In recognition of Pet Fire Safety Day we share our tips to help prevent accidental fires from starting in the home and discuss how to protect your pets (cats, dogs and any other furry creatures) from summer bushfires.
Pets and Accidental Fires
One winter evening many years ago, Angel Onyx (1998 – 2014) almost started a fire in our home when he decided it was a good idea to demonstrate his athletic ability by leaping over the naked flame of a burning candle. He gave himself an awful fright and I still remember chasing him around the lounge with a wet towel, to stop his fur from smouldering. Onyx was lucky to escape with just a small patch of singed fur on his belly. The situation could have been so much worse – he could have burnt himself badly and he could have set the house alight. We both learnt a valuable lesson that night.
Here are our tips to help keep your home and family safe from accidental fires:
- Make sure your smoke alarms work and the batteries are fully charged. Mark Pet Fire Safety Day on your calendar and change the batteries every year on this day.
- Never leave open flames burning unattended – e.g. candles, lanterns. Pets are curious and often drawn to the light and flickering of the flame – there’s a very real risk of them knocking candles and lanterns over with disastrous consequences. Try flameless candles, which also have the added benefit of no wax spills to clear up.
- Cats and dogs can both be driven by food. How many times have you been cooking in the kitchen with pets under your feet or on their hind legs reaching up towards the kitchen counter? Pets knocking the knobs on stoves is a common cause of accidental house fires, so cover them when they’re not in use.
- Remain vigilant for anything around your home that might start a fire – for example piles of paper, loose wires etc.
Pets and Bushfires
In Australia, bushfires are a real threat during the summer months – they often start and spread quickly and can have a devastating impact on communities and lives.
Relocating with your pets during a bushfire.
You probably already have a Bushfire Survival Plan in place if you live in a high risk area, but are your pets part of your plan? When preparing your family’s evacuation plan, it’s important that you plan and prepare for your pets’ safety as well as your own.
On high fire danger days, you should relocate your pets early – if you don’t have relatives or friends in a safer area who can take them, consider a boarding facility well away from the fire danger zone.
Make sure you have everything you need stored and ready to go, so that you can leave quickly in an emergency fire situation. This includes your dog’s collar and lead, cat carriers or boxes for smaller pets, as well as food and water, bowls and any medicines they might need. It’s also useful to have your vet’s contact details in your phone or their card in your wallet. Taking your pet’s own bedding and a favourite toy is not essential, although it may provide comfort to a pet who is already stressed by what’s going on around them.
It’s also a good idea to practice how you will relocate your pets and family if you need to. Which family member is responsible for doing what? Being prepared is vital to ensuring your family and pets’ safety in the event of a bushfire.
How to keep pets safe at home during bush fires.
If it’s appropriate to stay in your home during a bushfire, just remember that animals will get stressed very easily, so your aim will be to keep them as safe and calm as possible.
- Keep pets safe in a secure room, in a crate or carrier if appropriate, or on a lead.
- Ensure they have plenty of fresh water to drink, and that cats also have access to a litter tray.
- Make sure you have wet towels and woollen blankets to hand in case you need to cool down your pets or use these to cover and protect them in their carriers or crates.
Do you have any other pet fire safety tips to share? Please comment below…
Top image: Tori Behr via Flickr
We swap out our fire alarm batteries every 9 months. My cats have a passion for knocking things over, so we can’t light candles. Sometimes we put a candle warmer out of their reach, but that’s pretty rare. And we’re getting a new security alarm next weekend after we get paid!
My aunt and uncle live in an area very prone to brush fire and other fires as well. They have a few dogs and are always making plans for just in case something happens. I like the tips for keeping pets safe during bush fires, especially to have wet towels for cooling and covering them. I’ll have to send this article to my aunt so they can add some of these things to their emergency plan.
This was just the information I was looking for about pet fire safety. I am going to be adopting two cats soon and I have heard of several accidents similar to the one Angel Onyx created. I want to make sure I am prepared! The tip about making sure the smoke alarms work and the batteries are charged seems like a good idea. I will have to mark Pet Fire Safety Day on my calendar and be sure to change the batteries on that day!
My Persian cat once got too close to a candle and the smell was horrifying. I was so scared. Luckily only very little bit of hair was burned and he was okay. Lesson learned.
i always check to make sure everything is turned off and what can be unplugged is done. i even have a sticky on my door to remind to check everything, i also have stickers on the outside of my dogs and windows that i have 3 dogs, with numbers, etc. you gave some good advice. i always worry since i leave in the country and the neighbors are abt 1 mile away.
We just had a fire the next block over. I’m working on our evacuation kit this weekend!
Excellent safety tips, thank you! Poor Onyx, what a scary thing to have happen. I’m so glad he wasn’t seriously hurt! We burn a lot of candles, especially when we entertain so we have to be so careful with the dogs.
We keep candles up high where Mr. N can’t reach them. He’s not fond of fire so he avoids it thankfully.
I remember living in the country and the really wild storms we would get. We had a forest of trees on the property and the white pine would get hit as often as the lake did…I always worried about fire and the inadequate resources to fight it should it occur. Thanks for your post! Pet safety and welfare are near and dear to my heart…just like emergency kit =)
…and it can happen so FAST, too. Maxwell was looking at the pretty menorah last Chanukah one second and the next – ZIP! – he was up there and his tail went through the flames. All 4 humans leapt toward him (and we all 4 had been watching him carefully for just this thing!).
Same thing – singed but unharmed. except for 4 humans on the verge of heart failure….
These are all great tips. I would also suggest getting a few of those window clings that indicate that you have pets in the house in case you’re not home when there’s a fire.
I agree with Jana , I have a hard time with the thought of fire or natural disaster . I pay for an alarm system just so if the smoke alarm goes off the fire dept is dispatched. I watched on of my best friends house go up in flames and they couldn’t save the pets… never can be too careful!
We’ve stopped burning candles since we moved in with Mom Paula. She hasn’t even burned logs in her fire place for 3 years because she’s so afraid we may get into mischief and get hurt.
I am a human with separation anxiety. Potential fire is one of the reasons. I hate being away from our dogs. What if there was a fire? Tornado? Locust? 🙂
Great information and so important to ALL readers! Fires are typically accidents and the best way to help out our furry family members is to ‘be prepared,’ – your blog post gives great info to help everyone be prepared, thank you for sharing!
This is such great information and has given me some food for thought — especially as I love to burn scented candles.
A fire is one of my biggest worries with my kitties. I live in a huge apartment complex with 4,000 other people. A moment of carelessness from a person that I don’t even know could cause our apartment to go up in flames. Granted, not all 4,000 people are in the same building, but we are close together and fires spread easily. If I was home, I would do everything under the sun to get my cats out safely. The big problem is, what if I wasn’t home? That is really scary. Yay for emergency window stickers.
These are great tips! We live in a fire danger zone here in southern California and my human worries a lot, especially when it is as dry as it has been around here.
This hits close to home for us, since our townhouse building is adjacent to the woods. Brush fires are a big worry for us. Thanks for sharing these great tips for fire safety inside and out.