With Halloween and Bonfire Night approaching, it is nearly that time of year for woolly hats and toffee apples. People of all ages enjoy the masses of fun to be had – from fireworks and dressing up, to hot dog sausages and the odd trick being played, here and there.
The Paine Manwaring heating, plumbing and electrical engineers and their families love this time of year as much as anyone. However, we are also people who spend a lot of time risk assessing and maintaining our clients’ safety – whether it’s with regard to plumbing, heating or electrical services.
It is in our nature to promote safety awareness, especially while enjoying some of the fun the winter months offer, so, here is some essential advice on how to stay safe and have fun this season.
Halloween
There is the dual concern of lots of children knocking on strange doors and lots of strangers arriving at your house unannounced. Halloween is an innocent time; it is filled with pretend ghosts and ghouls and the odd witch or two, but can also present some real monsters looking to take advantage.
Children need to be made aware of stranger danger. Likely, you wouldn’t allow your children to trick or treat alone anyway. However, if they are a bit older and want a little independence, then talking to them about the perils of accepting too much welcome from a stranger is a good idea.
You might also want to make sure your external light is working. Any problems with your electrics – just give us a call.
Bonfire Night
Bonfire Night is a challenging evening for the emergency services, who deal with a lot of fire and firework-related injuries. The problems arise when we think such accidents only happen to other people and all will be fine. Following the instructions on the side of fireworks is essential. Keeping a sensible perimeter around your bonfire is sensible. Any child should be supervised closely around both.
Our favourite tip is to keep a bucket of sand or water close at hand. We know when dealing with anything that can ignite, you need a means of quickly extinguishing the heat source. Fireworks are essentially mini explosives, therefore having a method of containing sparks is always sensible.
In your home
To continue the focus on fire and the need to be cautious, it may be time to check your smoke alarms. The alarm may be attached to your mains, but a faulty connection can stop it from working. Go around your home and press the button, just in case. Equally, you really should make sure your carbon monoxide alarm is working too.
Finally, a lot of your electrical and gas items may have been dormant over the summer months. Your boiler, for instance, may not have been switched on since March. It is a good idea to have your boiler serviced before this first big switch on, to make sure all the seals, wires, pipes, as well as any other gas and electrical components, are fully functional. You may also want to check your radiators and maybe flush through your underfloor heating. Again, our Gas Safe registered engineers are always happy to help.
In short
All the advice in this article should be followed by “just in case”. Gas, electrical and plumbing engineers work every day to reduce risk and promote safety. We love that the winter months are coming, and we get to play too. However, we would prefer that all our clients did so safely.
When you need assistance with any of your plumbing services, boiler repairs, heating, electrical or energy needs – no matter how big or small the job – we can help.
Get in touch with a member of our team online, email enquiries@painemanwaring.co.uk or call 01903 237522 (Worthing) | 01243 784711 (Chichester) today.