Safety Tips

Please use the provided links as resources for fire safety, personal safety, preparedness and prevention techniques.

• Emergency Supply Kits
  
• Fire Education Programs - provided by the Harrisonburg Fire Department
• Crime Prevention Topics - provided by the Harrisonburg Police Department
  • Preventing identity theft
  • Vacation safety
  • Preventing vehicle theft
  • Halloween safety

Seasonal Safety Tips:

• Outdoor and Fireworks Safety Tips - for cooking out and city code information for fireworks in Harrisonburg.
• Holiday Fire Safety - tips for preventing fires during the holidays
• Winter Safety Tips - for you and your home
• Thanksgiving Fire Safety Tips - Cooking fires nearly double on Thanksgiving Day, tips to keep your home and family fire safe on Thanksgiving.

Before the Storm…Save Money!
Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday is May 25-31!

Before tropical storms arrive, you can get ready and save money, too.  Shop during Virginia's Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday,  May 25-31, and you won't pay sales tax on supplies for protecting your home and business. 

Many useful items qualify.  Shop for items on this list that have a price of $60 or less:

• Artificial ice, blue ice, ice packs, reusable ice   
• Batteries, excluding car or boat batteries
• Portable self-powered light sources, including flashlights and lanterns and glow sticks
• First aid kits
• Cell phone chargers
• Weather Band radios and NOAA Weather Radios
• Portable self-powered radios, including radios with electrical power capability
• Bottled water of any size, including flavored and carbonated
• Two-way radios
• Manual can openers
• Tarps, plastic sheeting, plastic drop cloths
• Bungee cords and rope
• Ground anchor systems or tie down kits
• Ratchet straps
• Duct tape
• Carbon monoxide and smoke detectors, fire extinguishers
• Empty gas, propane or diesel fuel tanks or containers
• Water storage containers such as buckets, barrels, canteens, coolers

Shop for items on this list that have a sales price of $1,000 or less:

• Portable generators and generator power cords
• Inverters and inverter power cables. 

More information.

Emergency Supply Kits

Do you have an emergency supply kit? In the past year, Harrisonburg experienced the summer derecho severe storms and extended power outages, the late October hurricane Sandy, and several March snow storms,.

Every family needs supplies on hand for these situations.  Start your emergency kit with these essential items:

• Three days of food that won’t spoil, such as canned goods and packaged foods.
• Three days of water, one gallon per person per day.
• A hand crank and/or battery-powered radio and extra batteries.
• A written family emergency plan.

Once you gather these basics, put them in waterproof containers that you can carry or roll in case you need to leave your home quickly.

Other items are useful in an emergency supply kit, to learn more, read the [27KB] article prepared by Virginia Department of Emergency Management or visit www.ReadyVirginia.gov.