Home safety

• Put smoke alarms in every bedroom, outside each sleeping area, and on every level.
• Test them monthly and replace alarms that are 10 years old.
• Install carbon monoxide alarms on every level and near sleeping areas, especially with gas appliances, a fireplace or an attached garage.
• Keep a battery-powered CO alarm for outages, when generators and heaters come out.

Keep an ABC extinguisher in the kitchen and the garage. Use the PASS method: Pull the pin, Aim at the base of the fire, Squeeze the handle, Sweep side to side.

• Know two ways out of every room.
• Get escape ladders for upstairs bedrooms.
• Pick an outside meeting spot, like a mailbox or a neighbor's tree.
• Practice twice a year, once at night.
• Teach kids to crawl low under smoke and never go back inside.

• Good locks and a solid door frame on exterior doors.
• Motion lights outside, and solar ones for outages.
• Know your neighbors. A watchful street is the best security there is.
• After a storm, check for gas smells, downed lines and structural damage before going back in.