FIRE SCAPE PLAN
Fire can spread quickly throughout a home, leaving as little as two minutes to escape safely once the smoke alarm sounds. Making an escape plan and practicing an escape drill are important elements of home fire safety.
Your ability to escape a fire depends on both early alerts from smoke alarms and careful preparation. Gather everyone in your household to create a plan. Walk through your home and identify all possible exits and escape routes. If you have children, consider drawing a floor plan of your home, showing two exit options from each room, including windows and doors. Also, mark the locations of all smoke alarms. For added convenience, download the NFPA’s escape planning grid. This is a great tool to engage children in fire safety without causing fear.
Install smoke alarms in every sleeping room, outside each sleeping area, and on every level of your home. Everyone in your household should be familiar with the escape plan.
During your walkthrough, ensure that all escape routes are clear, and that doors and windows can be easily opened. Choose a safe meeting place outside your home (e.g., a neighbor’s house, a light post, mailbox, or stop sign) a reasonable distance from the house, where everyone can gather once they’ve escaped. Mark this meeting spot on your escape plan. Check that your street number is clearly visible from the road. If not, install a house number sign to help emergency responders locate your home.
For households with infants, elderly members, or individuals with mobility issues, assign someone to assist them during fire drills and in the event of an emergency. Designate a backup person in case the primary helper is unavailable. Inform guests or visitors about your family’s fire escape plan. If you’re staying at someone else’s home, ask about their escape plan. If they don’t have one, offer to help them create one. This is particularly important for sleepovers. See NFPA’s Sleepover Fire Safety for Kids.
Be prepared for a real fire: when the smoke alarm sounds, evacuate immediately.
In the event of a fire, don’t waste time trying to save possessions. Always take the safest exit route. Never open doors that feel hot. To check a closed door, use the back of your hand to feel the top, doorknob, and the crack between the door and frame for heat. If it’s hot, use your secondary escape route. If the door feels cool, open it slowly, bracing your shoulder against it. If heat or smoke enters, close the door quickly and securely, then use your alternate escape route. Teach children not to hide from firefighters. Once you’re out, stay out! Never re-enter a burning building. If someone is missing, inform the fire department when you call. Firefighters are trained and equipped to perform rescues.
Putting Your Plan to the Test
Practice your home fire escape plan at least twice a year. Ensure your plan accommodates anyone in your household with a disability. Allow children to practice fire escape planning before doing a fire drill at night when they’re asleep. The goal is to practice, not to scare them. During drills, check if everyone, especially children, can wake up to the sound of the smoke alarm. If they don’t, assign someone to wake them as part of the drill and during an actual emergency. If your home has two stories, everyone must be able to escape from second-floor rooms. Consider placing escape ladders near windows as an additional escape route. Review the manufacturer’s instructions carefully, and practice using the ladder from a first-floor window to ensure you can do it correctly. Children should only practice with an adult, and only from a first-story window. Store the ladder in an easily accessible location near the window. Always choose the safest escape route – the one with the least smoke and heat. Be prepared to escape through smoke if necessary. During drills, practice going low and moving under the smoke to reach your exit. Closing doors behind you slows the spread of fire, providing more time for a safe escape. In some cases, smoke or fire may block your exit. To prepare for this, practice “sealing yourself in for safety.” Close all doors between you and the fire, use duct tape or towels to seal cracks around doors, and cover air vents to prevent smoke from entering. If possible, open windows at the top and bottom to let in fresh air. Call the fire department and report your exact location, then signal with a flashlight or light-colored cloth to help them find you.
Escape Plan Tips
- The best way to ensure everyone is prepared and can evacuate confidently in the event of a fire is to practice and know your escape route.
- Clear your escape routes.
- Practice your home fire escape plan twice a year.
- Always choose the escape route that is safest and with the least amount of smoke and heat.
- Closing doors on your way out slows the spread of fire, giving you more time to safely escape.
- 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.