Child Safety Week
Monday 21 to Sunday 27 June 2010
Accidents are the second biggest childhood killer in the
UK.
Six children and young people die every week. 2,000 more are
admitted to hospital every week because they’ve been injured in
accidents. Some are left scarred for life or permanently
disabled.
The tragedy is that many of these deaths and serious injuries
can be prevented. Child Safety Week is aimed at preventing serious
injuries and death from accidents.
Did you know?
- You and your children are twice as likely to die in a house
fire if you don’t have a working smoke alarm.
- When firefighters put out house fires, they find that many
families’ smoke alarms aren’t working because the batteries are
dead or have been removed.
- Families where someone smokes are at greatest risk. Cigarettes,
matches and lighters are the biggest single cause of fatal house
fires.
- Cooking starts almost half of all house fires, with chip pans
and greasy grill pans common culprits.
- 6,000 fires a year are caused by children under the age of ten.
Children can be fascinated by fire but don’t understand its
dangers.
- Your family is almost three times more likely to be killed in a
fire that starts during the night.
Safety tips
- You need a working smoke alarm on every floor of your home to
warn you quickly if a fire starts.
- Test your smoke alarms every week to check that they’re
working.
- If the smoke alarm by your kitchen keeps going off when you’re
cooking – don’t remove the batteries! Move the alarm further away
from the kitchen door. Or change it for one with a silencer
button.
- Keep matches and lighters where children can’t see or reach
them.
- Replace your chip pan with a thermostatically controlled
deep-fat fryer or use oven chips. If you can’t give up your chip
pan, never fill it more than one third full of oil.
- If your chip pan does catch fire, don’t throw water over it –
it will explode! If it’s safe to do so, turn off the heat. Then get
out, stay out and call 999.
- Tea lights and candles can get hot enough to melt plastic.
These should be used in the correct containers and kept well away
from children.
- When you are cooking, use the rings at the back of the cooker.
And turn pan handles towards the back. This way they can’t be
grabbed by little fingers.
- Use fireguards to stop babies and young children falling onto
fires or heaters.
- In the event of a fire, get out, stay out and call
999.
On this website you can find a range of
Safety
Leaflets to download and a Safety Tips
page, both with lots of useful information to
help keep you and your family safe.