Home Fire Escape Planning and Practice

Install a smoke detector in all bedrooms, in the hallway, on every level of your home including the basement. Test your smoke alarms once a month and change the batteries in your smoke detector at least once a year. A good way to remember this is to change your batteries when you change your clocks with Daylight Savings Time. “Change your clocks, change your batteries”.

Plan your E.D.I.T.H. (Exit Drill in the Home)
Sit down with your family and draw a floor plan of your home that clearly identifies two exits out of every room, especially bedrooms. Include stairways, doors, windows, decks and porches. Locate and identify a central meeting place outside the home. Plan today because when fire strikes there is no time to plan.

Have a Family Meeting Place like a mailbox, a tree or a neighbor’s home. This will help people to know if everyone made it out safely. Call the fire department from a neighbor’s house and wait for them to arrive. Never go back inside a burning home for any reason. Firefighters are trained and equipped to do this. While kneeling, feel the crack between the door and its frame with the back of your hand and then reach up as high as you can go. If you feel any warmth do not open the door and use an alternate route. If the door feels cool, open the door with caution.

Practice makes perfect!

 Hold realistic fire drills in your home regularly and have everyone participate. Practice various scenarios, like pretending that some of the exits are blocked, so that alternate routes need to be used. Speed is crucial, as fire can spread rapidly. Make sure everyone in the home can open doors and windows in the event of a fire. Security bars should be equipped with quick release devices from the inside and everyone including small children should know how to use them.

Test doors before opening them

Crawl low under smoke, as you exit the home. Smoke contains deadly gases and heat rises. Cooler, cleaner air is near the floor.

By sleeping with your door closed it will act as a barrier to help protect you from smoke and fire.

In the event that you are trapped, close the door between you and the fire. Stuff cracks under the door to keep smoke out and call 911 if there is a phone in the room. Wait at the window and signal for help.

While kneeling, feel the crack between the door and its frame with the back of your hand and then reach up as high as you can go. If you feel any warmth do not open the door and use an alternate route. If the door feels cool, open the door with caution.