Families watch, as Shepherdstown Volunteer Fire Department Lieutenant John Sines climbs to the top of the ladder fire truck’s 105-feet-tall ladder, by the Shepherdstown Public Library on Oct. 13. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — With October being National Fire Prevention Month, there is no better time than now, to adopt fire safety practices.

According to Shepherdstown Volunteer Fire Department Lieutenant John Sines, the key to adopting fire safety practices, is to find ways to seamlessly fit them in with everyday life. He suggested, for instance, that people should make a habit of checking the batteries of their smoke detectors every six months, at the same time they are turning forward and back their clocks for Daylight Saving Time.

“Working smoke detectors save lives,” Sines said. “You want to check your smoke alarm batteries every time the clocks move. That means that, every time the clocks are set back an hour or move forward an hour, you should also be either checking or changing your smoke detector batteries.”

Even though many smoke detectors will make a chirping noise, when their batteries need changed, Sines advised local residents not to rely on that alone to ensure their fire safety.

“Generally, you’ll hear a chirp for a low battery alarm,” Sines said. “Generally, they will exhibit signs of failure in some way.”

The exception to this would be in the case of 10-year sealed battery alarms, which use long-life lithium batteries that Sines said can be relied upon to remain fully functional for a decade.

“Their lifetime is much better than that of the average battery. But for all other ones that operate without the 10-year batteries, they need to be checked at least twice a year,” Sines said.

He gave a few other recommendations for families to focus on this month, as they work to improve their fire safety practices.

“It’s important to have an exit plan, so that you know where to go and how to get out of a building in an emergency situation,” Sines said. “Make sure you have a designated meeting place outside, like a mailbox or a big tree in the front yard. That way, we can know immediately whether or not everyone is safe.”

While attempting to get out of a burning building, Sines noted that people should feel any doors for heat, before opening them. The feeling of heat would indicate that the next room had a fire in it and would, therefore, be unsafe to enter. Choosing another exit, if available, would be advised in that situation.

“We always want to sleep with our bedroom doors shut, for this reason,” Sines said. “The bedroom door can stop a fire from coming into your room and save you, until one of us can get there and get you out safely.”

Additionally, he emphasized the importance of getting low to the ground when attempting to escape a fire.

“We want to stay low, crawl low to the ground and get out. We don’t want to try to get our pets or other things to take with us — that could prevent us from, ultimately, making it out alive,” Sines said.

After exiting the building, people should make sure to call 911 for help.

One final tip he gave, was that the “stop, drop and roll” fire safety technique is still effective. Whenever someone’s hair or clothes have caught on fire, the person should stop, drop to the ground and roll around, to put it out.