Steps you can take to prevent a house fire.

OKOLONA, Miss. (WCBI)- The mercury is dropping, and that means fire stations around the area go on alert.

The cooler temps mean more people using heaters and more chances of fire.

The Okolona Fire Department teamed up with the state Fire Marshal today to teach students what to do in case of a fire.

And they gave the kids a chance to put their new knowledge to the test in a simulated environment.

But what can you do to prevent fires in the first place?

It’s that time of year when you pull out your blankets and snuggle up next to a fire.

But as the heaters come on, the fire risks go up.

There are some simple things you can do to keep you and your family safe.

“Do a home survey. Go around and check around your space heaters, you know, you have wall heaters and some of these older houses have wall hoods. Make sure you have a 2 to a 3-foot radius around those heaters. Make sure you’re not hanging clothes in front of the heaters to dry and stuff like that. Make sure your curtains aren’t draped over,” said Fire Chief Terry Tucker.

Another thing you need to do is check to make sure your smoke detectors are working.

“We used to tell everybody, keep the smoke detector in your living room and hallway, now we tell everybody to keep their smoke detector inside each bedroom above the door. So, if you got a three bedroom house you need at least three smoke detectors one in every bedroom on the inside so that when the smoke comes in the door it goes up and it rains it alerts you to that fire,” said Chief Tucker.

And if a fire does happen have an escape route.

“Mainly, the thing is you get you and your family out. If your animal isn’t there just get on out, let us deal with the animals or whatever once you get out. What we are teaching the kids today is that once you get out to stay out. Don’t go back, make sure somebody calls 911 early. Let the professionals get there go in and get anything,” said Chief Tucker.

It is a good idea to have a safety plan in place before you need it.

“When everybody gets out you don’t need you don’t need someone going to the backyard someone going to the side yard someone going to the front you’ve got six people living in your house, and you’ve got to going in three different locations you don’t really know if everyone’s out,” said Chief Tucker.

Chief Tucker tells us this year the number of fire deaths in Mississippi has already passed last years number. He is hoping by getting people better prepared they can stop it from rising.