You wake from a sound sleep, choking and coughing. Your bedroom is filled with thick, black smoke. You can’t see and you can barely breathe. You and your family have 90 seconds to get out of the house before it is engulfed in flames.
Quick! - What should you do?
When fire strikes is not the time to improvise. Plan ahead and practice your escape plan. Most fire experts agree that besides having a functional smoke alarm, the next best thing you can due to increase your fire safety is to plan and conduct fire drills. Smoke alarms can provide the warning you need, but your smoke alarm will not get you out of the house. Waking up to the shriek of a smoke alarm and finding smoke in your house is not the time to think, "Uh oh! What do I do now?"
Make sure your smoke alarms work. And teach your children about fire safety. Fires kill 4,000 Americans a year and injure more than 25,000. Don’t become a statistic.
In a typical home fire, people only have about two minutes to get outside. The more prepared your family is, the more likely it is that everyone will get out alive and uninjured.
- Sit down with your family and draw a map of your home. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just enough to show all rooms and all the ways out. It’s important to have two escape routes out of every room in your house or apartment in case one is blocked by fire. This is especially important for sleeping areas.
Windows: Make sure that windows haven’t been painted shut and can unlock and open easily. Security bars should have quick release devices that everyone knows how to use.
Doors: Everyone in the household should be able to unlock and open doors, even in the dark. If a door requires a key or special action to unlock it that a child (or confused adult) will not be able to do, that door will be useless during a fire. Consider replacing the locks with something more fire-safe. If not, take it out of your escape plan.
Furniture: Keep furniture and other heavy objects out of the way of doors and windows.
- If you live in a multi-story house and one of your escape routes is through a window, make sure there is a safe way to reach the ground such as a UL-approved fire-resistant escape ladder. Practice using it in your drills so that whoever must use it becomes proficient in the quick setup and use of the ladder. During an actual fire is not the time to learn.
- If you have young children, decide in advance who is responsible for helping them get out of the house.
- Make special arrangement for older adults or people with disabilities. People who have difficulty moving should have a phone in their sleeping area and, if possible, should sleep on the ground floor near an exit.
- Chose a safe place in front of your house or apartment building for your family to meet after escaping from the fire. Having a meeting place will let you know that everyone has gotten out safely and no one will get hurt looking for someone who is already safe.
- Once you are out, stay out!
- Although planning your fire drills provides some benefit, to be useful you must hold practice fire drills, especially at night. Fifty percent of fire deaths in the home occur between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Make your fire drill realistic. Turn the lights off. Pretend some exits are blocked by fire or smoke and practice alternate escape routes. Hold drills at least twice a year.
- During your fire drill is also an excellent time to also practice Stop-Drop-and-Roll. If your clothing catches on fire, you should:
1. Stop where you are. Running is the worse thing you can do. It will fan the flames, making them grow faster.
2. Drop to the ground. If you are standing, the flames will rise up around your face.
3. Roll over and over with your hands covering your face. By covering your face, you keep the fire from getting into your lungs.
Another benefit of planning and conducting fire drills is that it can help you evaluate the safety (or risks) of special places in your home. For example, say you have an extra bedroom in the basement or in an attic accessed by a small stair. Everything may seem fine until you plan and conduct your drill and you realize that the one stair up from the basement, or down from the attic, could easily be blocked by a fire, for example, in the kitchen. This may result in you providing additional ways out of these areas, additional safety features, or moving the extra sleeping area to a safer place.
The chance of dying in a fire is cut in half when you have a working smoke alarm in your home.
Kids need to be taught about the dangers of fire and what to do so they can act quickly in a fire emergency. An unprepared child might become scared and try to hide under the bed or in a closet instead of getting out of the building.
- Practice crawling low under smoke. It is estimated that three-fourths of childhood fire deaths are caused by smoke and toxic gases produced as a fire develops and spreads. Teach children to cover their mouths and noses with a t-shirt or anything within reach.
- Show children how to touch doors before opening. (See below)
- Remind them not to stop to get a toy, or to call 9-1-1. Just get out!
- Teach children never to go back into a burning building.
- Teach them that their job during a fire is to get out of the building and wait for you at the meeting place. Their job is not to rescue their toys, their pet or you.
- Get out as fast as possible and go to the meeting spot. Do not stop to grab photographs or look for pets.
- If there is smoke in the room, stay low or crawl to your exit.
- Cover your mouth and nose with a shirt or other cloth (wet, if possible) to protect your lungs from smoke and toxic gases.
- Fire may be just on the other side of a door - always test doors before opening them. While kneeling or crouching at the door, reach up as high as you can and with the back of your hand, touch the door, the knob, and the crack between the door and the frame. If you feel any warmth at all, use another escape route. If the door feels cool, open it carefully. Put your shoulder against the door and open it slowly. Be prepared to slam it if there is smoke or flames on the other side.
- Do not go back into a burning house or apartment building.
- Go to your meeting place and take attendance. If someone is missing, tell the firefighters. They are equipped to perform rescues safely.
- Call the fire department from a neighbor’s house, portable phone or alarm box.
- If you cannot escape, put towels or fabric (wet, if possible) around doors to block off smoke, crawl to a window and open it. Yell out the window for help and wave light-colored cloth or a flashlight for attention. If there is a phone in the room, call 9-1-1.
Note the exact location of stairways and any fire doors that may automatically shut during a fire. During a fire, use the stairs to escape. Do not use the elevators. Elevators may stop between floors or take you to where the fire is burning. Or they might be needed by the firefighters. Some high-rise buildings may have evacuation plans that require you to stay where you are and wait for the fire department.
Whenever you are in another building such as a restaurant, hotel, or theater, always take a moment when you get there to look around to familiarize yourself with your surroundings and to find your nearest exit. This will help you respond to all types of emergencies, not just fires.
Note that most hotels will provide you with fire safety information in your room, including a fire escape drawing (usually located on the inside of your room door). Always take a minute to discuss this information with those traveling with you.