Keep your home safe this Christmas  

With more of us at home at the moment and Christmas nearing, it’s important that we all do our bit to ensure our homes and the buildings we live in are as safe as possible from fire.

Here are some simple tips to help you keep your home safe:

1. Ensure you have an escape plan – plan and practice your escape route with your family so everyone knows what to do in the event of a fire.
2. Make sure you test your smoke detectors within your home regularly. If you are a tenant and have concerns that your smoke detector is not working, please call us on 0300 373 3000.
3. If you live in a block of flats, make sure any shared communal areas are clean and free of rubbish. Do not leave items in corridors, shared spaces, electrical cupboards or any other communal area in your building. We operate a zero tolerance will remove any items we find obstructing communal areas with no notice.
4. No smoking in communal area. It is illegal to smoke in confined areas and you could be in breach of your tenancy if found to be doing this.
5. Ensure all rubbish is disposed of correctly in the dedicated bins.
6. Ensure you provide access to Network Homes’ contractors (if requested) should you have fire safety equipment such as sprinklers within your home. It’s important that we test this to ensure it would work if needed.
7. Do not leave cooking unsupervised. The most common fires caused within Network Homes is due to unsupervised cooking. Keep the area around your stove clear of towels, paper, and anything else that can easily burn or catch fire. Don’t forget to regularly clean your cooking equipment so that there is no accumulation of food items or grease which could create a fire hazard.
8. Do not prop open fire doors and report any problems you find with your fire door. To find out what to look out for when checking your fire door, check out the 5 Step Check on our website.
9. When putting up fairy lights for Christmas, check the fuses are the right type and replace any blown bulbs blow. Don’t leave fairy lights on when you go out or when you go to sleep and make sure bulbs are far from any material that can burn easily such as paper.

For more information about how we manage fire safety within our buildings and for more safety tips, visit our fire safety page on our website. If you have any fire safety questions or issues in relation to your home, please contact us on 0300 373 3000.