Congratulations,

Mister Right! You're a new home owner! Whether you've built or bought,

you still have a few things to do before the family can feel comfortable,

safe, and secure.

To help the

family feel comfortable, you've let everyone pick out their own rooms.

Your twelve year-old daughter's room is on the second floor, to the right,

at the end of the hall. She picked this room because "it has the

largest closets, a bathroom with a make-up table in the corner and it's

as far away as I can get from my brothers." She feels comfortable

with her choice of rooms, but what about her brothers?

Your two sons

are six and ten. Their rooms are also on the second floor and to the left.

They share a bathroom, but they don't mind you can pretty much bet they

won't use it much anyway. Both of your boys' bedrooms have small closets,

but that's okay because they're just as happy to throw clean clothes under

the bed along with the dirty ones as they are to use a closet. They feel

comfortable in their dirty rooms, but what about your room?

Your room is

on the main level, in the back of the house far, far away from the kids.

This living arrangement is comfortable for you and your wife, but how

secure and safe is it?

To make sure

everyone is secure in the new dream house, you've added window screws

to all the windows. You've replaced the old locks on the outside doors

with double-keyed deadbolt locks. The new fire and burglar alarm you had

installed last week works just fine, except the cat keeps setting off

the motion detectors. New smoke alarms are on each floor of the house,

in the basement and in the kitchen. Last week you replaced all of the

batteries and tested the alarms if a fire breaks out, your family will

be alerted and get out safely.

Yes, the family

is comfortable in the bedrooms they picked out. The family is now secure

in those rooms because you've installed window screws on all the second

floor windows too. Now, you can go to bed knowing no one can get inside

your house without a key. But, can your family get out? Without knowing

it, Mister Right, you've just traded safety for security.

The fire started

in the kitchen about 2 a.m. (Most home fires happen at night.) The fire

burned undetected for 15 minutes until the smoke alarm in the hallway

alerted Mister Right. He had taken the battery out of the new smoke detector

in the kitchen last month because he got tired of it going off while he

was cooking. He didn't know about the smoke alarms that are specially

made for use in the kitchen.

As the fire

engulfed the staircase, Mister Right fought his way through the smoke

to the front door. His plan was to get the ladder from the garage and

rescue the kids out the second-story windows, but the door wouldn't open;

it was locked, and he didn't know where the keys were. Mister Right didn't

hang the keys next to the door in case a fire started so everyone could

find them and get out safely. He should have installed deadbolts with

turn knobs on the inside so his family could get out without using a key.

Installing double-keyed deadbolt locks was not a good idea after all.

Mister Right's

children heard the fire alarm upstairs and crawled to the bedroom door,

felt the door to see if it was hot, cracked the door and saw smoke, closed

the door and looked for another way out. They thought, "We'll use

our second way out of the room the window." They opened the box below

the window that held the new escape ladder Dad bought at the hardware

store. They wanted to throw the ladder out the window and climb down to

safety but couldn't. They couldn't open the window because Mister Right

used a three-inch window screw to secure the window. Using window screws

on bedroom windows was not a good idea after all.

The fire department

was alerted by the alarm company that there was a fire at the residence.

They arrived with the special equipment needed to open the front door.

As a team of firefighters rescued Mr. Right and his wife from the smoke-filled

downstairs, another team fought back the fire. They asked if anyone is

upstairs, and before he could answer, another team of firefighters was

rescuing the children. They extended ladders to the second-story windows

and forced them open. Mister Right, your children were smart and stuffed

towels under the bedroom door to keep the smoke out. With help from the

firefighters, the children got out safely. Mister Right and his family

were safe, but heavy damage was done to their dream home. In the process,

Mister Right learned a few things about what it takes to truly be comfortable,

safe and secure.

Mister Right

learned to only use deadbolt locks that don't need keys to open them from

the inside. He learned to never use window screws on bedroom windows.

He also learned that he should've installed a smoke alarm that was specially

made for the kitchen instead of taking out the battery when he cooks.

We've learned that, just like Mister Right, you could do everything to

make your family comfortable, safe and secure and still be dead wrong.

If you have

any questions about deadbolt locks, window screws, or smoke alarms, drop

[Rick Ryckeley

is employed by the Fayette County Department of Fire and Emergency Services.

He can be reached at [email protected].]