Keep Your Family Safe with a Fire Preparedness Plan

6/23/2017 (Permalink)

Does your family have a Fire Preparedness Plan? Be sure to set aside some time to create a plan with your family.

Would your family be prepared if a fire broke out in your home? If not, now is the best time to plan. Family fire preparedness plans save lives every year. Set aside time to gather as a household and create a plan unique to your home.

Identify Exits

Identify two different ways to safely exit each room if a fire broke out, such as doors and windows. Teach each member of your household how to safely exit through windows, especially on non-ground level floors.

If you have members of the family who are unable to move themselves—such as babies, elderly relatives, or any individuals with disabilities—make sure to go over who can help them escape as well.

Choose a Meeting Place

Pick a spot outside of your home that’s a safe distance away to serve as your family’s emergency meeting place. Familiar locations like a mailbox, lamppost, nearby park, or a neighbor’s house are great. Walk out with your family to establish it as your official meeting place.

Make sure every family member knows that once they exit the house, they should go straight to the meeting place and not go back inside for any reason.

Teach family members to call the fire department only after they’ve safely arrived at the meeting place.

Draw it Out

Draw the layout of your home on a piece of paper. Mark the different exits and exit paths from every room. Don’t forget to include the family meeting place. Keep your plan somewhere accessible. When you have overnight guests, let them know about your safety plan.

Practice Safety

Once everyone knows the different paths they can take to exit the home and where to go, it’s important to know how to navigate through a burning house as safely as possible.

Teach family members the following safety tips:

1. Choose the escape route with the least amount of heat and smoke, but be prepared for less than ideal circumstances.
2. Before opening a door, lightly touch the doorknob. If it’s hot, the fire is close, and it’s likely better to choose another exit if possible.
3. If it’s necessary to travel through a room or hallway with a lot of smoke, stay low and crawl as necessary! Smoke rises.

In addition to these tips, make sure your house number is easily seen from the road. Firefighters need to be able to quickly find your home.

Plan Realistic Drills

Schedule practice drills at least two times a year. This is a great time to replace the batteries in your smoke alarms, which should be switched twice annually and tested monthly.

If you have young children, warn them about nighttime drills. The point of the drill is to prepare them, not to scare them. If the fire alarm fails to wake up members of your family, assign someone to wake them up in a real emergency.

Practice the safety tips from above as part of the drill.

Nothing is more important than your family’s safety. Things, and even homes, can be fixed or replaced, but your family is irreplaceable. Your family fire preparedness plan can save lives.

If fire or smoke damages your home, give SERVPRO® of North Everett/ Lake Stevens/ Monroe a call at 360-243-8313. With our restoration knowledge and training, we can make it “Like it never even happened.”