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. A fire-suppression ball or 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
- [ ] A suppression ball or extinguisher within reach
Do these and your home moves from "hope it never happens" to genuinely prepared. That is exactly what ORDEX is built to help you do.
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.