#37 High on the List: Fire Prevention!

You did the work, you got your Mortgage loan, you’re in your home!  You weathered that period of time when you thought the “transition lists” would never end!  Oh, well! – here’s another one; a very important one.

We can’t control the greater forces of nature that bring devastating things like tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards and spontaneous natural fires.   Those can be bad enough, for sure, without the help of fires started through carelessness or set by arsonists.   But what we can do is be as prepared as is possible and reasonable.

Our Lake County region recently suffered severely from both wildfires and floods. Many suffered directly with actual loss or damage to persons, property, livestock and equipment.   Others suffered indirectly through the many ripple effects that impacted our communities.

Many, looking back, had to come to grips with some hard realities – not the least of which were poor prevention efforts and minimal preparedness against dire possibilities. – in this discussion, the risk of Fire.

Protecting your mortgaged property against the chance of fire should be a serious priority!   Hindsight, as usual, is often painful, especially when you take a good look at how simple some of the preventive steps could have been.   Your “preparation” very likely may have begun and ended with the fire insurance required by your Lender.  (After all, until that Mortgage is fully paid you technically do not yet legally own that home.)

The insurance is a good place to start, but it’s about “the end game.”  Let’s take a look at some simple, sensible “up-front” tactics!

“Being prepared” is something we have no trouble accomplishing when it comes to simple things such as not driving until the kids are all buckled into their seat belts; or, making sure you have the right stuff when you go off to an important meeting.  In fact we practice many forms of preparedness – large and small – when the connection is immediately apparent.  Flight insurance before you board, vaccinations for our pets, motion sensors to light the path when you get home after dark.  Simplistic examples?  Yes.  But the logic is the same when it comes to meaningful fire prevention and preparedness steps.

As with all such concepts, where fire prevention is concerned, we can look at the maximum aspect or the minimal.  Simple, obvious steps could include keeping brush and shrubs away from your home structure, properly storing easily flammable items away from your primary structure and keeping yard and gardens free of things that might spontaneously cause combustion (like broken glass in extremely hot weather.)

On the other hand, consider a meeting with family members to discuss “escape procedures and routes.”   Can the children get safely out through the windows of their bedrooms?  If they are located on the upper story do you have an escape ladder?  Do they understand about how creating a draft by opening a door is a seriously wrong move?   How about “go bags”  in case you cannot stay at your home because of serious damage – a simple satchel in each family member’s closet!

Your local Fire Fighters team has lots of valuable information and recommendations – and so does your Mortgage loan officer!   It is in your Lender’s best interest, as well, to help you help them to protect their investment in you.  Just ask!

Space here doesn’t allow the many more ways you can be prepared for something you hope – and plan – will not happen.  It’s like that seat belt example – we do that action because when we get on the road, the risks are right there, apparent and in front of us.  Threats like a disastrous fire seem remote.  It’s good to remember such tragedies don’t just happen to “other” folks.  Let’s take a lesson from recent events, and take preventative steps to reduce the risk to property and loved ones.