Honey, honey, wake up I think I smell smoke! Honey, wake up I think our house is on fire! Oh, my God! Get the kids...

Each year nearly 6,000 lives are lost in fires. And 4 out of every 5 of those deaths occur in the home.

Schools, business and industry, the military and other organizations where large groups of people congregate, practice fire drills on a regular basis. We all know that this is done because having a plan for escape reduces the chance for panic - and thereby reduces the chance for injury when the real McCoy occurs. When was the last time you and your family practiced a fire drill at home?

The nice thing about many of these organizations is that they have sophisticated alarm systems that act as an early warning allowing time for the fire exit procedure to be implemented.

The same holds true for modern homes. They have fire-retardant wall configurations between the garage and the living portion of the house. This is because the garage is the part of the home where most flammables usually are stored. Warning devices such as built-in smoke detectors are very common, and in some cases, heat detectors also exist. Low cost fire sprinkler systems are becoming popular too.

Unfortunately, these configurations and devices aren't so common in older homes, and for this reason, occupants of older homes are far more susceptible to injury.

Here are a few things that you can check to insure that your home is up to SNUFF (pun intended):

1. Walls in a garage that are common with living space in the home should be covered from floor to roof with a layer of five-eights-inch thick (Type-X fire-rated) wall board (fire-walled). If interior living space exists above the garage, the ceiling of the garage below, as well as all walls below that room (whether they connect to downstairs living space or not) should be firewalled. All wallboard joints should be covered with joint-tape and joint-tape-compound and all nails should be covered with a layer of joint compound. These processes are called fire-taping and nail-spotting.

Many older homes have wallboard in the garage that isn't thick enough. Although this is better than nothing at all, it may not be sufficient to give you time to exit safely. Remember, the slower a fire burns the better the change of exiting safely and/or extinguishing it before major damage occurs.

2. The door between the house and the garage should be solid-core (not hollow-core). If the door sounds hollow - it probably is. Hollow-core doors can be covered with a layer of sheet metal on the garage side thus making them fire safe.

3. An attic-access or crawl-hole between the garage and the house should have a fire-rated door or covering. An small opening between an attic and the garage can act like a wind tunnel - drawing the fire in a garage through the attic and into the house - almost instantly.

4. A smoke detector should be installed in a location near the sleeping area(s). It should be dusted with a vacuum cleaner every three-months or so. Remember, a smoke detector is particle sensitive. Even if it tests as operational, a dusty smoke detector might not operate correctly. And disconnecting a smoke detector because it is an annoyance is something like playing Russian roulette.

5. Fire extinguishers (rated for A, B and C fires - A = paper, B = electrical and C = oil) should be located in the garage and the kitchen. The fire extinguisher in the garage should be rated to cover at least 40 square-feet, and the one for the kitchen should cover at least 10 square-feet.

6. Most importantly, check with your local fire officials for instructions on how to create your own personal fire-drill routine. Some offer free inspections too. And, do it today!