Making Your Home Escape Plan

FIRE PREVENTION: Plan Your Escape

Fire can spread rapidly through your home, leaving you as little as one or two minutes to escape safely once the smoke alarm sounds.  A closed door may slow the spread of smoke, heat and fire but it won’t stop it.  So it’s imperative that you pull together everyone in your household and make a plan.

Escape Planning Tips

• Know your exits for your escape plan. Also, mark the location of each smoke alarm in your escape plan.
• NFPA code requires interconnected smoke alarms throughout the home. When one sounds, they all sound.
• Make sure escape routes are clear of debris and doors and windows open easily.
• Choose an outside meeting place (i.e. neighbor’s house, a light post, mailbox, or stop sign) a safe distance in front of your home where everyone can meet after they’ve escaped. Make sure to mark the location of the meeting place on your escape plan.
• Go outside to see if your street number is clearly visible from the road. If not, paint it on the curb or install house numbers to ensure that responding emergency personnel can find your home.
• Have everyone memorize the emergency phone number of the fire department. That way any member of the household can call from a neighbor’s home or a cellular phone once safely outside.
• If there are infants, older adults, or family members with mobility limitations, make sure that someone is assigned to assist them in the event of an emergency. Assign a backup person too, in case the designee is not home during the emergency.
• If windows or doors in your home have security bars, make sure they have emergency release devices so they can be opened immediately in an emergency. Emergency release devices won’t compromise your home security.
• Tell guests or visitors to your home about your family’s fire escape plan. When staying overnight at other people’s homes, ask about their escape plan.  If they don’t have a plan in place, offer to help them make one.  This is especially important when children are permitted to attend “sleepovers” at friends’ homes.
• If the smoke alarm sounds, get outside and stay outside. Respond quickly – get up and go, remember to know two ways out of every room, get yourself outside quickly, and go to your outside meeting place with your family.  Closing doors on your way out slows the spread of fire, giving you more time to safely escape.
• In some cases, smoke or fire may prevent you from exiting your home or apartment building. In a situation like this, seal yourself in for safety”.  Close all doors between you and the fire.  Use duct tape or towels to seal the door cracks and cover air vents to keep smoke from coming in.
• If possible, open your windows at the top and bottom so fresh air can get in.  Call the fire department to report your exact location.  Wave a flashlight or light-colored cloth at the window to let the fire department know where you are located.
• Once you’re out, stay out! Under no circumstances should you ever go back into a burning building.  If someone is missing, inform the fire department dispatcher when you call. Firefighters have the skills and equipment to perform rescues.

Put Your Plan to the Test

• Practice your home fire escape plan twice a year, making the drill as realistic as possible.
• Make arrangements in your plan for anyone in your home who has a disability.
• Allow children to master fire escape planning and practice before holding a fire drill at night when they are sleeping. The objective is to practice, not to frighten, so telling children there will be a drill before they go to bed can be as effective as a surprise drill.
• It’s important to determine during the drill whether children and others can readily waken to the sound of the smoke alarm. If they fail to awaken, make sure that someone is assigned to wake them up as part of the drill and in a real emergency situation.
• If your home has two floors, every family member (including children) must be able to escape from the second floor rooms. Escape ladders can be placed in or near windows to provide an additional escape route.  Review the manufacturer’s instructions carefully so you’ll be able to use a safety ladder in an emergency.  Practice setting up the ladder from a first floor window to make sure you can do it correctly and quickly.  Children should only practice with a grown-up, and only from a first-story window.  Store the ladder near the window, in an easily accessible location.  You don’t want to have to search for it during a fire.
• Always choose the escape route that is safest – the one with the least amount of smoke and heat – but be prepared to escape under toxic smoke if necessary. When you do your fire drill, everyone in the family should practice getting low and going under the smoke to your exit.

Source:  National Fire Protection Association – Escape Planning