Five Ways to Avoid Burning to Death in a House Fire

Fires kill more people every year than any other kind of natural force. If it weren't for the fact that fire can keep us warm, cook our food and give us something with an almost hallucinatory mesmerizing effect to look at, it would be best to avoid it altogether. Avoiding the danger of fire is much easier than living a long life by eating raw meat, however.

Store Flammable Liquid Containers Outside Your Home
Any kind of flammable liquid you are keeping for use around the house should be stored outside the house. Gas cans used for filling up lawn mowers or go-karts need to be kept in the garage as long as you make sure that they cans aren't near any electric motors.

Put a Lid on It!
Follow the advice given by Katherine Whelan's amazing voice courtesy of the Squirrel Nut Zippers and put that lid on it. The pan on the stove, that is. If you are cooking in a pan on your stovetop and flames result, reach for a lid and cap the pan. You don't need to sprinkle baking soda onto the flames; just covering it so that oxygen can't fuel the fire is good enough. If you can't find an appropriately sized lid, get a baking sheet. Works just fine, Fanny.

Use Oversized Ashtrays
Cigarettes don't just kill by blackening the lungs and causing cancer. Smoking in bed is absolutely, positively one of the worst things you can ever do, but even if you are thoughtful enough to put out the cigarette before slumber, you can could still make that night's sleep your last. Burning embers on the end of extinguished cigarettes can fall out of a small ashtray and start a fire. Make sure your ashtrays are large enough and dip downward so that you don't run the risk of cigarette fires after you have finished smoking.

Watch Heating Oil
Placing oil into a frying pan to heat up for some delicious fried chicken or pork chops can easily turn into a fire hazard if you allow the oil to come to a proper temperature before adding the meat. Cooking oil takes some time to reach that perfect temperature and in the meantime you can forget all about it. A frying pan with only oil being heated up can quite easily cause a fire. Once your food is fried and removed, make sure to turn off the heat and remove the frying pan from the burner.

Check Your Cords
Computers. TV sets. Video game consoles. Lamps. DVD players. Routers. So many electrical cords. So many opportunities for fraying. Frayed cords can produce sparks that alight upon furniture, rugs and paint chips to produce an inferno. Give you electrical cords the once-over every few months to make sure they don't present a fire hazard.