How to Create a Fire Safety Plan

When you are in a survival situation, it's important to stay on your toes - especially in an actual emergency like a fire. But, the problem is that many of us don't even know where to begin to planning for this type of disaster.

Creating a Fire Safety Plan: What You Need to Know

If a fire occurs, your ability to get out safety depends on warning from smoke plans combined with planning your steps in advance. To this end, we will teach you how to create a fire safety plan. The instructions are as follows:

- Bring together everyone in your home and make a plan. You will want to walk through your home and examine all possible escape routes and exits. If your household has children, it is recommended that you create a floor plan of your house which details two routes out of each room, this includes doors and windows.

- Make sure that there is a smoke alarm in every bedroom, outside of each sleeping area and one on every floor of your home.

- Everyone that lives in your house should have a thorough understanding of the escape plan. When you do your preliminary walk through, makes sure that all escape routes are clear and that windows and doors can be opened easily.

- Pick a place outside of your home to meet that is a safe distance away from your home. It can be something as simple as a stop sign, mailbox, light post, or a neighbor's house. Make sure that this meeting place is clearly marked on your fire escape plan.

- Head outside to see if it's possible to see your street number clearly from the road. If it's not, make sure to install house numbers on your home or paint your house number on the curb to make sure that emergency personnel will be able to find your home easily.

- Make sure that everyone in your home memorizes the fire department's emergency phone number. Doing so will ensure that any family member can call from a cellphone or a neighbor's home once they've gotten outside safely.

- If your household has infants, elderly, and/or other people with mobility limitations, make sure that they are assigned someone who can help them during the fire drill and in the case of emergency. As an added precaution, assign them a backup person as well, this will come in handy in the event that their designated partner is unavailable during the emergency.

- If the doors and/or windows in your home are equipped with emergency bars, make sure that they have emergency releases so that they can be opened easily if there is an emergency. These devices will not compromise your safety and they will increase your chances of escaping a house fire safely

- Inform all guests and/or visitors to your home of the fire escape plan. Likewise, if you are the guest, be sure to inquire about the fire escape plan at the home that you are staying overnight. If a plan isn't in place, ask if you can help them create one. Doing so is especially important when children are attending sleepovers at the homes of their friends.

- When your smoke alarm sounds, get out immediately

Testing Your Fire Safety Plan

To ensure increased chances of survival during a fire, it's important that you and your loved ones put your fire safety plan to the test. Considerations include:

- Practice your escape plan about two times a year and try your best to make the drill as realistic as you can.

- Make adjustments to your plan for those in your household with a disability

- Give your children a chance to learn and master the fire escape planning and practice before you have a fire drill at night, when they should be in bed. The objective of this practice isn't to frighten the children, so once they are ready for this evolution in your safety plan, be sure to tell them that you will be holding a drill in the middle of the night. Doing so shouldn't hinder the effectiveness of your fire safety plan.

- During the drill, it's important to determine whether the members of your household will be able to wake up easily when the fire alarm sounds. If there are those who have trouble waking up, assign someone to wake them up, as part of the drill as well in a real emergency situation

- If your home has more than two floors, your plan should include a way for all of your family members (including the kids) to escape from the rooms on the second floor. Consider placing escape ladders in or near your windows to act as an additional escape route. But, before you use this option, be sure to check out the ladder's instructions carefully so that you will be able to use it effectively in an emergency. Begin your practice on the first floor until everyone gets the hang of it. Children should only practice from the first-floor window and under the supervision of an adult. Also, be sure to store the ladder in an easily accessible location so you won't have to look for it if a fire occurs.

- Always choose the clearest escape route but, when practicing your fire drill, make sure that everyone practices getting low and crawling under the smoke to get to the exit. This will ensure that everyone is prepared if they must go through toxic smoke to escape.

- Close doors on your way out to slow the spread of the fire and give you more time to escape safely.