How To Make An Escape Plan

You might be asking yourself, do I need an escape plan for my home? The answer is simply YES. The following tips will help you and your family safely escape your home if there is an emergency:

1. Gather the entire family. If everyone is involved and has input than they are likely to remember the plan when they need it.

2. Attempt to find 2 escape routes out of each room in case one route is blocked by fire. If the upstairs bedrooms are restricted by a single staircase, then escape ladders for the windows should be purchased to provide a secondary means of escape. Also be mindful of the basement's limited access as this area can often be a trap.

3. This plan can be drawn out on graph paper or the whole family can walk through each room discussing the escape options.

4. Once the plan has been established it is time to practice. Attempt to have everyone out of the house in under 2 minutes.

5. As you are exiting the home you should be loud and alerting the others that there is a fire.

6. Since research has discovered that children under 14 years old rarely wake up to smoke alarms, it is important that the parents plan to go to their rooms and assist them.

7. Remember to Stay Low and Go! The poisonous gas and heat from a fire will rise. Practice your escape crouched or crawling.

8. Get Out and Stay Out! Don't make the mistake of going back into a burning home to retrieve valuables. Fires grow extremely fast and can easily trap you.

9. Once you are out of the house the family should meet at a designated Safe Meeting Place.

10. A good Safe Meeting Place should be at a landmark everyone can easily remember (tree, light pole, bush or drive way). Ultimately it would be located in the front of the house where the fire department and family members could quickly see everyone is accounted for.

11. Smoke, fire and carbon monoxide detectors are your first line of defense. These devices allow for early detection which may give your family valuable time to escape. Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms should be located on each level of the home and in each bedroom. Voice alerting smoke alarms should be considered in the bedrooms of children under 14 years old.

12. Establishing your plan is useless without practicing it. Please practice regularly.

* Additional Tip: When your smoke detector goes off it is time to investigate. If you locate a small fire you should attempt to extinguish it. If the fire is too large or dangerous then close the door to the fire room as you exit and continue your plan as you practiced. Closing the door to the room on fire will provide you valuable extra time if you can do it safely.