Safety

This page has 6 sections of valuable safety tips for helping ensure safety within your home.

  • Children and Animal Safety
  • Fire Safety
  • Wood Stove Safety
  • Product Recalls
  • Ice/Winter Storm Preparedness
  • Emergency Preparedness in General

Children and Animal Safety

Teaching children how to safely and respectfully interact with animals is crucial to keeping both safe, especially if you’re bringing home a pet. This article explains animal safety for pets, strange animals, and wildlife. It includes common risks, a feline and canine body language cheat sheet, and worst case scenario instructions if a child is bitten by an animal.  Click here to visit this website article.

Fire Safety

The NY State Office of Mental Health has made available these 5 fire safety brochures:

  • Self-Preservation
  • Evacuation Planning
  • Fire Drills
  • Fire Prevention
  • Fire Safety Equipment

You can download the above brochures by visiting this NY State Office of Mental Health page.

Wood Stove Safety

Download this wood stove safety pamphlet. 

Product Recalls and Safety Education Info

To search for information about product recalls, click here.

And for Safety Education information from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, please click here.

Ice/Winter Storm Emergency Preparedness

The ("historic") Ice Storm that occurred in Feb. 2022 caused havoc and some potentially dangerous situations for Ulster County residents.  During that storm, there was a lot of good communication that took place, including some good recommendations for how to prepare yourself when winter storms are approaching.  Not every winter storm will be as problematic as that one (thank goodness!) ... but any time there is a warning about an upcoming winter storm, the following may serve you well as a good, quick checklist, for something you may not have thought of.

  • Prep for possible outage: charge cell phones, freeze water in bottles and keep in freezer/refrigerator, stock up on ice melt/ salt
  • If temps will become dangerously low during the outage, make a plan for relocating (friend, relative, hotel, warming center etc. with power/heat).
  • Longer range prep considerations … consider either a generator purchase (more expensive, but more effective) or a universal power supply (UPS - less expensive and typically only targeted at one electrical item, e.g. refrigerator, computer).  Uninsulated water pipes in basements and elsewhere ought to be considered for insulation.  (Relatively inexpensive vs. possible repair work on burst pipes.
  • You’ll typically be able to get to the internet via cell phone.  You can use cell phones as a hotspot for other devices (laptop or tablet) that typically are Wi-Fi dependent.  Making your phone a hot spot extends its ability to access the Internet via the phone’s cellular/LTE connection.
  • If using a kerosene heater, use clear (K1) kerosene.  Red kerosene will smoke.
  • DO NOT USE A GAS STOVE/OVEN TO GENERATE HEAT.
  • Generators should run outside houses/garages and follow directions about clearances, not running in wet areas, etc.
  • Sign up for alerts from Central Hudson and check their outage map, if/when one is created and communicated.  The sign-up for text alerts is here: https://www.cenhud.com/en/account-resources/text-message-alerts/
  • Use communication wisely/effectively.  Do not use 911 for non-emergency purposes such as learning about outage repair status.  Take advantage of Central Hudson comms services (see bullet immediately preceding) and communicate with your neighbors on select, useful social media sites (e.g. Saugerties Village Facebook page or nextdoor.com), especially if you need help.
  • Consider signing up for storm repair news from an Ulster County perspective, by signing up for updates on Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger's Facebook page, and/or follow Fred Costello (Town of Saugerties Supervisor) on his Facebook page.  If you need help with how to follow someone on Facebook, visit this page.
  • Before the storm, lift your vehicle’s wipers off the windshield so they don’t freeze to it.  And/or cover your windshield with a snow/ice windshield cover.
  • Ensure your flashlights have good batteries and/or backups in supply.
  • If you have a wood stove or fireplace, ensure you have a good supply of dry, ideally seasoned wood.
  • If you do lose power, avoid water pipes freezing by letting water drip from your house sinks while you sleep.  If your water supply relies on a pump, you may want to look into a backup generator or universal power supply.  
  • If food supplies are low prior to a coming storm, buying some reasonable amount of food AND WATER may be advisable.  For food, plan your purchases carefully in terms of the food needing refrigeration or not.
  • If your vehicle is parked under a tree with heavy limbs, consider moving it.
  • Consider preparing an emergency kit, like this one shown on the economical.com storm preparation website:

Winter_emergency_kit copy.webp

Emergency Preparedness

To be sure you are ready for quick action (e.g. making a phone call to the right person), visit the "Emergency Numbers" page.