The ICC combines the expertise of builders, inspectors, and engineers from around the world into a code that establishes the minimum safety standards for new buildings and remodeling projects.

On the ICC site, you can download free brochures and tips on safety in everything from smoke alarms to electrical cords. You'll find information on cleaning up after a flood, dealing with and preventing mold, and green building. They also have pages on wildfire and hurricane safety.

You can also find a fill-in-the-blank proclamation that your local government can use to announce that they will participate, as well. The governor of Florida recently signed his copy, the first of 2008.

The ICC offers tips and information about how and why you should make your home safer. Their page on public safety takes you to such useful information as summer safety tips for your back yard, fire safety for college students, and stories from people whose lives and property have been saved by required items.

Some safety equipment, such as emergency escape windows and extra sheetrock to contain fires, cost more to install. Homeowners and contractors may balk at the extra expense. Read a few of these stories to understand how the lives of your family may be saved by something so simple as installing a window large enough for a firefighter to enter.

One of the best things you can do to keep your home safe is to get a building permit for your projects that need one.

Whether you're a teacher or a parent, you can use ICC's lesson plans and illustrations to help teach children how to be safe at home. You'll find detailed speaker's notes and illustrations of smoke detector maintenance and stair and pool safety. You can print or download the Adobe Acrobat files for free.

These pictures and topics teach your children that the people who prevent accidents are heroes just as big as those who help people who are hurt after one occurs. The kid who checks the battery in his smoke detector can save the lives of his family and save firefighters a lot of trouble. You may even convince them to stop leaving their toys on the stairs.

Your local building department can't come out and build your home for you. They can't even tell you how to build it. What they can do is tell you how not to.

When you bring in plans or have an inspector look at your home while in mid-project, the building code offers a standard against which he or she measures the structure of your house. If the inspector sees something that may not be strong enough, well-enough fastened, or otherwise prone to failing, they will let you know what needs to be done to fix it.

Such discovery is invaluable, when weighed against the property damage and possible human cost of your house tipping, leaning, or collapsing. Building inspectors are trained to see the house as a system, and to know which parts must connect with each other and how. The ICC provides in-depth research and debate to help with that training.

For incredibly detailed information about building permits, take a look at the Squidoo lens about building permits.