When you look at the statistics for domestic fire incidents, Australia is not a bad place to live – certainly compared to some other countries. Nevertheless, there is always more that can be done to prevent fires in the home and to deal with them more effectively when they break out. Designing a dwelling to be more fire resistant from the outset is the best route to reducing death and injury from fires, but this is impractical given that most of us live in homes which were built years ago. Instead, you should keep your family safe by checking out the latest fire prevention products on the market. Let's take a look at some of the best ones.

Fire Shutters

Like most window coverings, fire shutters prevent oxygen from flowing into your home when there is a fire. Restricting the amount of air that a fire can feed on is crucial for buying you more time to get your loved ones out of a property in the event of a fire. Many fire protection shutters operate on a roll-down format, which means they create a good seal through which draughts cannot pass. However, even louvred shutters will slow air flow down to an extent. As such, all shutters can help if you were to suffer from a domestic fire.

Smoke Alarms

By detecting tiny airborne particles that come about when there is a fire, smoke alarms do an outstanding job of saving lives in Australia each year. Fit one on each storey of your home to make sure that you are alerted to a potential problem early on. Remember to change the battery regularly and back up a conventional smoke alarm with a carbon monoxide detector. These can be invaluable if you have an open fireplace in the home or a boiler that has become blocked because it will alert you to this noxious gas even if there is no fire present.

Fire Blankets

Many fires in homes are started in the kitchen. Perhaps you leave the oven on and forget to turn it off? Alternatively, you might overheat some oil in the pan and it suddenly combusts without you having the chance to turn the heat down. In such cases, it can be tempting to throw such burning items into the sink or out of the window. Unfortunately, this may well exacerbate the problem by allowing the flames to reach more oxygen. Instead, you should have a fire blanket on hand in the kitchen to throw over the fire and to deprive it of air. Keep one in the garage, too, especially if you use equipment which gets hot.