Home Fire Escape Plan

Getting Out Safely

You need a home fire escape plan even if you have lived in your home for years and know every inch of it by heart. Why do you need an escape plan? The answer is found in the very nature of fire.

• In less than 30 seconds, a small flame can grow into a major fire.
• Room temperatures at floor level, the coolest part of the room, can reach 100 degrees. Inhaling super-heated air can scorch your lungs.
• The smoke generated by a fire is blinding black.
• The panic and disorientation of waking to a burning home is not the time to figure out your exit strategy.
• Smoke kills more people than fire.

The only way to escape unharmed from a home fire is to leave quickly and not go back in. Each member of your family needs to know their role in an escape plan and know it by heart. Within those 30 seconds when a flame can become a fire, you and your family will not have time to think, only to react.

The plan starts with a grid layout of your home. Indicate every room, door and window. Then, mark in two exit routes from each room and out of the house. If one escape route is through a window, make sure the window can be easily opened by the everyone in the family and screens taken out quickly. If you have security bars on your windows, they should have quick release devices. Second story windows can be used as secondary escape routes if there is an adjacent roof within easy reach or you have an Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL) approved collapsible ladder.

If you have infants, disabled or elderly people in your household, map out a route to their rooms and determine who will help them to escape safely.

Indicate a location a safe distance from the home for all family members to meet and take attendance. Don’t take up valuable time calling 911from the home. Just get out and make the call from a neighbor’s home.

The most important part of the plan is the practice, especially for families. Ideally, every member of your family should be able to safely use both escape routes from every room in the house. As mentioned in the Safety Checklist, the younger the children, the more frequent the practice. Turn these exit drills into valuable lessons in fire safety. Quiz small children in between drill exercises to make sure they have retained the information. If they fail the quiz, practice again.

Additional Tips for a Safe Escape

Some fire safety agencies recommend sleeping with bedroom doors closed to reduce the spread of smoke and heat. That may not be practical for families with small children. A safe compromise is to install smoke alarms on the ceilings just outside the bedrooms.

Before you open a closed door, feel the top of the door, the doorknob and the crack between the door and door frame. If you feel heat, use your secondary escape route. Oxygen-starved flames can literally explode into a room. Even if the door does not feel hot, open it slowly with your shoulder braced against it. If heat and smoke flow into the room, slam the door, secure it and escape by the secondary route.

If both escape routes are impenetrable, stay in the room with the door closed. Place a barrier, a towel for instance, under the door. If there is a land line or cell phone in the room, call the fire department to alert them to your location. Even if firefighters are on site, the dispatcher can pass on the information. Open a window from the top and bottom, if possible. Do not break the window. Signal to those on the ground.

If the home or hallways are thick with smoke, crawl along the floor where the smoke will be less dense and the temperature cooler. Cover your mouth and nose to help filter out smoke and fumes.

Do not reenter a home once you have escaped. If a family member is missing, tell the firefighters. It is safer for a fireman to locate and rescue one person than for a panic-stricken family member to rush back into a burning building.

Remember, the best thought out escape plan will not get you out of your home safely: practicing that plan will.

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