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Does Your Family Have a Fire Plan?
Your family needs to be prepared in case of a fire. Children especially need to fully understand what to do and should practice these rules often. Otherwise, they will naturally run and hide from a fire instead of getting out of the house safely. Get a family fire-escape plan ready and have fire drills at least once a month. You can even print out the drill and tape it to the refrigerator so the whole family is reminded often of the plan.
• Make sure that everyone knows two ways out of every room.
• Teach children to crawl on their hands and knees to get low under smoke.
• Teach children how to close the door behind them to slow the spread of fire and smoke.
• Plan alternate escape routes.
• Teach children to lay low and shout their names out if they are trapped in a smoke-filled room.
• Plan a meeting spot outside the house – at a neighbor’s or in a special place in the yard a good distance from the house.
• Teach kids that once they get outside, they should stay outside.
• Make a sketch of the layout of each floor of your house, including windows, doors and stairways. Mark escape routes from each room on the sketch.
• Hold frequent fire drills, including some at night. Make sure everyone is following the plan perfectly.
• Assign a member of the family to be responsible for the younger and older members of the family. Get a “buddy” system going so everyone is taken care of.
• Assign a responsible adult to look after house pets in case of fire.
• Assign someone to call 911.
• And if there is a fire, remember, COUNT HEADS, STAY TOGETHER AND DON’T GO BACK into the house for personal belongings.
Your family needs to be prepared in case of a fire. Children especially need to fully understand what to do and should practice these rules often. Otherwise, they will naturally run and hide from a fire instead of getting out of the house safely. Get a family fire-escape plan ready and have fire drills at least once a month. You can even print out the drill and tape it to the refrigerator so the whole family is reminded often of the plan.
• Make sure that everyone knows two ways out of every room.
• Teach children to crawl on their hands and knees to get low under smoke.
• Teach children how to close the door behind them to slow the spread of fire and smoke.
• Plan alternate escape routes.
• Teach children to lay low and shout their names out if they are trapped in a smoke-filled room.
• Plan a meeting spot outside the house – at a neighbor’s or in a special place in the yard a good distance from the house.
• Teach kids that once they get outside, they should stay outside.
• Make a sketch of the layout of each floor of your house, including windows, doors and stairways. Mark escape routes from each room on the sketch.
• Hold frequent fire drills, including some at night. Make sure everyone is following the plan perfectly.
• Assign a member of the family to be responsible for the younger and older members of the family. Get a “buddy” system going so everyone is taken care of.
• Assign a responsible adult to look after house pets in case of fire.
• Assign someone to call 911.
• And if there is a fire, remember, COUNT HEADS, STAY TOGETHER AND DON’T GO BACK into the house for personal belongings.