Prepare an Escape Plan

• No matter what precautions you may take to prevent a major fire you should still be prepared.
• Have an escape plan.
• Sit down with all members of your family and draw up a floor plan of your home.
• Figure out at least two exits from each room, especially bedrooms.
• If there are porch roofs outside upstairs windows, find out if it is safe to utilize them.
• All windows you need to use for exits should be able to be opened.
• If a window cannot be opened, plan to use a shoe or a chair to break the glass and to clear off jagged edges.
• Blankets can be thrown over the sill to protect against cuts.
• It is extra dangerous to drop from a window higher than the second floor.
• A noncombustible chain ladder may be indispensable for escape from upper stories.
• Fire is the number one cause of accidental death in the home for children 14 years of age and younger.
• Install early warning fire detection inside bedrooms, as well as outside sleeping areas.
• Close the doors to bedrooms when you go to bed at night.
• Fire produces deadly heated gases and smoke that can kill you long before the flames reach you.
• A closed door will keep out (or in) gases and heat for some time if a fire should occur in another part of the house.
  The simple procedure of closing your door can retard the spread of fire and give you much more time to escape, according to the National Fire Protection Association. If a fire should start inside a bedroom, a closed door can help to prevent its rapid spread to other rooms.
• Hold fire drills, sometimes at night, so that everyone knows exactly what to do.
• Speed is vital.
• Make provisions for elderly persons or very young children. Assign someone to help them out.
• Agree on a meeting place, outside, such as a tree in the front yard, where all must assemble after evacuation so that you will know the house is vacant.
• No one should reenter the house.

In Case of Fire!

• Do not attempt to put out the fire (unless you can see it is confined to a pot on the stove, for example, and you have a lid or an extinguisher handy). Get out of the house as rapidly as possible, and do not stop to collect belongings. Your life is more important than any possession.
• Do not stop to call the fire department. Your phone may already be inoperative, and you may lose your chance to escape.
• If you smell smoke at night, do not rush into the hallway.
• Put the back of your hand against the closed door.
• If the door feels cool, it should be safe to enter the hallway.
• Brace the door with your shoulder and cautiously open it.
• Place your hand across the opening to determine how hot the air is.
• If it feels cool and there are no flames or smoke pouring up the stairway, you may be able to use this means of escape.
• However, if the door feels warm, do not open it; the hallway already may be filled with poisonous gases.
• Use your escape plan and get out quickly.
• After you escape, do not risk your life to attempt rescues or save belongings.
• Members of the fire department are much better trained and equipped to make rescues.
• Call the fire department from the fire alarm box nearest your home or from a neighbor's home.
• Then go to your predetermined meeting place.