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Tips to Prevent Carbon Monoxide Poisoning during the Cold New England Winter

Often called the “silent killer,” carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that can be fatal in high concentrations. Every year, more than 400 people in the United States die from accidental non-fire related CO poisoning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Carbon monoxide is a byproduct of burning oil, gas, wood, coal, pellets and kerosene. The only way to tell that carbon monoxide is present is to have a working CO alarm. At lower concentrations, victims may experience such symptoms as a headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, chest pain and confusion.

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How To Make Your Home Hard To Hack

How To Make Your Home Hard To HackIf you think a bad guy has to physically break into your home to steal from you, you might want to think again. As more devices in your home become connected to the Internet—the Internet of Things (IoT)—the more data they can gather about you like Social Security numbers, bank account, and credit card information.

That’s why cybercriminals are turning their attention to hacking into common household devices, including refrigerators, TVs, thermostats, and even baby monitors to crack your home network and gain access to valuable personal information.

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Websites To Help You Find Your Stolen Items

Websites To Help You Find Your Stolen ItemsA home burglary occurs once every 15 seconds in the United States and results in an average dollar loss of about $1,600. Sometimes, even though you’ve done everything right to protect your family and your home—including installing and using a home security system—the bad guys win. If you’re the victim of a burglary, you’re probably trying to figure out how you can get your stuff back.

Well, believe it or not there are some websites that can help you hunt down your items. Here are four of them to help you in your search:

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5 Security Tips for Your Apartment

5 Security Tips for Your ApartmentSome people may think that burglars are more interested in robbing single-family homes, that’s just not the case. In fact, apartments are 85 percent more likely to get burglarized than one-family homes, according to the National Crime Prevention Council.

Of course, your landlord should ensure that your apartment is safe and secure, but it’s still important for you to take the necessary steps to avoid being a victim.

Here are five tips to ensure your apartment is secure:

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Do You Have a Family Emergency Evacuation Plan?

Do You Have a Family Emergency Evacuation Plan?Do your loved ones know what to do if a fire breaks out in your home in the middle of the night? What if there’s a hurricane or Nor’easter and your family members aren’t all together in one location? Does everyone in your family know what to do in these different emergency situations? How to contact each other? How to get back together? Who to call? Where to meet?

While a home fire alarm system is the best defense against protecting your family in the event of a fire, you also need an emergency plan to ensure your family is safe and secure during a disaster.

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Carbon Monoxide Poison Prevention

Prevent Carbon Monoxide Poisoning in your HomeWhen the weather outside is frightful, many of us take cover in our nice, warm homes. But when we bundle up and use alternative sources of power, we are also putting ourselves at risk for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Fumes from portable generators, stoves, lanterns and gas ranges can build up in enclosed spaces and be very harmful to people and pets.

Watch our video below (or read the transcript) for ways to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning in your home this winter.

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Safeguarding your Home for Summer Vacation

Safeguarding your Home for Summer VacationSummer vacation is here, kids nationwide have been looking forward to the opportunity to kick back, relax, and enjoy some quality time at home. Many families will be leaving their homes to vacation and enjoy their summer vacation abroad. Unfortunately, vacationing can present some home security risks – making it extremely important to conduct a few checks before locking up your home. Read more

6 Spring Cleaning Tips to Make Your Home Safer and Healthier

6 Spring Cleaning Tips to Make Your Home Safer and HealthierAfter a cold and snowy – OK, very snowy – New England winter, spring is the perfect time to roll up your sleeves and give your home a top-to-bottom cleaning to get it ready for summer entertaining. In addition to spiffing up your house, there are some things you can do during your spring cleaning to make your house healthier while promoting home safety.

Here are six spring cleaning tips to get you started, courtesy of MedicineNet:

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Fire Safety Tips For Holiday Trees and Ornaments

Fire Safety Tips For Holiday Trees and OrnamentsWhen it comes to lighting your holiday tree, the number one holiday safety tip from fire officials is “never use lighted candles as decorations” — so imagine our concern when we saw this blog post, “How to Put Real Candles on Your Christmas Tree Safely.”

“Real candles on a Christmas tree can be stunningly beautiful, moving, but if you don’t know how to do it safely, it can be very hazardous. If you know how to do it right, it can be a very good and safe experience. Think it’s crazy?” the authors of the post ask.

Yes, here at American Alarm where home and family safety is our top priority, we think it borders on crazy and substantially increases the risk of fire damage or disaster.

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Three Winter Heating Safety Tips

winter-heating-safety-tipsEven though you might be doing your best not to think about it, we’re in the trenches of autumn and even colder weather is right around the corner. For those of us living in New England, that means soon it will be time to turn up the thermostat and kick on the home heating system for the first time since the Spring.

Many homes across America are equipped with oil-burning furnaces or wood-burning stoves, each of which come with their own specific set of safety concerns that should be dealt with on a yearly basis. Let’s take a look at a three of the things you should keep in mind before firing things up this winter.

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