A common thing that you might have in the kitchen to extinguish small flames on the stove is baking soda. Common salt can be used, but baking soda does a better job. It could take two or three handfuls of either to extinguish a small fire, but that could be significantly less messy than using a fire extinguisher to do this. Try to use a fire extinguishing method that is proportional to the strength of the flames to avoid having a huge eyesore.

When the oven cleans its interior and locks the door, do NOT attempt to force the door open. It will be extremely hot within your oven, even hotter than it allows you to heat food in it, and that degree of heat is quite harmful. When the oven is cleaning itself, let it finish first.

All things that are labeled as very combustible need to be placed out of the house inside a separate building. In case you do not have a different building in the yard, you need to create an area to store them that is nowhere near your house.

You should not clean anything inside the house with turpentine or gas. The fumes from these liquids will fall to the floor and any spark from any electric appliance might cause a fire. If you have do clean something with these chemicals, try to do it outside in an open area where the fumes cannot build up. This is the safest way, since the fumes can not only cause your house to set on fire, but they can also have a profound effect on your health if you are exposed to them for too long.

Keep combustible chemicals away from a heater and other items that heat up. These include space heaters that people have in the cold season to keep houses toasty. If you can avoid it, do not place them on rugs and do not use them in order to dry clothing.

The smoke detector's batteries should be examined and replaced regularly to be certain that they will perform when you want them to. Your smoke detector cannot and will not work properly unless the batteries are charged up as they should be. You cannot rely on something to help you if it is ill equipped for the task at hand.