You and your family have been mapping out your route for months. Now you’ve packed your suitcases, set your home security alarm, and you’re ready to hit the open road.
Before you and your family set off, here are six tips to ensure you and your family have a safe and fun-filled trip. Read more →
When you’ve decided to set up your new home security system, you’ll also need to take the time to actually think like a burglar. In other words, if you were a burglar, where would you target and why? The mentality of a burglar is one of exploitation and knowing where to target at the right time.
We recently published an article about the mindset of a thief from a business security perspective, and wanted to switch gears and focus on home security. Taking the time to protect your home cannot be underestimated; it is your most prized possession and placing it in this type of jeopardy is not worth the risk.
Summer 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 →
Before you know it, school will be out for the summer and you’ll be trying to figure out if your child is old enough to stay home alone during the day while you’re at work or out running errands.
Many states, including Massachusetts, don’t have laws on the books indicating at what age a child is old enough to stay home alone. However, the Washington, D.C.-based Safe Kids Worldwide says that developmentally, children are typically ready to be home alone around the age of 12 or 13.
Despite your child’s age, only you can determine if he or she is ready to stay home alone this summer.
Read more →
Approximately 90% of poisonings occur in the home and more than half of them involve children under 5. Those staggering statistics come courtesy of the Regional Center for Poison Control and Prevention Serving Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Exposure to poison can take the form of inhalation, ingestion, absorption through the skin, or injection (as in an insect sting), according to the center. Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is also a real danger. Although cases of CO poisoning increase during the cold weather, it is still the most common cause of poisoning deaths in the United States.
After 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:
Lightning strikes are not as uncommon as many people think and can create severe fire hazards during storms.
Last summer, a lightning strike caused a two-alarm fire in Kingston, Mass. Three other homes were also hit by lightning during the same severe storm, but they did not catch fire. Luckily, there were no reported injuries.
In September, a barn in Williamsburg, Mass. also caught fire after it was hit by lightning. No one was inside the barn and no one was injured.
Earlier this year, chimneys on a home in Danvers, Mass. and a residence in Framingham, Mass. were also hit by lightning during an unusual lightning storm.
We want to offer you some tips from Safety Insurance in Boston to help you protect your home and your family during a lightning storm:
If you’re like the rest of us, you’re looking to save money any way you can. You make sacrifices like eating out less, cutting back on vacations, and buying fewer clothes. However, there’s another way to save money – by taking advantage of the discounts your insurer offers on your homeowner’s insurance.
Here are four way ways to lower the costs of your premium, courtesy of the Insurance Information Institute.
Imagine this scenario: You’re on a great winter getaway, soaking up the rays on one Caribbean island or another. The temps are in the mid-80s, and you and your family are snorkeling and swimming with the dolphins. The last thing on your mind is the plumbing in your home back in New England.
When you get home, you discover (to your horror) that your water pipes have frozen and burst, flooding your basement and causing significant damage that requires extensive and costly repairs.
On Wednesday February 12th, a woman in her 50s lost her life when a fire broke out in an apartment of a three-family home in Cambridge, Mass. Fire officials determined the cause of the fatal blaze was an electric baseboard heater that may have malfunctioned.
The home fire alarm system (smoke detectors) inside the apartment, as well as throughout the building, had been disconnected or did not have batteries, said Cambridge Fire Chief Gerald R. Reardon.
“A working smoke alarm coupled with an escape plan can double one’s chances of surviving a fire,” he said.
