Fire Safety Starts at the Front Door
Good quality hardware can help ensure that a door is properly secured and provide an additional layer of fire safety for you and your family.
Remember, hardware is an essential part of fire safety and it starts at the front door. Quality hardware helps to ensure that your family is safe and secure within your home. Make sure your hardware is up-to-date and regularly maintained for optimal security and fire safety in your home.
The Importance of Fire Safety Measures for Your Home
Fires are extremely dangerous and can result in both property damage and fatalities; that’s why fire safety measures are an essential part of any home. In order to safeguard yourself and your loved ones in the event that a fire does start in your home, it is crucial to take the necessary precautions.
Our extensive selection of home fire-rated hinges, handles, and locks can help contain the fire while you and your family safely escape the building. Fire-rated hardware helps contain fire for a while, giving you time to escape the house safely and call for assistance in putting out the fire. The following advice can help you protect your home and your valuables against fire:
Check Your Smoke Detectors
Smoke detectors are helpful in alerting you to a problem before it escalates into a major fire. If you don’t have a smoke detector, it can take you longer to notice a fire while you’re sleeping. Your Yale home alarm system functions in tandem with the smoke detector. The smoke detector will sound the internal siren and activate the alarm system in the case of a fire.
This is one of the best ways to spot a fire before it spreads since the alarm alerts you that something is amiss, possibly in time. This serves as a potentially life-saving alert by enabling you to leave the house before fire or smoke entraps you inside.
On each level of your house, in each sleeping space, and outside the sleeping areas, you should have at least one smoke alarm and one carbon monoxide alarm. At least once a month, these alarms should be examined to make sure they are functioning properly.
Fire-Rated Doors
Installing certified fire doors is essential to preventing the spread of fire inside your home. Special flame-resistant material is used to make fire doors, which can resist flames and heat for a set amount of time. Although fire-rated doors help slow or stop the spread of fire and smoke, they are not intended to be fireproof. These doors will eventually burn through in a fire since they are made of combustible materials.
To slow the fire for a predetermined amount of time, they will, nevertheless, resist the penetration of heat and flames. In this way, they provide you more time to leave the building by keeping both flames and smoke contained. Most people pay close attention to the fire aspect, but they also recognize how important it is to minimize smoke inhalation. However, smoke inhalation causes the bulk of fatalities in home fires.
Commercial structures are more likely to have fire-rated doors than residential homes. You are more likely to see fire-rated doors installed in public buildings, office buildings, and locations like dorms. But, for residential applications, the most common locations for installing fire-rated doors are at the front door, garage, and at the entrance to apartment complexes and multi-family homes.
Fire-Rated Hardware
Once you’ve invested in fire-rated doors, best practice is to install them with fire-rated hinges on fire-rated doors, which are designed to withstand heat for a longer period of time, in order to ensure that the fire stays contained in one location and doesn’t spread to other rooms in the house. By doing this, you can be sure that the door won’t break off from the fire’s heat.
If the door does come off during a fire, air can now enter the burning room and help the fire spread to other parts of the house. Due to this, it is crucial to use strong fire-rated hinges to keep the fire restricted in one area for a longer period of time. This will give you more time to ask for assistance and, hopefully, save the remainder of your home. For metal and timber doors, UNION offers fire-rated hinges that can survive flames for 240 minutes.
Fire-Rated Locks
Installing a fire-rated lock is also crucial to guaranteeing that your hardware keeps working and secures the door during an emergency. This type of lock provides superior security for your property, is durable over time, and most come with a 10-year warranty, in addition to being fire rated. So, it’s a great investment for multiple reasons.
Automatic Door Closer
Additionally recommended is the installation of a door closer on the door to the garage. A door closer will guarantee that the garage door stays closed constantly because we frequently forget to close inside doors.
This is due to the nature of the materials that we typically store in our garages, which might include things like extension cords that can catch fire and flammable chemicals. As a result, a garage is usually considered a fire risk location for fires. In light of this, it’s crucial to make sure the door connecting the garage to the rest of the house is kept closed, especially if a fire breaks out when nobody is home.
Related article: Why Are Door Closers Important Safety Features?
Have an Emergency Escape Plan
Although no one likes the thought of their house burning down, getting you and your family to safety should come first. The best way to do this is to have an escape route prepared, just in case. No matter where they are in the house, make sure every member of the family is aware of the plan and what to do in the event of a fire emergency.
Get Expert Advice on How to Make Your Home More Secure
Visit the showroom at Great Valley Lockshop today. We will help you find the highest quality security products and fire safety assemblies.
