Fireproof Your Home: The Room-by-Room Guide Every Georgian Household Needs
Your home is the one place no law protects with alarms or evacuation plans — those rules apply to shops and offices, not private houses. At home, your safety is built entirely from the small choices you make. The good news: making a home dramatically safer takes an afternoon and very little money. Here is how, room by room and habit by habit.
The one device that matters most: a smoke detector
If you do nothing else, install a smoke detector (კვამლის დეტექტორი).
- Why: Most home fire deaths happen at night, from smoke, while people sleep. You cannot smell smoke when asleep — it deepens sleep rather than waking you. A detector is the only thing that reliably wakes you in time.
- Where: Near or inside bedrooms, and on every level of the home. Smoke and heat rise, so mount detectors on the ceiling or high on a wall.
- Upkeep: Test it once a month. Change the battery when it chirps — never remove the battery to silence a nuisance alarm and forget to replace it. Replace the whole unit roughly every 10 years.
Bedrooms
- Never charge phones or laptops on a bed or under a pillow. Bedding traps heat and a failing battery can ignite it. Charge on a hard surface.
- No candles or heaters left running as you fall asleep. If you use a heater, switch it off before bed (see Batch 2 on heating).
- Keep a clear path from your bed to the door — nothing to trip over in the dark.
Living room
- Candles: never leave a burning candle unattended or near curtains, books, or bedding. Put it out before you leave the room or sleep. Consider flameless LED candles.
- Cigarettes: never smoke in bed or on a sofa where you might doze off — this is one of the deadliest fire causes worldwide. Use a deep, stable ashtray, and make sure butts are fully out before emptying. Never tip warm ash into a bin.
- Outlets and extension cords: don't overload a single socket with adapters, don't "daisy-chain" extension cords, and never run cords under rugs or carpets where heat builds and you can't see damage. Replace any cord that's frayed, warm, or scorched.
Build a household escape plan
A plan you've never spoken aloud is not a plan. Take ten minutes with everyone who lives with you:
- 1.Find two ways out of every room where possible — usually a door and a window.
- 2.Agree on a meeting point outside — a tree, a gate, a neighbour's step — so you know instantly if everyone is out.
- 3.Keep keys findable in the dark, and never double-lock doors in a way that traps you inside.
- 4.Practice it — especially with children, who may otherwise hide from fire rather than flee.
- 5.Teach the rules: stay low under smoke, feel doors before opening, take stairs not lifts, and once out, stay out and call 112.
Keep a way to stop a small fire
Most house fires are small for the first seconds. An extinguisher kept where fires are most likely — the kitchen, near heaters — lets you end it before it spreads, *as long as your exit stays behind you*. If the fire is bigger than you or between you and the door, leave and call 112.
Your one-afternoon checklist
- [ ] Smoke detector installed near bedrooms and tested
- [ ] No charging on beds; no unattended candles or cigarettes
- [ ] No overloaded sockets or cords under rugs
- [ ] Escape plan agreed, with a meeting point, and practiced
- [ ] An extinguisher within reach
Do these and your home moves from "hope it never happens" to genuinely prepared.
Note: Georgian fire-safety law (Technical Regulation on Fire Safety, Govt Decree №370) mandates alarms and evacuation plans for non-residential buildings where many people gather; private homes are exempt, which is why household preparation is up to you. Emergencies: dial 112 (free, nationwide). Sources: matsne.gov.ge; 112.gov.ge.