Summer vacation is here, kids nationwide have been looking forward to the opportunity to kick back, relax, and enjoy some quality time at home. Many families will be leaving their homes to vacation and enjoy their summer vacation abroad. Unfortunately, vacationing can present some home security risks – making it extremely important to conduct a few checks before locking up your home. Read more →
Before you know it, school will be out for the summer and you’ll be trying to figure out if your child is old enough to stay home alone during the day while you’re at work or out running errands.
Many states, including Massachusetts, don’t have laws on the books indicating at what age a child is old enough to stay home alone. However, the Washington, D.C.-based Safe Kids Worldwide says that developmentally, children are typically ready to be home alone around the age of 12 or 13.
Despite your child’s age, only you can determine if he or she is ready to stay home alone this summer.
Read more →
After a cold and snowy – OK, very snowy – New England winter, spring is the perfect time to roll up your sleeves and give your home a top-to-bottom cleaning to get it ready for summer entertaining. In addition to spiffing up your house, there are some things you can do during your spring cleaning to make your house healthier while promoting home safety.
Here are six spring cleaning tips to get you started, courtesy of MedicineNet:
Imagine this scenario: You’re on a great winter getaway, soaking up the rays on one Caribbean island or another. The temps are in the mid-80s, and you and your family are snorkeling and swimming with the dolphins. The last thing on your mind is the plumbing in your home back in New England.
When you get home, you discover (to your horror) that your water pipes have frozen and burst, flooding your basement and causing significant damage that requires extensive and costly repairs.
When it comes to lighting your holiday tree, the number one holiday safety tip from fire officials is “never use lighted candles as decorations” — so imagine our concern when we saw this blog post, “How to Put Real Candles on Your Christmas Tree Safely.”
“Real candles on a Christmas tree can be stunningly beautiful, moving, but if you don’t know how to do it safely, it can be very hazardous. If you know how to do it right, it can be a very good and safe experience. Think it’s crazy?” the authors of the post ask.
Yes, here at American Alarm where home and family safety is our top priority, we think it borders on crazy and substantially increases the risk of fire damage or disaster.
After scouring the Internet for months you’ve finally scored that hot – not to mention super expensive – electronic gadget all the kids want this holiday season on Amazon. However, one look at your child’s face when he rips off the wrapping paper will make all your efforts worthwhile.
That is, if your package doesn’t get stolen before you even know it’s been delivered.
Here are some tips courtesy of the Boston Police Department to keep thieves from making off with the packages filled with the holiday goodies you buy online:
The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is often the most profitable time of the year for retailers. Unfortunately, it’s also a profitable time for thieves as well.
Of course, you should always pay attention to your business security and thwarting shoplifters, but you need to be extra vigilant during the busiest time of the year.
To help you protect your retail business, we want to offer you four tips courtesy of the Business2Community website to help you protect your business against some of the most common holiday scams.
Even though you might be doing your best not to think about it, we’re in the trenches of autumn and even colder weather is right around the corner. For those of us living in New England, that means soon it will be time to turn up the thermostat and kick on the home heating system for the first time since the Spring.
Many homes across America are equipped with oil-burning furnaces or wood-burning stoves, each of which come with their own specific set of safety concerns that should be dealt with on a yearly basis. Let’s take a look at a three of the things you should keep in mind before firing things up this winter.
The witching season is upon us. A magical time for ghosts and ghoulies – or princes and princesses – to scamper through their neighborhoods in search of Halloween sweets and other treats.
We here at American Alarm love this spookiest day of the year, but before we head out to a local thrift store to put together our perfect costumes – we’re leaning toward superheros or any of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – we want to offer some helpful tips to ensure that you and your children have a spooktacular All Hallow’s Eve.
Some of these tips are brought to you by the police department of the city known throughout the world as Witch City – haunted Salem, Massachusetts.
You’ve seen the headlines. Every year it seems a new act of tragic violence erupts on one of our country’s college campuses, renewing the fears of both parents and students.
But according to national statistics and campus safety experts, campus crime prevention is improving and incidents of major crimes are in decline.
You can help prevent crime as well by taking a few simple precautions.
Watch the video below for our five steps to help you stay safe while at college:
