When was the last time you went through the steps for a fire in your house with your family?

Does everyone know how to escape the various rooms in the house in the event of a fire?

Do the children know where the fire extinguishers are? Do they know not to play with matches and lighters?

Are your electrical outlets not next to blankets, rags or other types of fuel that sparks could ignite into a blaze?

Perhaps most importantly, are the batteries in your smoke detectors fresh and functional?

The time for kids returning to school is a good time to consider safety factors in our daily lives. Fire safety is among them.

Keep your family safe. We don’t want to write about you in the newspapers in terms of tragedy, though it is our jobs to do so when it happens. We much rather would write about your joys, hobbies and successes and about your opinions and comments.