.
• Using safe cooking practices; you ought to be watchful while cooking, wash off the grease from your utensils and get an appropriate fire extinguisher for your kitchen, the ABC fire extinguisher will work just fine.
• Smoke in a responsible and safe manner; be responsible especially in disposing of incompletely burnt ashes.
• Correct faulty electric circuits; electric fires should be avoided as much as possible by fixing issues such as dimming lights and overloaded circuits.