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Open House

Home Safety Tips; Summer Pool Safety Tips; Burglar Proof Your Home While On Vacation

Aired June 25, 2005 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

GERRI WILLIS, HOST: Home is where your family should always feel safe. Over the next half hour, we'll tell you what you need to know.
ANNOUNCER: Today on OPEN HOUSE, a special look at home safety.

Summer means swimming pools. We have the very latest tips on protecting your child around water.

Then, we head inside your home, and take a look at dangers that lurk where you least expect it.

Plus, our weekend project, burglar-proof your home before your summer vacation.

Next on OPEN HOUSE.

WILLIS: Hello, and welcome to a special home safety edition of CNN OPEN HOUSE. I'm Gerri Willis.

Today, we're arming you with important information that will keep your family safe both inside and outside your home.

We begin with the importance of pool safety, just as the summer season is about to kick off. Did you know it's estimated about 1,000 children will die from drowning nationwide this year? In fact, drowning is the leading cause of death among children under 5 years of age.

And it's a statistic that one Connecticut couple is trying to change.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS (voice-over): Thousands of kids now equipped to save their own lives, thanks to Kim and Stew Leonard.

STEW LEONARD: We're spending our lives doing that. Well, I'll do it till the day I die, talking about this. So will Kim. And we just hope we can save a life.

WILLIS: The Leonards never imagined this would be their life's work. They had it all, a beautiful family, a successful chain of gourmet food stores, a vacation home in the Caribbean.

So when January 1, 1989, rolled around, there was a lot to celebrate. A new year, and their daughter's third birthday. STEW LEONARD: I was putting balloons up around the pool, and our little almost 2-year-old son Stewie was helping me. He's handing me the balloons. And I looked down, and he wasn't there.

So, you know, I could smell the birthday cake being baked in the kitchen, and I figured, Stewie ran in to see Kim to lick the icing bowl or something. So I put the balloon up.

I get off the ladder and I go walk into the kitchen, and I said to Kim, Where's Stewie? And she said, I thought he was with you. So we said, Well, then, he probably went into the bedroom to get his teddy bear. We ran into the bedroom, there's his teddy bear laying on the bed. And our heart just raced.

And now we started screaming and panicking and shouting and running, and, Has anybody seen Stewie?

WILLIS: Stewie had gone after a balloon that drifted into the pool.

STEW LEONARD: And I remember after, it seemed like just minutes, we -- I looked down, I saw a yellow shirt floating in the pool. And he was face-down in the pool. And I dove him and got him. We administered CPR. Oh, you know, we administered CPR. It was too late.

WILLIS: They lost their 21-month-old son.

KIM LEONARD: I remember we went up to the hospital, and I went in and saw him.

STEW LEONARD: I mean, nothing in your life can prepare you that moment.

WILLIS: Or the pain that followed.

STEW LEONARD: You know, Kim was, Why weren't you watching him better? And I was, Well, well, you know, how come you weren't watching him? And we went through that vicious cycle of shock, anger, blame, shock, anger, blame. And we went through that for quite a while. We saw therapists to help us out.

And at some point, you get to a point where you accept what happened. And you realize, you know, a tragedy happened to me. There's nothing you're going to do to turn it back. It's not going to help us to blame each other.

WILLIS: So the Leonards decided to move forward, creating the Stew Leonard III Foundation. They promote water safety with a few simple rules.

KIM LEONARD: Always wear a life vest whenever you're near the water. Take swimming lessons, and never, ever go near the water unless an adult is watching you.

If for any reason they should ever fall in, you can teach them to turn around, float, and that can buy them, you know, 30 seconds, a minute.

STEW LEONARD: A lot of times they panic and inhale. And so they bring water into their lungs. And so, if you could just teach them to blow bubbles, and that's blowing air out.

WILLIS: To get the message out, they've raised more than a million dollars to publish books, produce a video, and fund swimming lessons for more than 10,000 kids.

A fitting memorial to a special little boy.

KIM LEONARD: I remember just in the years since he died, all the wonderful people that have stepped forward and helped us with this cause, and the people's lives we've been able to touch. And I think, you know, he was a pretty remarkable little boy, to inspire all of this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS: Very remarkable.

As the Leonards showed us, educating your kids is crucial to water safety.

There are other lines of protection you need to put in place as well, though. And that's just what I talked about with Hal Stratton, the chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS: So what's the first line of defense?

HAL STRATTON, CHAIRMAN, CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION: Well, the first layer of defense for pool safety is to have a door alarm on your back door, so you know when the kids are exiting the house.

WILLIS: Wow, that's loud.

STRATTON: That would let a parent know.

WILLIS (voice-over): Victims of swimming pool accidents are typically missing just five minutes before they're discovered. That means you have precious little time to respond when tragedy occurs. For that reason, you want to keep the pool area as secure as possible.

(on camera): So, Hal, tell me, why are we standing at this fence?

STRATTON: Our guidelines provide that every pool, every backyard home pool, should have at least a four-foot fence that is impenetrable to kids under 5 years of age. And this is...

WILLIS: So that's a latch.

STRATTON: With a latch, with a latching gate that latches automatically, just like this one does. Obviously, if the gate's open, the fence isn't very helpful. So you want a latching gate, four-foot fence, impenetrable to kids 5 and under.

We see suction entrapment on drains that have drain covers like this. If you're able to cover this up completely, there really is no powerful enough force to take a child or adult off of this drain, because of the suction. So that's why we have a concave drain like this that we recommend. We now have guidelines that recommend either two drains like this in a pool, or a drain and a suction release device that you can put into your pump system.

That detects suction, and if it detects enough suction, it cuts off the system.

WILLIS: So we've got an alarm on the back door, and now we've got an alarm on the pool itself. Tell me about that.

STRATTON: Well, this is a pool alarm, and this is a relatively new innovation in the industry. The idea is to detect something the size of a child under 5 falling in.

WILLIS: Layers of protection, is what you talk about.

STRATTON: You want layers of redundant protection. Because what we find in the consumer product safety area is, you're always going to have failures of any of these systems, and you want to make sure that you have a backup system.

WILLIS: And as human beings, Mom and Dad are the best line of defense, you say.

STRATTON: You know, the only line of defense that I can guarantee is complete surveillance by parents at all times. And that does not mean coming out to the pool and reading a book, cooking hamburgers, having a drink, or talking with your friends.

WILLIS: I see we got a phone out here.

STRATTON: We have a phone here. You always want to have a telephone handy to call 911, because even if you're by the pool, maybe you're giving artificial resuscitation to somebody, you want to be able to call and get the paramedics here as quickly as possible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS: That's lots of great advice.

Coming up on OPEN HOUSE, our safety special continues with a look at home insurance. How much is enough?

And we'll head indoors for a look at danger zones inside your house. From the stove to the stairs, we show you what to watch out for.

Plus, our weekend project. Burglar-proof your home ahead of your summer vacation.

But first, your tip of the day. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Protect yourself and your family against lead poisoning. Houses and apartments built before 1978 have paint that contains high levels of lead. Lead exposure can be harmful to everyone, especially young children and babies.

If your home is one of those built before 1978, have it tested. A paint inspection and risk assessment can tell you about the lead content in your home and whether there is serious lead exposure.

And if you suspect that your house has lead hazards, contact the National Lead Information Center at 1-800-424-LEAD. That's 1-800-424- L-E-A-D.

And that's your tip of the day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIS: Welcome back to OPEN HOUSE's special look at home safety.

No doubt, you watch your children closely, but the truth is, accidents do happen, and often in your very own home.

But there are things you can do to minimize the risk.

J.J. Ramberg recently met up with the Home Safety Council's Meri- K Appy for some insight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MERI-K APPY, PRESIDENT, HOME SAFETY COUNCIL: Throughout the home, every year, on average, there are some 2.3 million poisoning exposures, more than half to kids under the age of 6.

J.J. RAMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Well...

APPY: One of the things that we've realized is that a lot of products in our home may be lookalike poisons. Here's a cleaning product you wouldn't want your child to drink, and it look it looks very much like something you might let your child drink.

So parents need to look around their home, gather up anything that has on the label the words "Caution," "Warning," or "Danger." If you see those words, it means you should lock this stuff away from sight and reach of kids.

RAMBERG: Let's move on to the rest of the kitchen, because you have this masking tape down here, and I want you to explain what this is for.

APPY: I've created a little kid-free zone. Little children are very visual. And when we're teaching them to stay away from heat sources, it helps to have a marker on the floor. We just used masking tape for this. But you want to have your little children staying far away as possible from the stove.

RAMBERG: How many rooms do you need fire alarms in, every room?

APPY: Well, the new recommendations are at least one on every level, and inside every bedroom.

RAMBERG: OK.

APPY: And there's new federal research, which is -- kind of makes you stop and think. From the time a fire first breaks out to flashover, when everything catches on fire, can take as little as three minutes.

RAMBERG: Wow.

APPY: So you really have to know you have that fire, and that means working smoke alarms.

Falls are actually the leading cause of home injury-related death. In this case, there is a railing. That's a plus. But I'd really like to see railings on both sides of the stairs that extend the full length of the stairs.

And by railing, I mean a functional railing, round, that you can really grab onto.

RAMBERG: We get to the second floor, we run into a whole host of new problems, right?

APPY: We do. And windows happens to be one of the areas people should be concerned about, especially if they have little kids, babies, toddlers.

RAMBERG: OK.

APPY: One thing is, if you have screens, those are not sturdy enough to keep your kids inside, so you need a window guard or window stops.

RAMBERG: And that's probably a mistake a lot of people make. They think a screen will be enough.

APPY: Screens are good for keeping the bugs out, but they won't protect your kids.

RAMBERG: I want to ask about fire ladders.

APPY: They're important to have and they're easy, but you have to know what you're doing. Remember that we have maybe three minutes to get out of a fire, sound asleep. You don't want to waste it reading the instructions. So do that ahead of time, and practice putting it over your window.

One of the things you want to make sure is that it fits, that your ladder fits the windowsill you plan to use.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS: Another key to safety, homeowners' insurance. It's crucial to have the right plan that protects your family and your home. But how much is enough?

Here to help is Jeanne Salvatore. She's senior vice president of consumer affairs at the Insurance Information Institute.

Jeanne, welcome to the show.

JEANNE SALVATORE, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CONSUMER AFFAIRS, INSURANCE INFORMATION INSTITUTE: Well, thank you for having me.

WILLIS: This is such a hard question, because, on the one hand, people are afraid that they're not buying enough insurance, and then they also worry that they're overpaying. How do you calculate how much you need?

SALVATORE: Well, you want to look at the things that homeowners' insurance actually pays for. So you want to look at the structure of your house, your possessions, and liability insurance. So you want basically enough to rebuild, to rebuy what's in it, and to protect your financial assets.

WILLIS: And you've said that you start with $100,000 worth of coverage and then add $300,000 in increments as you buy more insurance.

SALVATORE: Well, in terms of liability insurance, most homeowners' policies automatically include about $100,000 worth of coverage. But you can purchase more.

WILLIS: All right, let's talk about liability a little more in depth. People are always asking me, OK, this summer, we're out, we're having a barbecue, somebody slips on the deck. What do I do if I get sued? It's liability insurance, right?

SALVATORE: Liability insurance is very important. So what you have to do is look at your assets. And you want to make sure that you protect those assets.

You also want to look at sort of who you are and what your lifestyle's like. If your house is the popular house, where all the kids are playing on the front lawn, you want to make sure that you're protected, because somebody can fall and sue you.

WILLIS: Covers legal fees, medical costs, even court judgments that -- does it cover all court judgments?

SALVATORE: Well, what you're going to be covered for is your legal defense, and judgments up to the limit of your policy. The one big thing that you're not going to be covered for are intentional acts. So if somebody falls, trips on your property, and they sue you, that's the type of thing that is going to be covered. On the other hand, if you put your foot out and you trip them on purpose, then you're not going to be covered.

WILLIS: All right. Let's talk about some of the big emergencies, disasters, that people are trying to protect themselves from. It's not really intuitive what's covered. Let's go over all of them here now. Hurricane insurance, is that included in my homeowners' policy?

SALVATORE: Yes. You are going to be covered. Well, it's easy to sort of look at the two big things that are not covered, in the sense that flood's not covered, and earthquake is not covered. But you are covered for things like a hurricane, a fire, theft.

There are a lot of things that are covered.

WILLIS: Course, flood insurance is offered by the federal government. So if you need it, you have to buy it, you get it from the feds. Right?

SALVATORE: Absolutely. In fact, you can get flood insurance, and you can purchase earthquake insurance separately. And if you live in an area that is prone to flooding, you are required to get it before you get a mortgage. So you should be getting that flood insurance.

WILLIS: You know, we talked before about people worried that they're not getting enough coverage. I think what happened in Florida last year during the hurricane season, so many hurricanes roaring through the state, people thought they had enough coverage, and they really didn't. What's going on there? And what should be people be thinking about now that hurricane season is upon us again?

SALVATORE: Well, there is a trend towards deductibles. And actually, this is not Florida specific. This is the entire East Coast, the Gulf Coast, and also in California for earthquake. And what this is are separate deductibles for catastrophic losses. So this is for something like a hurricane. So that these deductibles are expressed as a percentage, generally 1 to 15 percent, depending on the insured value of the home.

WILLIS: And people don't understand that that means...

SALVATORE: No.

WILLIS: ... 1 to 2 percent of the value of their house, as you were just saying, and how much that could be if you've seen a lot of appreciation in the price of that house.

SALVATORE: Well, it's not the real estate value. What it is, is the insured value. And it's very important. If you are living anywhere on the East Coast that you know what that deductible is, so you should ask. Find out ahead of time. You don't want to be finding out what that deductible is as you're hearing a hurricane warning.

WILLIS: Jeanne, great advice. Thanks for the help today.

Coming up on OPEN HOUSE, our weekend project. Burglar-proof your home. We have practical tips to protect your house from break-ins, just in time for your summer vacation.

It's coming up next on OPEN HOUSE.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIS: Welcome back to our home safety special on OPEN HOUSE.

Every 15 seconds in this country, a home gets broken into. If you want to protect your house and your possessions, listen up. We've got some great tips.

Here to help is Tom Kraeutler from "The Money Pit" radio show.

Tom, great to see you.

TOM KRAEUTLER, HOST, "THE MONEY PIT": Great to see you too.

WILLIS: Well, let's talk about this, because it's really pretty simple. You say there are easy things to do.

KRAEUTLER: Absolutely. Here's a landscaping trick of the trade that you can do in a week and that will keep crooks away. Want to see it?

WILLIS: Well, what's special about this? I just see bushes.

KRAEUTLER: These are barberry bushes. They're thorny bushes. There's a trend towards...

WILLIS: Ow, (INAUDIBLE).

KRAEUTLER: ... trying to -- Yes, they got you, right? They got you.

You want to try to put bushes around your house that are going to keep crooks away. They're not going to want to spend a lot of time with a big, thorny barberry bush. This will be four feet tall.

WILLIS: Wow.

KRAEUTLER: And it's a good thing to put around a window, especially one that's hard to kind of protect otherwise.

WILLIS: OK, Tom, you say this is the weak link of the house.

KRAEUTLER: Absolutely, for a number of reasons. First of all, you have these large lilac bushes that are providing a lot of cover for a burglar to work. Number two, that's a basement window. It's single-pane glass, and it's very easy to break in.

WILLIS: What do you do?

KRAEUTLER: Well, a couple of things. I would recommend you put an alarm on that window, and also perhaps some security bars.

WILLIS: Are those dangerous, though? KRAEUTLER: Well, that's a good point. Security bars can be dangerous if they're not the right kind of security bars. You need to make sure that they can be opened from the inside, but not from the outside, so if there's a fire, you can get out.

WILLIS: All right. Well, let's see your next spot.

KRAEUTLER: When you go on vacation, it's always a good idea to unplug your garage door opener. Sometimes garage door openers can be opened by someone else's remote. The burglar might drive up and down the street, trying remotes to see if your door opens. If the door opener is unplugged, there's no way it could open, and your house will be secure.

Here's a little trick that will cost you all of about a quarter. If you go away, take a bolt and put it in your garage door track, and leave it in there kind of hanging loosely. That way, if somebody tries to open this door, the wheels from the garage door will interfere with the bolt, and they won't be able to get the door open.

WILLIS: So, Tom, you've installed this lockbox, because, let's face it, nobody puts a key under the mat any more.

KRAEUTLER: Well, I bet there's a few people that do, but certainly this is a better option. This lockbox enables you to basically lock a key, a door key, inside.

WILLIS: Yes, but can't a burglar just rip this thing off?

KRAEUTLER: Well, sure, a burglar could. But you know what? When your key is locked inside this thing, there's no way the burglar will be able to get that box open and get to your key.

WILLIS: A lot of these solutions could be pretty expensive when you get down to it. What about cheap solutions?

KRAEUTLER: Here's something that will cost you all of just one piece of wood. You measure your window from the top of the sash to the upper side of it. Cut the wood to fix in, fit in there. Simply slip it up there, stick it in place. And that actually will secure that window. It's better than a window lock. And no one nobody could open it up. Try it.

WILLIS: Not even me, ah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS: Thanks to Tom Kraeutler for those helpful ideas.

Coming up, top tips for keeping your home safe, coming up next on OPEN HOUSE.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIS: We've covered a lot of ground in this home safety special. So there are some key things you'll want to take away from today's show.

If you remember anything about pool safety, it should be this, there's no single solution for keeping your family safe poolside. You need layers of protection. That means you'll want self-locking gates on your fence, as well as alarms on back door sliders, and even the pool surface. And don't forget to show your toddlers how to float on their backs and blow bubbles.

Safety inside the home is crucial as well. Remember to install fire alarms in every bedroom, and consider carpeting stairs with a short-nap carpet that can keep little feet from slipping.

Finally, check your insurance policy once a year to make sure you're covered for the loss of any big-ticket items you might have recently purchased, or any renovations you may have done to your home.

Plan ahead, stay safe, enjoy your summer.

And thanks for watching OPEN HOUSE.

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