Helping To Keep Families Safe: Inside Kidde’s Cause For Alarm™ Fire Safety Initiative

Is your family prepared for a home emergency? With today’s fires burning hotter and faster than ever before, it’s extra important for families to have easy access to fire safety tools and education – and Kidde is committed to making it easier.

As part of Kidde’s Cause For Alarm initiative, we sat down with experts from the County of Los Angeles Fire Department (LACoFD) – and Kidde Chief Communications & Government Relations Officer Ivanette Bonilla – to talk Community Risk Reduction (CRR), home safety statistics and how families can be ready for the unexpected. In this post, we’ll hit some of the highlights.

Why Fires Burn Faster Today

First, when it comes to fire safety, it’s important to understand what we’re up against – including the changes in modern home fires. Today’s houses are very different than they used to be, and those differences cause fires to burn faster and hotter. Here are some reasons why:

Homes are built larger than in previous decades.
Synthetic materials in today’s furniture burn much faster than natural fibers.
Open floor plans create unrestricted oxygen flow, making it harder to slow down flames.

In fact, decades ago, families had an average of 17 minutes to escape a house fire. Today, it’s less than two minutes.

That means early detection, working alarms and a practiced escape plan are more important than ever.

American Families Are Underprepared – But Community Risk Reduction Can Help

When it comes to staying safe from the dangers of fire, preparation is everything. But in talking with LACoFD Fire Captain David Dantic, he emphasized that most American families are not prepared for a home fire. Only 26% have created and practiced a home fire escape plan, leaving millions vulnerable. Dantic also notes that many people across the country assume a fire “won’t happen to them.” Nearly 40% of Americans believe they’re more likely to hit the lottery or get struck by lightning than experience a house fire. This misunderstanding leaves those families unprepared – without working alarms, relying on outdated devices and with no practiced escape plan.

To help these families, Kidde is choosing to focus on CRR, an approach to fire safety that fights emergencies BEFORE they happen. By spreading education, encouraging community outreach and offering access to essential safety tools, Kidde is building a foundation of safety that can help people act quickly at the first sign of emergency.

Top Fire Safety Tips Every Family Should Follow

At the heart of CRR tactics is simply making sure that families everywhere are immediately familiar with the basics of proper fire safety. In particular, there are six things you can do to ensure a safer home today.

1. Install Proper Alarms

Smoke and Carbon Monoxide (CO) alarms belong on every level of your home and in every bedroom.

2. Check Batteries and Device Age

Replace your alarms every 7-10 years.

3. Keep Fire Extinguishers Accessible

There should be at least one fire extinguisher on every level of your home.

4. Create and Practice an Escape Plan

Practice your plan twice a year, during the day and at night.
Make sure to know two ways out of every room.

5. Choose a Meeting Spot

Establish a safe outdoor location where your family can meet up after an escape.

6. Act Fast

If an alarm sounds, get out immediately and stay out.

Cause For Alarm: Kidde’s National Fire Safety Mission

So, how do we spread the word and share important information about home safety? Kidde is helping with their Cause For Alarm initiative. Now in its fourth year, the initiative was created to close fire safety gaps linked to socioeconomic status and increase access to lifesaving devices like smoke and CO alarms.

This year’s campaign focuses especially on families and children, driven by these sobering statistics:

At least one child dies every day in a U.S. house fire.
Approximately 3 in 5 home fire deaths occur in homes without working smoke alarms.

To address this, Kidde is both providing educational resources and making alarm donations nationwide. Recently they held a major home safety event at The Home Depot in Hawthorne, California, in partnership with the LACoFD – it was a successful hands-on learning day for local families.

One brand-new resource for this year is Kidde’s free Prepare. Plan. Practice. augmented reality (AR) tool, which simulates what a fire could look like inside your home, showing you exactly how quickly smoke and flames can spread in under two minutes. It’s available in both English and Spanish, and designed for both adults and kids to learn about fire and CO risks – and all they need is a phone or a tablet with an internet connection. Be sure to share your results on social media using #CauseForAlarm.

Speaking of kids, Kidde has been looking for ways to help make learning more engaging, especially for their young “Fire Safety Helpers.” Recently they partnered with Hasbro’s Peppa Pig to create videos, tool kits and even a sing-along song to help children and families understand what to do in a fire emergency.

How You Can Get Involved With Cause For Alarm

If you’re ready to start making your home safer as well as help protect homes across the nation, you can join Kidde’s cause at CauseForAlarm.org. The website hosts free educational resources and safety tool kits in a variety of languages, as well as shares other ways to get involved.

Fire and CO safety can feel overwhelming, but by starting simple and taking the right steps, your family can be ready for anything. Together, with the help of Kidde’s Cause For Alarm campaign and with the support of local fire departments and communities, we can close the safety gap – one family at a time, and help make every home a safer home.

Andrew Bird / Iron & Wine / Neko Case