Home Security and Fire Safety

Sometimes, families seeking to protect themselves from one hazard unknowingly put themselves at risk from others. For example, home security can protect people from intruders, but it can also be harmful if security features prevent quick escape during a fire emergency. Home security and fire safety can and should work together and the Home Safety Council encourages you to examine entryways, both doors and windows, to make sure home security doesn’t interfere with your fire escape plan.

Security Locks

The Home Safety Council recommends that every home entry door be equipped with a sturdy dead-bolt lock that is properly installed and maintained in good working condition. When choosing deadbolt locks for your home, keep the following guidelines in mind.

• Avoid two-keyed deadbolt locks that require a key on both the inside and outside of an entry door. These keyed locks can trap people inside if there is a fire. Keys can easily be misplaced when the deadbolt is locked, making it impossible to escape.
• Replace any two-keyed entry locks with common deadbolt locks that only require keyed entry from the outside and have a turning or “throwing” bolt or latch inside.
• If your home entry doors have two-keyed deadbolt locks, protect your family in the meantime by keeping the key to your deadbolt on a hook near the door but away from any windows. Make sure all responsible family members know exactly where to find the key and how to use it quickly in an emergency.

Window Security/Burglar Bars

Security bars on doors and windows can provide a strong defense against intruders and give families greater confidence in their home’s safety. However that same strength can prove deadly in a fire emergency. Bars welded over an escape route not only trap victims inside; they also prevent firefighters from being able to get them out. The Home Safety Council asks families to evaluate their fire escape route to make sure security measures do not hinder a quick escape:

Bars on doors and windows can provide a strong defense against intruders and give families greater confidence in their home’s security. However that same strength can prove deadly in a fire emergency. New research shows that home fires grow so fast and spread so quickly that people may three minutes or less to survive a fire and its deadly smoke. Bars welded over an escape route not only trap victims inside; they also prevent firefighters from being able to get them out. The Home Safety Council urges families to make sure security measures do not slow down a quick escape:

• In rooms with window bars, install a quick-release mechanism on at least one exit.
• Purchase quick-release devices together with new bars, or have them installed on bars that are currently in your home.
• In an emergency you can use the release device to quickly unlock the bars from inside, usually with a lever or pedal, to make your escape path clear for immediate exit.
• Know that quick-release devices can only be opened from the inside of the home, and do not affect your home’s security.
• Contact an iron contractor to have quick-release devices installed on security bars in your home.