Family Safety

Building Baby Safety From the Ground Up

A warm bath, lullaby and bedtime stories are staples in your child’s nighttime routine. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) urges parents and caregivers to add a safe sleep environment to the daily routine of placing baby to sleep.

CPSC staff is aware of 97 crib related deaths from 2002 through 2004.

A CPSC staff (pdf) of reports of deaths related to cribs found that about half of the deaths were in cribs containing pillows, quilts and other bedding. About half of these were due to suffocation when infants ended up face down on pillows or face down in a crib with pillows, quilts and other bedding.

The CPSC is urging parents:

• To reduce the risk of SIDS and suffocation, place baby to sleep on his or her back in a crib that meets current safety standards
• To prevent suffocation never use a pillow as a mattress for baby to sleep on or to prop baby’s head or neck
• Infants can strangle to death if their bodies pass through gaps generated between loose components, broken slats and other parts of the crib and their head and neck become entrapped in the space.
  • Do not use old, broken or modified cribs
  • Regularly tighten hardware to keep sides firm
• Infants can suffocate in spaces generated between the sides of the crib and an ill fitted mattress; never allow a gap larger than two fingers at any point between the sides of the crib and the mattress
• Never place a crib near a window with blind or curtain cords; infants can strangle on curtain or blind cords.
• Properly set up play yards according to manufacturers’ directions. Only use the mattress provided with the play yard. Do not add extra mattresses, pillows or cushions to the play yard, which can cause a suffocation hazard for infants.
• Routinely check nursery products against CPSC recall lists and remove recalled products from your home

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Home Sprinkler Systems

The Lemont Fire Protection District encourages you to consider that many fire deaths and injuries are preventable.

Did you know?

• The combination of working smoke alarms and home fire sprinklers reduces the likelihood of death from fire by more than 80 percent.
• Home fire sprinklers automatically contain a fire, preventing it from spreading.
• The cost of installing sprinklers in a new home is approximately 1 percent of the total cost of the home.
• Many of the more than 4,000 Americans who die each year in years might be alive today if they had only had the information they needed to avoid a disaster. This information about could make a big difference to your family.

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Home Inspections

Lemont Fire Prevention has a three part program available in which representatives of the Fire District will come around to homes and offer a free home safety inspection, check smoke detectors and batteries, and check the addressing of the home. This program is voluntary and free to residents of the Lemont Fire District. Please read the following details of the program.

1. Fire Safety Inspection. Each home that we visit will be given a free home fire safety inspection. Recommended improvements will be made to the owner / occupant of the dwelling. All information obtained from these inspections is confidential and will only be used to inform the property owner / occupant of recommended changes.
2. Free Smoke Detectors. As part of the home inspection program we will be looking at smoke detectors in the home. Free detectors and batteries will be given if the need is indicated.
3. Address Numbering. Correct and visible addressing from the street is vitally important in a life threatening emergency. These enable us to find your home much faster, especially at night.

Contact us at  630-257-0191. or email us at if you are interested.

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Is Your Home Safe?

• Place smoke detectors near bedrooms, and on every floor.
• Test the batteries weekly
• Don't place them near air vents

Electrical Wiring

• Replace worn cords.
• Don't run cords under rugs.
• Don't overload outlets.

Electric Space Heaters

• Don't use an extension cord on space heaters.
• Unplug heaters when you are not using them.
• Keep heaters a safe distance from furniture and curtains.
• Do not dry your clothes, gloves, or other items on the heater.

Home Fire Escape Plan

• Make sure your family has an escape plan.
• Practice the escape plan every six months.
• Never go back into a burning building.
• Know when to call 911.

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Do You Already Know These Safety Tips?

"Exit Drills in the Home - E.D.I.T.H."

Do you remember having fire drills in school?  Your family should also have fire drills at home.  Everyone should work together to plan two ways out of every room, and pick a family meeting place outside.  It's important to have a family meeting place so you can all be together and know that each other is safe.

"Get Low and Go"

That means get out of a burning building right away and stay low to the ground (crawl) as you are leaving!

Smoke will rise towards the ceiling, you need to crawl to stay low out of the smoke.

"Stop, Drop and Roll"

That's what you do if your clothes catch on fire!

Stop right where you are (never run), drop to the ground, cover your face with your hands and roll over and over to put the fire out.

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Smoke Detectors Save Lives

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