Escape Plan

Once you find out that there’s a fire in your home, you must get out immediately. Have an escape plan. Draw up a plan of your house and mark escape routes from everywhere in the house. Determine a primary and an alternative escape route from each room. Decide on a place where everyone is to meet as soon as they’re out of the house. This could be a tree, a street light, or a neighbor’s front door. Make sure the meeting place is a safe distance from the house. Practice your escape plan regularly. Have someone sound the alarm, then rehearse what you would do and where you would escape to in case of a fire.

Review the plan frequently with all family members. Ask your local fire department for more information about fire prevention.

Tell your children if there’s a fire they must not hide in a closet or under the bed. If they’re hiding it’s much harder for a fire fighter to find them when searching the house. Explain to them that if they see a fire fighter during a fire he will be wearing a mask and will look scary; explain that they should run to him and not away from him. Also tell them that when there’s a fire, it’s okay to break a window to call for help.

If there is a fire in your home, this is the proper response:

If it’s night, get out of bed and crawl to the door on the floor. Smoke and heat rise. It’s cooler and easier to breathe on the floor.

Touch the door. If it’s warm, don’t open it. If the door is cool to the touch, open it very slowly because there may be intense heat on the other side. If the hallway is full of smoke or if you can see fire, close the door and use an alternative route out.

When leaving the building, stay low and close doors behind you. Closed doors will help slow the spread of the fire.

Get out of the building and stay out. No one should go back inside until the fire department tells you it’s safe to do so.

Once you’re out of the burning building, go to the designated meeting spot and make sure everybody is accounted for.

Phone the fire department from a neighbor’s house.

If your clothes catch fire, don’t run. Stop, Drop, and Roll. Stop immediately, drop to the ground, cover your face with your hands, and roll over and over. Practice this maneuver with your children. Explain to them that rolling smothers the flames.

If you can’t get out of the house because of heat or smoke and you’re on an upper floor, close the door of the room you’re in. Plug any cracks under the door with bedding to prevent smoke from entering. Open a window and scream for help to get someone’s attention. Don’t jump out of the window unless there is no other choice.
I answered a call to a fire that had started in a house trailer in the middle of the night. Both adults had died of smoke inhalation in the bedroom. Two children were found burned beyond recognition at the back door. The back door had been locked - and the lock was out of reach of the children.

This information was taken from the book, “I Won’t be in to Work Today - Preventing Injuries at Home, Work and Play” by Martin Lesperance. To order this book or to find out more information, go to www.safete.com and click on books and products. Sign up for his free safety newsletter at www.safete.com. Martin speaks across North America on the topic of injury prevention.

Martin Lesperance is a fire fighter/paramedic and is the author of the best selling book "I Won’t be in to Work Today – Preventing Injuries at Home, Work and Play" Martin delivers keynote presentations dealing with injury prevention. His talks are funny, but still have a strong underlying message. Visit his website at www.safete.com