Fire safety tips

Make sure your home is not at risk. Be prepared at all times.

General Safety and Protection Tips

•    Make sure all family members know what to do in the event of a fire. Draw a floor plan with at least two ways of escaping every room. Make a drawing for each floor. Dimensions do not need to be correct. Make sure the plan shows important details: stairs, hallways and windows that can be used as fire escape routes.
•    Test windows and doors?do they open easy enough? Are they wide enough? Or tall enough?
•    Choose a safe meeting place outside the house.
•    Practice alerting other members. It is a good idea to keep a bell and flashlight in each bedroom

Conduct a family meeting and discuss the following topics:

•    Always sleep with the bedroom doors closed. This will keep deadly heat and smoke out of bedrooms, giving you additional time to escape.
•    Find a way for everyone to sound a family alarm. Yelling, pounding on walls, whistles, etc. Practice yelling “FIRE!”
•    In a fire, time is critical. Don’t waste time getting dressed, don’t search for pets or valuables. Just get out!
•    Roll out of bed. Stay low. One breath of smoke or gases may be enough to kill.
•    Be prepared, plan ahead
•    Practice evacuating the building blindfolded. In a real fire situation, the amount of smoke generated by a fire most likely will make it difficult to see.
•    Practice staying low to the ground when escaping.
•    Feel all doors before opening them. If a door is hot, get out another way.
•    Learn to stop, drop to the ground, roll if clothes catch fire